Hunter's Accident

Biden verdict bulletin

Hunter Biden was convicted yesterday on three felony charges related to his 2018 purchase of a revolver, where he falsely claimed on a federal gun form that he was not using drugs. The prosecution’s case included testimonies from Hunter’s ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, and Hallie Biden, who testified that she discarded the gun due to safety concerns. The defense called witnesses, including Hunter’s daughter Naomi, who testified about his condition during that time. Jurors quickly reached their verdict, and Hunter showed little emotion as it was read. The date of his sentencing hasn’t yet been scheduled, but will happen no later than 9 October.

President Joe Biden previously assured those keeping track that he won’t pardon his son (a good way, I suppose, to make your country’s judicial system look less like a banana republic’s following the prosecution of Donald Trump, his main political rival) and expressed acceptance of the outcome, while Hunter’s defense plans to appeal. Hunter faces up to 25 years in prison, but as a first-time offender, he is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence. This conviction comes amid a politically charged climate, with Trump also facing legal challenges in an election year.

Product of stable diffusion "(“Scion of an elite family in the political class of a capitalist republic, high on drugs and waving a revolver.”)

Hunter’s criminal charges first appeared in our coverage last July, focusing on the plea bargain for tax and gun crimes then available to him and staging him as a symbol for how America’s imperialist oligarchs remain unaccountable. We then estimated him likely to receive lenient treatment due to his connections and wealth, despite being charged with a felony, illustrating that the U.S. legal system disproportionately favors the wealthy elite, thereby illustrating how capitalist republics produce political corruption and highlighting the pervasive inequities and lack of accountability endemic to U.S. institutions.

However, our 2023 retrospective reported a few developments to make us consider changing our tune, with the presiding judge having rejected the plea deal, leading to the appointment of a special counsel as prosecutor, followed by nine additional tax crime charges (including three felonies) against Hunter later that year for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in income taxes from 2016 to 2019, despite earning over $7 million during that period. His legal team’s efforts to dismiss the charges were rejected, and the trial is now set for 5 September.

That case is the one that interests us more for its connection to Hunter’s business dealings and an impeachment inquiry against President Biden’s alleged corruption—in relation to which House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) asked the Justice Department last week to charge Hunter and James Biden with lying to Congress, though these non-binding referrals may only be acted upon if Trump wins the presidency in 2024. They accuse the president’s son and brother of making false statements to hinder the investigation into their foreign business dealings, which purportedly involved the politician during his vice presidency.

Key allegations include James denying President Biden’s meeting with business associate Tony Bobulinski despite Hunter’s testimony confirming it, and Hunter distancing himself from a company he co-owned that received substantial funds from a Russian billionaire. Evidence suggests President Biden interacted with his relatives’ business partners, contrary to his claims, though at present the Republicans lack the votes to impeach President Biden without definitive evidence of criminal or impeachable conduct: “10% for the Big Guy” seems not to meet the standard. Nonetheless, Comer insists this is only the beginning.

Though President Biden has consistently denied involvement in his family's business dealings, scrutiny reveals that several of his aides and advisers have been intertwined with these activities, as Politico reported earlier this month. Biden shared a bookkeeper with his son Hunter and a lawyer with his brother James, with the latter having even hired Biden’s former Secret Service head to investigate Hunter’s associate. This interconnectedness dates back to Biden’s early political career, with his family and close aides frequently overlapping in business and political roles. Despite Biden’s efforts to maintain a distance, the involvement of his aides complicates these assertions, particularly as controversies around Jim and Hunter’s foreign dealings and partnerships have intensified. Congressional investigations and public records indicate that these overlaps make it challenging to claim strict separation. While Biden’s aides and relatives maintain that their business interactions were independent of the president, the ongoing scrutiny and revelations continue to raise questions about the true extent of these connections.

As they well should: according to the House Oversight Committee’s “The Bidens’ Influence Peddling Timeline”, the Bidens and their associates received over $20 million from various foreign entities—and, as “Comer Releases Direct Monthly Payments to Joe Biden from Hunter Biden’s Business Entity” adds, Hunter’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to his father, indicating that the current president benefited from his son’s foreign business activities. Notably, Hunter and Devon Archer (who asserts President Biden’s involvement in Hunter’s business) joined the board of Burisma in 2014, a Ukrainian natural gas firm, where they earned $1 million annually each. Despite Hunter initially joining as counsel, he was promoted to the board following a meeting with Burisma’s owner. Amid escalating pressures, they reportedly contacted D.C. after a 2015 board meeting. Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, later faced bribery charges in Ukraine for attempting to halt an investigation into the company. Payments from Ukraine to the Bidens and their associates totaled $6.5 million.

(This whole saga is the reason I said in an interview recorded on 12 February [at ~55:01 in the linked clip], “I really wish that he weren’t senile so that we could see him hanged.”)

Of course, that impeachment inquiry lost a lot of steam on 14 February, when a federal grand jury indicted Alexander Smirnov, an FBI confidential human source, for making false statements and fabricating records about alleged bribes taken by Joe and Hunter Biden from a Ukrainian businessman, due to a bias against Biden’s presidential candidacy. Comer emphasized that the impeachment inquiry into President Biden over his family’s foreign business dealings is unrelated to these discredited bribery allegations—presumably since the aforementioned timeline also describes $8 million in payments from Chinese entities.

Still, it’s hard to believe Comer can’t make it stick with Biden and Ukraine. We’re talking about a man who appeared on video in 2016 bragging about his success in convincing the Ukrainian president to dismiss a prosecutor investigating the company with his son on its board. So, what gives?

Of course, I can’t say for sure. Nonetheless, I mentioned parenthetically above how President Biden’s well-publicized choice not to pardon his son would divert attention from the political prosecution of his chief opponent: maybe, in this case, Congress can’t risk it if the American public takes too close a look at the U.S. imperial project in Ukraine. After all, if you’re setting up shop for influence-peddling, it stands to reason that your own country’s proxy—in which your National Endowment for Democracy installed a vassal government in 2014—that shares a hostile border with one of your main geopolitical rivals, would be a lucrative place to do it.

Besides that, we’ve talked a couple times now about the importance to imperialism of controlling energy markets: knowing that Hunter sat on the board of a natural gas company, it shouldn’t escape our recollection that, when asked on 7 February 2022 about the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia into Germany, President Biden said, “If Russia invades […] there will be no longer be the Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

The Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on the 24th of that month. Seven months later, explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which Seymour Hersh reported was a U.S. operation—hardly a surprise to learn, especially knowing Radosław Sikorski, then a Member of the European Parliament for Poland and now Poland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, posted an image of the ocean surface above the ruptured pipeline with the comment, “Thank you, USA.”

Product of stable diffusion (“Operators from "the Alphabet Agency", a shadowy intelligence service, dive into the ocean to sabotage a pipeline.”)

I suppose denying Russia any revenue from fueling German industry was worth more to Sikorski than the living standards of the German people, who face “a lost decade”.

(Perhaps thinking along similar lines, Senator Lindsey Graham [R-SC] told Face the Nation last week, “They’re sitting on 10 to 12 trillion dollars of critical minerals in Ukraine […] If we help Ukraine now […] that 10 to 12 trillion dollars of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West […] To give Putin 10 or 12 trillion dollars of critical minerals that he will share with China is ridiculous”—speaking here to the imperialist strategy of controlling energy markets as it related to critical minerals, rather than to fossil fuels.)

The stark contrast between Hunter Biden’s recent conviction on gun charges and the faltering impeachment inquiry into President Biden underscores the complexity and interconnectedness of their legal and political challenges. Initially anticipated to be mitigated by his elite status, Hunter’s legal troubles evolved dramatically with additional tax crime charges and the rejection of a plea deal, signaling a shift towards accountability. Despite this, the ongoing investigation into his foreign business dealings, especially with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, continues to entangle President Biden, casting a shadow over his administration.

The intricate ties between the Bidens and Ukraine have been a focal point in the impeachment inquiry. Notable payments from Ukrainian entities to the Bidens, Hunter’s role at Burisma, and President Biden’s past involvement in Ukrainian affairs raise questions about potential conflicts of interest, even after Smirnov’s indictment for fabricating bribery claims. Indeed, we believe the broader implications of U.S. foreign policy, particularly in Ukraine, remain a critical backdrop. Hence, the stalled impeachment inquiry seems to reveal the intricate and often murky intersection of domestic politics and international relations.

Of course, the ongoing scrutiny of the Bidens’ connections with Ukraine continues to shape the U.S. political landscape. However, I suspect that geopolitical tensions with Russia and the strategic importance of controlling energy markets may make investigators loath to launch a formal impeachment, given the international political impact. Still, if the impeachment inquiry gained any traction, it might not just shift U.S. public opinion ahead of the 2024 election, but their willingness afterward to accept a government that engages in such imperialist adventures—not to mention how it might affect the opinions of the increasingly impoverished German public. We had a bit of a surprise with the rejection of Hunter’s plea deal, so who knows what will happen? But we’ll have to wait to see.