Democrats tried desperately (and are still trying) to nab Donald Trump and his family for something — anything. It’s been a stunning display of endless investigations searching for a crime. There’s something blatantly unconstitutional about this, but when has that ever stopped the left?
Now the left faces its own conundrum. While efforts against Trump have overwhelmingly failed to come up with a crime, Joe Biden’s son Hunter has legal problems of his own, including tax violations, and indictment for various crimes is very much possible.
Hunter Biden has been accused of a slew of crimes, of which there is actual evidence on that laptop of his that the media only recently decided to admit was legitimate — and they only did so because Hunter is still under a grand jury investigation by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, and there are a lot of witnesses.
“Many legal experts have insisted that any prosecution for tax violations would be uncommon or unwarranted because Hunter Biden belatedly paid taxes after the start of the investigation,” notes attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School Jonathan Turley. “However, not only are tax and international transactional violations still possible, there is a looming threat of charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).”
Last week, Turley testified before the House Judiciary Committee and was asked if Hunter Biden could be charged under FARA. Turley said “yes” and reasoned that “if the Justice Department applies the standard used in the Paul Manafort case, it would seem like such a charge is not just possible, but even probable.”
I’d like to believe this. Turley asserts that there are many similarities between the two cases to justify his belief. “On a personal level, both men had ravenous levels of material consumption. Where Manafort had his $15,000 ostrich coat, Biden had his high-priced hookers and $143,000 Fisker sports car. Both burned through money and found themselves with towering debts.”
But, Turley says, what really makes the two cases comparable is how they paid their bills. “The Manafort indictment included charges for lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian political parties from 2008 to 2014. He did not register under FARA, which has sweeping terms covering such work.”
Turley notes that FARA was once rarely used for criminal investigations or prosecutions, but all that changed under special counsel Robert Mueller, whom, Turley points out, “seemed to charge by the gross under the act.” Several Trump associates were hit with allegations of FARA violations, and the Justice Department even used FARA to conduct searches on the homes and files of Trump associates, including Rudy Giuliani.
Of course, legal experts and media figures praised the use of FARA against Trump associates, but something tells me they might have a slightly different attitude about it being used on Hunter. Even though, as Turley points out, “the evidence against him on FARA may actually be worse than Manafort in some respects.”
Hunter Biden’s laptop is full of evidence of his work with “foreign principals,” including CEFC, a company linked to the Chinese government, in what appear to be influence-peddling schemes. Hunter, whom his father has called “the smartest guy I know,” made little effort to conceal his corrupt activities in this correspondence.
And then, of course, Hunter took the laptop full of incriminating evidence to a repair shop and left it there, compromising himself and members of his family. “That is why, if the Justice Department applies the same standard applied to figures like Manafort, Biden would likely be indicted,” Turley says.
That, of course, is the rub — does anyone really believe that the Justice Department will target Hunter Biden, and thus, the Biden family? I have my doubts. It certainly won’t happen with Merrick Garland as attorney general, and I wouldn’t bet money on him appointing a special counsel to investigate, either.
But the standard has been set by Mueller, and it would be hard not to go after Hunter without incurring serious accusations of special treatment.
