Backlash for Biden after pardoning Hunter – National & International News – MON 2Dec2024

Biden gets backlash from both parties after pardoning son Hunter.

Ukraine’s forces, depleted by desertion, told to hold on for Trump.

Backlash for Biden after pardoning Hunter

After months of repeatedly vowing he would not pardon his son Hunter, Biden announced yesterday that he was pardoning him after all. Hunter Biden was convicted in June on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while using illegal drugs. Hunter was scheduled to be sentenced on December 1. It was never likely that he was going to serve serious prison time. Hunter also pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges in September but had yet to be formally sentenced. In that case, he could have faced up to 17 years in prison.

Not only did President Biden’s pardon quash the gun and tax convictions, he also wiped the slate clean on all other pending federal charges against Hunter, and possibly many others for which Hunter had not yet been charged. The pardon covers any offenses Hunter was alleged to have committed between January 1 2014 and December 1, 2024. This includes any charges that could have potentially been raised against him for his dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

No charges had been filed against Hunter related to his time on the board at Burisma, during his father’s time as Vice President. Two Congressional committees had been investigating whether these ties to Burisma implicated Hunter, Joe Biden or any other family members or associates in potential violations of federal law, such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Biden accuses DOJ of playing politics with Hunter

Biden’s pardon of Hunter is extraordinarily broad. In terms of its breadth, the closest comparison legal experts could come up with was the pardon of Richard Nixon by Gerald Ford. What was equally extraordinary, and damaging, was Biden’s allegation that Hunter had been targeted for crimes that normally would not be prosecuted (barring other aggravating circumstances) merely because he was Biden’s son.

There is some truth to this. Normally, without the commission of a violent crime or other aggravating circumstance, individuals are not usually prosecuted for lying on their application to purchase a weapon. Regardless, these comments from Biden were not well received, even by members of his own party.

Department of Justice prosecutor David Weiss, the Trump appointee who oversaw Hunter’s federal prosecutions, was, in fact, extremely deferential to the Bidens, something for which fellow Republicans berated him. It was Weiss who, in 2023, negotiated a no-prison plea deal for Hunter covering his tax and gun crimes. A federal judge rejected this deal over concerns that the plea deal was overly broad. A disagreement then arose between Hunter’s attorneys and the DOJ as to whether the plea deal would grant Hunter immunity from future charges, potentially including any FARA violations.

Negotiations broke down between Hunter’s team and DOJ, and Hunter changed his plea from “guilty” to “not guilty”. Weiss then requested to be appointed special prosecutor and began filing cases individually against Hunter.

Backlash from both sides of the aisle

President Biden’s accusation of selective prosecution put David Weiss on the defensive. Weiss stated that Hunter’s team had asked a court to dismiss the tax charges against him on the basis of “vindictive and selective” prosecution. The court found this argument to be meritless.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden pardoned Hunter out of fear that president-elect Trump’s administration would continue seeking to prosecute him. Some Democrats have voiced sympathy for Biden’s position as a father, who has tragically lost other children, and even agreed that Hunter’s prosecution was politically motivated.

However, many other prominent Democrats have pointedly criticized the pardon or Biden’s allegations of selective prosecution. If nothing else, fellow Democrats questioned why Biden signaled for so many months he wouldn’t pardon Hunter when apparently this was the plan all along. After months of accusing Trump of being a unique threat to American institutions and seeking to subvert the rule of law, some have accused Biden of hypocrisy. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) said Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter “erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all” and called the pardon “a gift to Trump”.

Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis tweeted that while he understood Biden’s desire to help his son, “I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish [Biden’s] reputation. When you become President, your role is pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal troubles he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son”.

Other Democrats have criticized Biden’s allegations of selective prosecution. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) said he thought that Biden “got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Republicans have slammed Biden for hypocrisy and even of shielding himself from potential implication in Hunter’s controversial dealings with foreign businesses. House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who referred a case against Hunter to the Justice Department, tweeted, “it’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability”.

Ukraine’s forces, depleted by desertion, told to hold on for Trump

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian territory still controlled by Ukraine should be brought under “the NATO umbrella” to end the current “hot stage” of the war with Russia. Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine’s internationally-recognized territory. This is the first statement from Zelensky suggesting some openness to ceding territory, at least temporarily, in order to achieve peace with Russia. However, in the same interview, he made the contradictory statement that a nation should receive an invitation to join NATO “within its internationally recognized border. You can’t give invitation to just one part of a country”.

Ukraine’s tactical situation is at its lowest point in the nearly 3-year long war with Russia. Not only has Russia annexed several strategically and economically important Ukrainian regions, but their forces continue to make advances in other border regions. Just in 2024, Russia has managed to seize 2700 sq km (over 1,000 square miles) of Ukrainian territory, compared to just 465 sq km (about 180 square miles) in 2023.

Authorization from the US and UK to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles has not moved the needle significantly. If anything, it has proven to be a setback since Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by unleashing a powerful new ballistic missile. This missile has already hit military targets in the city of Dnipro and was part of a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy grid last week. Putin has also threatened to use it against “decision-making centers” in Kyiv, referring to government buildings.

Holding out till Trump’s inauguration

Ukraine’s attempt to gain leverage by seizing territory in Russia’s Kursk region is also not going according to plan. Russia has retaken about 40% of the territory the Ukrainians seized in August. Despite reports from Western media and officials, this setback for Ukraine apparently has little to do with the 10,000 North Korean troops supposedly recruited to fight for Russia. US officials have claimed that the North Koreans have been tasked with retaking the Kursk territory.

“I haven’t heard or seen anything about Koreans, alive or dead”, one soldier stationed in Kursk told the BBC. Soldiers told the BBC that they had been promised rewards (drones or extended leave) if they manage to capture a North Korean soldier, preferably with documents. One soldier quipped, “It’s very difficult to find a Korean in the dark Kursk forest- especially if he’s not here.”

The biggest problems plaguing Ukraine’s war effort are lack of basic equipment and low morale and exhaustion among frontline troops, many of whom have been at the front since 2022. This has created a a growing trend of desertion. Ukraine has opened 60,000 prosecutions for desertion between January and October of this year. This is nearly twice as many cases as in 2022 and 2023 combined. In some cases, entire units have deserted positions on the front, leaving them vulnerable to Russian attack.

For those still fighting through their exhaustion, many see no hope of a reprieve until the political landscape changes when Trump takes office. One soldier in Kursk told the BCC that their orders now were to, “hold the maximum territory [in Kursk] until Trump’s inauguration and the start of negotiations in order to exchange it for something later. No one knows what”.