If you build it, they will scum.
Lame-duck pardon, broken promise: Biden leaves a legacy of corruption
The most shocking aspect of President Biden pardoning his own son, Hunter, may be that it was not in the least shocking, given the history of the Biden family. This abuse of the pardon power was widely anticipated even by his allies as the president repeatedly denied that he would ever do such a thing as he ran for reelection. Indeed, it may be the single most premeditated unethical act in political history.
That would be the Biden CRIME Family to you, pal. Onwards.
Roughly two years ago, I wrote about how Biden might suddenly withdraw from the presidential race in 2024 and pardon his son as a lame-duck president. “The pardon-and-apology approach might appeal to Biden not only as an effort to convert vice into virtue but to justify his withdrawal from the election as a selfless act,” I wrote.
I further noted: “Everyone in Washington would win — except, of course, the public: The Bidens would keep alleged millions in influence-peddling profits; Hunter would not even have to pay his full taxes; members of Congress and the media could avoid taking responsibility for burying the reports of corruption.”
I wrote about the pardon option repeatedly because none of Hunter’s bizarre (and ultimately unsuccessful) criminal defenses made sense unless he felt confident that his father would pardon him in the end. Hunter’s taunting Congress with open contempt of a subpoena and his ridiculous defenses in court were not the actions of someone who feared consequences from these investigations. They were the actions of someone with a back-pocket pardon.
The eventual pardon restored what was a sweetheart deal reached with Special Counsel David Weiss that would have given Hunter immunity to the immediate charges and any unnamed criminal charges. It collapsed in court when Judge Maryellen Noreika expressed shock at such a deal and asked the prosecutor if he had ever seen such a deal offered to any other defendant. He admitted that he had not.
Now, President Biden has recreated an even more sweeping immunity grant through his own powers by pardoning his son not only for the crimes of which he was convicted, but of any crimes committed between Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024.
Think on that. It would cover anything from perjury to murder.
For many in the media who helped bury this scandal and showed no interest in pursuing the influence-peddling operation of the Biden family, the pardon was met with uncomfortable shrugs. It is a measure of what you can call “Biden ethics.” In the curious world of Joe Biden, a lie that no one believes is treated the same as the truth.
It is likely to work. There may be little interest in pursuing this corruption scandal with so much to get done in the new administration. However, it is not the absolute “get-out-of-jail-free” card that President Biden would like.
Sure it is. What the hell will ever be done about it, you think? By you, by me, by Congress, by the Vichy GOPe, by Trump, by anybody at all? Much as I’d love to see it come back to bite him in the ass, I cannot for the life of me detect the mechanism by which such a desirable denouement might actually come to pass.
Here’s how it’s all gonna go down:
- Biden leaves office, shuffling and stumbling out to the Beast for his final seventy-car-motorcade speed-run to Andrews AFB, whence he will be flown to one (1) of his several palatial mansions
- He keeps all the millions he conned not just this country but the entire planet out of
- He goes right on lying and creating alternate realities for himself and his sleazy, greasy retinue to dwell in for the rest of his/their days
Yes, it’s 37 different flavors of ugly for sure, but you can take it to the bank nonetheless.
Griftin’ Jaux Bribem wrapped the rest of his criminal associates (what the rest of us call “family members,” not that those words mean to them anything like what we understand them to mean) in a suit of armor which renders them utterly impervious to prosecution or sanction of any kind, for any crime, forever and ever amen.
Undismayed by the cold, cruel facts underpinning this farcical shitshow, Turley finishes up with a flourish:
Short of such continued investigation, the Bidens will have achieved something that would have made John Gotti blush. They were able to pull in millions of alleged influence-peddling proceeds. Hunter was showered with gifts and benefits, from a diamond to a luxury sports car. Various Biden family members reportedly received money from the operation. President Biden was himself accused of knowledge and possible benefits from the influence peddling. He will also be protected by this official act.
This is why I once wrote that the Bidens are the GOATs of influence peddling. While influence peddling is the most common form of corruption in Washington, this city has never seen the likes of the Bidens. The only thing greater than their appetite was their sheer audacity.
In this statement on the pardon before fleeing the jurisdiction for a foreign trip, President Biden notably stated that “in trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me.” Indeed, this corruption scandal is as much about the president as it is about his son. And, as the president previously declared, “No one f—- with a Biden.”
Look for many more pardons to be puked forth by this contemptible wretch in the days ahead—of his “brother” and longtime co-conspirator James, probably of the execrable “Dr” Jill so as to shield her against any future repercussions from her illicit usurpation of Presidential powers as Jaux lapsed deeper and deeper into senile incapacitation, and who even knows who the hell else. Finally, in the last hours of his last day as ***”pResident,”*** he’ll grant a blanket pardon to himself—regardless of how legally murky that last cocking of the snook might be for honest people.
“Honest people”? It is to laugh, albeit ruefully. If there’s any single thing we all ought to have known about the Bidens eons ago, it’s that the words “honest” and “Biden” go together about like oil and water do. They’re as incongruous, contradictory, and disruptive as a turd in the punchbowl; a window-rattling, paint-peeling fart at a family dinner table; a wild, boisterous fuck during church services; a live tarantula dangling from the Christmas tree. As with lacquer and enamel, the words just don’t mix; never have, never will, never CAN. Anyone knuckleheaded enough to attempt such self-evident damfoolery will only beclown himself in the effort.
As somebody once said of some other fella: DE L’AUDACE, ENCORE DE L’AUDACE, ET TOUJOURS DE L’AUDACE! It’s a creed that has served the abominable Faux Jaux Biden and his rancid brood of hatchlings, rumpswabs, and partners in crime extremely well, painful though it is to have to admit it. The mediocrity to end all mediocrities, Pedo Peter will die in his soft, comfy bed with a broad grin on his face, comforted by the thought that he won in the end.
Because, y’know, he did.
The murderer of Ashli Babbitt is demanding a pardon – or he’ll “go public”…
Save Me! Save Me!
Shades of the end of The Fly.
BTW immorality right to the end.
Pardon Me and I’ll keep my mouth shut about all the sleazy, reprehensible, illegal, perverted and treasonous things you people have done these past 4 years!
Oh, and I want tickets to Disneyland and a house right next to Bernie Sanders!!!
Executive Grant of Clemency
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States of America
To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting:
Be It Known, That This Day, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States, Pursuant to My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the Constitution, Have Granted Unto
ROBERT HUNTER BIDEN
A Full and Unconditional Pardon
For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in Docket No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Docket No. 2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Pardon to be recorded with the Department of Justice.
Done at the City of Washington this 1st day of December in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States the Two Hundred and Forty-ninth.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/01/statement-from-president-joe-biden-11/
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, indeed, there is precedent from 1974:
“Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon.power conferred upon me b) Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969, through August 9, 1974.”
THE NIXON PARDON: LIMITS ON THE BENIGN PREROGATIVE by Hugh C. Macgill, at https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1319&context=law_papers
Note that the pardon could be overturned for lack of specificity – if you’ve read the actual Biden pardon above, that specific crimes are mentioned – and for those, the pardon would hold. As for the unspecified actions, there is lack of specificity which would contravene the original intent behind the pardon power. If such a general pardon were upheld, then an Administration could perform all sorts of illegal actions, and then the culpable actors could be relieved of all responsibility for their bad acts by such a pardon, and that would make for disastrously bad public policy. As Justice Brandeis put it, in his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928): “Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” Brandeis, J. in Olmstead, at 485, at https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/277/438/. Alas, the Nixon pardon was never tested in court.
And yet, there may be consequences which Joe Biden and his Administration may not have taken into account:
“In the 1915 case of Burdick v. U.S., George Burdick refused a pre-emptive pardon … because accepting it would have meant that he could not claim his Fifth Amendment privilege when called to give testimony relating to the pardoned crime before a grand jury.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/presidential-pardons-settled-law-unsettled-issues-and-a-downside-for-trump/
The pardon has immediate effect – and Biden is still in office until 21 January of next year – that’s nearly two months. The effect of the pre-emptive pardon is that Hunter may be compelled to answer questions by, say, a House committee – and he wouldn’t be able to plead the Fifth Amendment. They could serve him by Friday with the subpoena, and have him in on Monday, December 9 – plenty of time to ask lots and lots of questions. And they could subpoena lots and lots of documents – and a lot of people will still be very much on the hook. There’s a good reason that pardons are done on the last day of an Administration…
I really don’t think these “pardons” of a blanket nature are legal and Constitutional.
Under the definition of what pardon means, as the Founders understood the word, you would look at the crime and circumstances and make the JUDGEMENT that punishment is not appropriate in this case, or that Justice wasn’t served for some reason
How do you simply blanket pardon something if you have no idea what that something might be? Or the circumstances surrounding the actions? Or the validity of the Justice rendered?
You cannot make a Judgement about these things if there is no SPECIFIC action under consideration.
I still think that Ford’s pardon of Nixon was invalid. It was just that no one ever challenged it. At least in the case of Nixon we had an actual known crime at the heart of the matter. The break in to the Dem offices etc
Hunter has been given carte blanche for EVERYTHING he might have done in an 11 year period!
I’m also sure this isn’t going to be the only blanket pardon issued before Jan 20, 2025.
“I really don’t think these “pardons”…”
It’s a common view I think, one I share. OTOH, it may well be that the vagueness of the constitution in this case allows for it. It will go to SCOTUS I’d guess.