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Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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Opinion

New Hunter Biden indictment may force DOJ to admit to obstruction

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Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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Hunter Biden was indicted by special counsel David Weiss in September on three charges related to the purchase of a firearm. On Dec. 7, Weiss brought a second case with nine criminal charges related to the Department of Justice investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.

According to Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten, despite the new charges, the DOJ is still protecting Hunter Biden. Weingarten says, depending on how the new indictment shakes out, the DOJ may be forced to admit to obstructing justice.

First and foremost, there would have never been even a modicum of justice in the form of charges even being brought for Hunter, let alone the Biden family, had IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler not come forward to reveal how the DOJ obstructed justice, impeding, undermining and sabotaging an investigation into the family’s illicit international influence-peddling scheme and other associated criminality. 

Only when the cover-up for the crimes was exposed did the DOJ jump to attention to slap together a sweetheart plea deal so shoddy it was almost an admission of guilt. 

And only when the aforementioned Judge Noreika — from the Biden-dominated state of Delaware — had the courage to refuse to rubber- stamp that unprecedented sham agreement was the DOJ forced to actually bring charges. 

That brings us to point two: The DOJ is still covering up alleged crimes pertaining to the Biden family influence-peddling operation in pursuing tax crimes, rather than those associated with how the money was earned.

I’m beginning to think that Justice Department might be reading my tweets.

Just two days after I wrote on X that it had been four months since Special Counsel David Weiss had said the Feds were considering bringing long awaited tax charges against Hunter Biden — this on the heels of the collapse sham plea deal that fell apart under questioning from the Delaware judge this past summer — finally, his office dropped the hammer, or so it appeared. 

The Special Counsel issued a nine-count indictment including three felony offenses, charging the President’s middle aged son for tax evasion, failure to file and pay taxes and willfully delivering false statements. 

Prosecutors summarize the crux of the indictment as follows: quote, 

The defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle at the same time he chose not to pay his taxes… Between 2016 and October 15 2020, the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes. 

If convicted Hunter faces a maximum of 17 years behind bars. 

Here are my observations regarding the indictment. 

First and foremost: There would have never been even a modicum of justice in the form of charges even being brought for Hunter, let alone the Biden family, had IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler not come forward to reveal how the DOJ obstructed justice, impeding, undermining and sabotaging an investigation into the family’s illicit international influence peddling scheme, and other associated criminality. 

Only when the cover up for the crimes was exposed did the DOJ jump to attention to slap together a sweetheart plea deal so shoddy it was almost an admission of guilt. 

And only when the aforementioned Judge Noreika, from the Biden-dominated state of Delaware had the courage to refuse to rubber stamp that unprecedented, sham agreement, was the DOJ forced to actually bring charges. 

That brings us to point two: The DOJ is still covering up alleged crimes pertaining to the Biden family influence peddling operation in pursuing tax crimes, rather than those associated with how the money was earned — that means Foreign Agent Registration Act charges — and criminality associated with the way in which the Bidens sought to cover up the paper trail — that means money laundering. 

Point three: Overwhelmingly people are going to be drawn to the lurid details of Hunter Biden’s debauchery — like his $683,000 spent from 2016 2019 on payments to quote, various women, or the $189,000 spent during that drug addled period on, quote, adult entertainment — and how he financed much of his lifestyle through expenses fraudulently deducted his business costs.

But these are of secondary importance, a distraction from what you’re really mattered to Americans: Where did the $7 million in gross income that Hunter quote unquote, earned during the relevant period come from? What did he do to earn it? What associated crimes would zealous prosecutors find and bring? If Hunter was such a mess, as seems clear, why would Chinese or Ukrainian energy companies be paying for his counsel? What kind of compromising material might foreign adversaries have collected during this period, and how if at all, do they leverage it? Are they leveraging it today? 

Point four: It’s been a position of Hunter Biden’s team that, gallingly, and brazenly, he is the victim of a political witch hunt rather than someone bubble-wrapped and in witness protection basically his entire life to protect his father. 

The DOJ showed itself transparently to be doing everything possible to avoid charging him, then to avoid charging him in any area even remotely approaching the Biden family business while trying to give Hunter a global immunity get into jail free card, then and only then to make David Weiss a special prosecutor when he wasn’t supposed to need that authority. Only when caught with their pants down by the whistleblowers and in Delaware Court, and years after all the incriminating evidence was available and the statutes of limitation on the alleged crimes associated with perhaps the most damning Burisma work had lapsed, to finally bring charges, still a tangential to the underlying criminal conduct. 

If forced to defend itself in court, is the DOJ going to indict itself and admit that actually the reverse of what team Biden is alleging is true, and go through all the ways that laid off him were mere mortals would have been fired? 

Point five: It’s unclear at this time what this means for the House impeachment inquiry. Hunter Biden and business partner Eric Schwerin were slated to testify before House investigators. The House had threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt if he did not appear for a closed-door transcribed interview, prior to any public hearing. Will this indictment be leveraged to avoid cooperation? The timing of the indictment, less than a week before Hunter scheduled testimony where Republicans had threatened contempt if it didn’t show, is certainly suspicious. 

Point six, the last point: If and when this goes to trial in California, who knows what the judge and jury will look like there, let alone what the timeline looks like vis-a-vis the House’s continuing impeachment inquiry and the election. 

However it all shakes out. We’ll be covering it.

 

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