July 27, 2023 - 7:15am
Democrats hoped that a quiet plea agreement would put an end to media coverage of Hunter Biden’s misbehaviour. Instead, court proceedings confirmed Republicans’ claims that the underlying crimes were more extensive — and the deal more favourable — than anyone in the White House and the mainstream press was willing to admit.
The proceedings earlier today were supposed to reinforce the Biden argument that this was all a witch hunt, with Hunter scheduled to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanours and a felony gun charge. The routine plea agreement broke down in open court when District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to approve the DOJ’s generous terms (which involved no jail time for the President’s son). The sticking point, previously unreported, was that Hunter and his lawyers wanted not only these pending charges to disappear, but also the prosecutors’ promise that he would be immune from prosecution for all other potential charges, including those related to being an unregistered agent of foreign governments.
It would amount to a pardon in all but name.
It’s unclear whether this was a last-minute change or part of the deal all along but, whatever the case, it was too much for Judge Noreika. She asked prosecutor Leo Wise whether a deal of this scope had any precedent in federal practice. He admitted that it did not. A few hours later, a new deal came together, still favourable to Hunter but without the promise to ignore all other crimes he may have committed.
Wise’s admission alone is concerning and should force Democrats to rethink their framing of the issue. If the case was as minor as they claimed, why would Hunter have required such lavish guarantees that he would not be prosecuted? If the DOJ’s treatment of Hunter was evenhanded and free of influence, why would the deal he struck be better than any in the annals of federal law?
Clearly, the investigation into Hunter Biden is ongoing. Equally clear is that the DOJ hoped to make it go away. Their attempt to keep Hunter’s problems quiet and contained will now have the reverse effect, as the broken deal will surely show the need for greater scrutiny of the accused and prosecutors alike.
It gives lie to the claims that House Republicans’ investigation into the Biden family was purely politically motivated and casts further doubt over the supposedly non-political Justice Department. If Hunter was just a ne’er-do-well with a drug problem, it might be fair to say that Republicans were “weaponising” his misdeeds to sully his father’s reputation. It’s a theory that the leading lights of mainstream media bought into wholeheartedly, at least until now.
Democrats and their friends in the press glided effortlessly from insisting that Hunter’s misplaced laptop was “Russian disinformation” to admitting (after the election) that yes, it was real, but it had nothing to do with his father. Biden senior himself has said often that he “never discussed” business with his son, but this week press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shifted that to say that Biden “was never in business with his son”.
There was a time when the press would call out Biden on his fabrications, as when media exposure of his frequent and blatant plagiarism brought down his 1988 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. But once he became the standard-bearer against Donald Trump in 2020, all pretence of objectivity ceased. Many Americans, used to hearing about Biden’s travails through the filter of a subservient press, will be shocked to hear the truth when it comes out — as it seems about to do.
Cracks were already developing in the façade. More in sorrow than in anger, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times savaged Joe and Hunter Biden’s mistreatment of the daughter Hunter conceived out of wedlock but refuses to acknowledge. Now this latest saga will force them once again to reframe the tattered Biden family portrait. When Hunter’s former friend and business partner Devon Archer testifies about just how closely the President was involved in their deals, will they spin that too? Will anyone still listen?
Whatever their opinions of Biden, Trump, and the 2024 race, eventually the people covering this story will have to decide whether they are journalists or hagiographers.
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SubscribeStalin did not ‘rally’ against… foreign states. He ‘railed’ against [them]’. Late Middle English from French ‘railler’, to complain or protest strongly and persistently about something.
The writer is trying to scare us. Don’t be.
Kremlin fan boys go ape.
No..realists present…reality…
The fog of war threatens to engulf us all. When the breakdown of the e-passport system was on the news last night, with massive crowds queuing at all the border entry points, hostile power sabotage was the first thing that came into my mind. Probably wrongly, although would the UK government even tell us that such a sensitive IT system had been hacked, if that’s what it was?
The irony of the hundreds meekly queuing instead of pushing past and jumping the barriers, while 100s each week walk undocumented and illegally onto our beaches was atriking.
I expect those sneaky Ruskies will be using those WMDs they found in Iraq
I expect the sneaky Ruskies don’t need to find any WMDs.
Just as well as there weren’t any…
The biggest, load of steaming manure I have read ever read. Nothing more than the most rank, amateurish anti-Russian propaganda.
“Kremlin-hired hoodlums wrecking the rail network” – surely not a reference to the unions …
I note this piece has been classified under the ‘Explainer’ tag by Unherd. I think they need to instigate a ‘Stenography’ one too – it would be much more appropriate. Either that or ‘Job Application for the Telegraph/Guardian’ (they’re interchangable on Foreign Policy grounds these days).
Did the author know that the Russian nuclear exercises followed Lord Cameron of Libya’s statements that the Ukrainians could use British munitions to target Russian territory.
As for Russia’s ‘brazen’ acts, the evidence presented here is as well substantiated as Donald Trump’s ‘brazen’ golden hotel room antics.
Russia, nearly as desperate as the writer of this piece.
Are these the same “intelligence” agencies which didn’t know the Soviet Union was going to fold its tents and just go home? It had been their job for 45 years to find out what the Soviets were doing…but they didn’t know…
Or the ones who went along with “Iraq has WMD”?
The ones who didn’t know about conspiracies for mass murder in British cities?
If the intelligence agencies said it was raining outside you would be best advised to go and look yourself.
Well, since the Soviets themselves didn’t know they were going to fold their tents a couple of years before they did, it was hardly possible for anyone to know (except God, of course).
Except the point of intelligence services is to discover information and provide analysis of it to cover a range of probabilities.
Emmanuel Todd managed to forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union but apparently not those whose job and purpose it was to do so.
And the Soviets having no intentions of folding their tents, there would be no signs they would do so.
Analysis consists of what is realistic, not what intentions may be.
Lord Cameron of Libya intends to have some importance on the world stage; the reality is that he has none because the UK has no military or economic power to wield. And the much talked about “soft power” is a mere sop for the egos of the UK’s rulers to make them feel important.
The USA expresses intentions to “save Taiwan from China”. The reality is that it cannot do so in the highly unlikely event that China decides to invade; it simply does not have the power to do so.
But look at who was our man in Moscow, late 80s to early 90s? Very left wing C Steele, who must have been horrified at the fall of the Soviet Union. MI6 absolutely loved him and still use him, eg the fake Russian dossier.
Well, those things were far enough in the past that the comparison isn’t quite fair. However, it is fair to question whether the intelligence services who thought Russia would easily defeat Ukraine in a few months, vastly overestimating Russian capabilities, aren’t doing the exact same thing again, vastly overestimating Russian capabilities just two years later with regard to Russia’s ability to orchestrate various terrorist attacks in Europe.
I rather think the i
dea is to scare the populace so they will go along with further infringement of liberty while ramping up the anti Russian feeling.
However I’m not sure either will work; people are fed up with declining living standards and further hardship in pursuit of a foreign policy which they don’t care about is pretty much off the menu.
Incidentally I don’t think Russia ever intended to “take” Ukraine. It didn’t marshal enough force to do so let alone hold it.
The intention was probably to get an advantageous peace agreement whereby Russia got the Donbas etc. That was achieved…until Johnson was paid to persuade Zelensky to fight on. Obviously Russia will achieve its aim but the cost to the Ukrainian people is immense…pure pointless death and mutilation.
I don’t want to downplay the threat of Russian aggression, but this essay reeks of propaganda.
“Danish intelligence services contend that Moscow is gathering information on how to cut power and data cables across Europe, and further calculating how best to “paralyse society” in the event of escalating tensions.”
I assume every major power in the world knows how to paralyze a foreign nation. I don’t think you need a team of scientists to figure out how to cut power lines and data cables.
To further your point, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency has determined that Russia’s GPS jamming in the Baltic is not some hybrid attack by Russia. The jamming is simply a side effect of Russia’s defence against drone attacks. The huge clues are (i) Russian airspace and Russia’s own GPS equivalent are similarly disrupted by the jamming, and (ii) the jamming intensity varies in proportion with Ukraine’s launching of drone attacks.
As for the “unexplained” BAE Systems explosion, it is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive. The HSE are not known for their crack teams of hybrid warfare and terrorism investigators, but they are known for inspecting UK workplaces for breaches of healthy and safety law.
These are just two fact checks that reveal, and I’m being very restrained here, a fevered imagination of the writer.
Very accommodating. Perhaps it only remains to be seen how accommodating we all are? Many here seem to be…
I agree. Anyone that thinks the Pentagon doesn’t have plans sitting in file cabinets for striking every possible point of vulnerability they know about, whether in China, Russia, or any of America’s other enemies, and probably some of America’s allies as well is living in some kind of ideal fantasy land. Heck, I’m nigh certain the USA has plans on file for how to fight itself in a civil war. This is the whole point of having foreign intelligence and military intelligence forces. The idea is to be prepared for a conflict, and to have a good idea what, where, and how to attack the enemy if the need arises rather than being caught unawares and having to throw together a strategy at the last minute.