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In my opinion, Hunter Biden is a corrupt, money-grubbing launderer of Joe Biden's shake-down schemes, especially in the Ukraine. This team brought about world troubles, overturning millennia of diplomatic customs, and bringing us to a high risk of superpower war.
So why is the pardon a good thing? Well, hang on to your hats, here's my take on it.
Disclaimer: Although I'm a lawyer, this is not my area of expertise: my ideas may not be viable, though, in law, viability is often left to the mood or ideology of judges. And juries.
Pardons work well as designed. They keep people out of jails. Pardons are for criminal acts by people. Hunter will not go to jail for pretty much anything since 2014 from what I can tell. Fair enough, that's the constitutional power allowed.
But funny thing, no one has ever pardoned property. Or money. Biden may be pardoned from shaking down nations for untold riches, but the money from those shake-downs is still guilty.
See where I'm going with this? The Department of Justice can still go after his and his father's money.
Also note that being pardoned, Hunter Biden is no longer at risk of going to jail. Thus, he no longer has any right to be protected by the Fifth Amendment. He can no longer refuse to testify in a court of law. He can be compelled to testify against co-conspirators, which includes his father.
So, the DOJ can take all the Biden money and leave them destitute.
And funny thing, if Hunter refuses to testify, he can be held in contempt of court and jailed until he does testify. And then if he lies on the stand, he can be prosecuted for perjury.
That's my theory. It remains to be seen whether that strategy will be used.
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Discussion (29)
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Yep, I think all of those separate factors have been mentioned in other threads. It just remains to be seen if anything will happen.
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As I understand it, the pardon doesn't affect state crimes, and since alleged criminal activity might well violate state law, it seems to me that Hunter Biden will still be able to invoke the privilege against self-incrimination. This is outside my area of legal expertise too, so I'd appreciate the thoughts of anyone who practices criminal law.
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That's an interesting point. Probably valid.
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We can all dream...
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I hate the pardon and think it's really corrosive for the future of our republic. Now every future president will have precedent to pardon his family and friends.
I hate that Biden and Press Secretary Buckwheat lied about it for a year. And they did it so definitively.
But there are two more reasons that I like it, in addition to the OP. It draws a line under an investigation that was never going to result in any more indictments. Joe and Hunter were always going to get off scot-free. Comer did a good job investigating the Bidens and bringing their criminality to light. But Trump was never going to prosecute Joe and Hunter.
More importantly, it gives Trump cover to do the right thing, which is to pardon or commute the sentences of the J6 defendants.
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