Yesterday, we got to witness yet another instance of man-child Hunter Biden throwing a temper tantrum because he had to show up to Congress and be a big boy.
Aided and abetted by his expensive defense lawyer Abbe Lowell and Representative Eric Swalwell (D-Fang Fang), and with the apparent knowledge and consent of the President of the United States, Hunter Biden thumbed his nose at a Congressional subpoena and walked away, with all the confidence of a toddler who knows Daddy will clean up the mess he just made. Well, Daddy and the media. Just look at how Karine Jean-Pierre tried to spin the White House’s way out of this one.
Except she just admitted that Joe KNEW that Hunter was going to blow off the Congressional subpoena – which is a very different sing than the one he USED to sing.
2021: Biden says those who defy congressional subpoenas should be "criminally" prosecuted pic.twitter.com/dFswp2SvEy
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 13, 2023
Professor Jonathan Turley is of the opinion that Hunter Biden may have cooked his own goose – IF the Republicans can find the spine to hold him accountable.
Hunter was under a subpoena from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to appear for testimony. As I previously wrote, he had two choices: He could appear and either testify or invoke his right to remain silent. The only thing that he could not do is what he did — just refuse to go into the hearing room. Yet, there he was, with counsel Abbe Lowell by his side,holding forth with a public press conference while refusing to appear in the closed-door deposition being held in the building behind him.
By staying on the Senate side of the Capitol, Hunter guaranteed that the House sergeant at arms did not pull him into the hearing room. Ironically, that would have been a better option than his blowing a raspberry at the committee and then speeding away.
In holding this spectacle, Biden and his legal team committed another unforced error. This one could prove as costly as pushing for an obscenely generous plea agreement and then telling prosecutors to “rip it up” in July.
Few people expected Hunter to testify in the deposition. The evidence against him is overwhelming, as shown in his second federal indictment on tax charges. He and his uncles were allegedly engaged in one of the largest influence-peddling operations in history involving millions of dollars from various foreign sources. Hunter simply could have done what prior witnesses have done: Go in and take the Fifth. That is what attorney and former IRS official Lois Lerner did — twice — when House Republicans wanted to ask her about the Obama administration targeting conservative groups.
It was a no-brainer that someone appears to have radically over-thought on the Hunter Biden legal team.
Hunter can now be held in contempt of Congress. That will force the hand of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who aggressively pursued Trump figures for contempt, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Despite some of us writing to the contrary, Bannon claimed his lawyers told him he did not have to appear before a House committee. He was swiftly charged and convicted by Garland’s prosecutors.
Turley points out that Jean-Pierre’s comments are also legal hot water for JOE Biden.
There is another possible cost to this move. Fox News quoted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that President Biden “was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say,” which suggests that the president spoke with his son before his act of contempt and discussed his statement. If that is true, it was a breathtaking mistake. One of the four most obvious potential articles of impeachment that I laid out in my prior testimony was obstruction. There already are questions over special treatment potentially being given to Hunter in the form of alleged felonies being allowed to expire, warnings about planned federal raids, and sweetheart deals.
In addition, President Biden has enlisted White House staff to actively push challenged accounts of his conduct and attack the House Republicans’ investigative process. Such acts could legally bootstrap prior misconduct into his presidency under abuse-of-power allegations.
If this latest allegation is true, the president was speaking with his son about committing a potentially criminal act of contempt. Hunter was refusing to give testimony focused not on his own role but on his father’s potential role in the alleged influence peddling. The House can pursue evidence on that conversation and how the president may have supported his son’s effort.
The House also formalized the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden yesterday, on a party-line vote – no surprise there (except maybe that all the Republicans stuck together for a change). As expected, old Joe was big mad about it.
I wake up every day focused on the issues facing the American people – real issues that impact their lives, and the strength and security of our country and the world. Unfortunately, House Republicans are not joining me. Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.
Except that Joe’s story and Hunter’s story don’t line up with each other or with the evidence, and these stories keep evolving over time. Joe claimed that he was the proverbial monkey who saw no evil, heard no evil, said no evil when it came to Hunter’s business dealings, but then the story began changing. The White House put out that Joe was never “in business” with Hunter, but then we learned about the Cafe Milano dinners and the “I am sitting here with my father” messages. Then Hunter himself said yesterday that Joe was never “financially involved” in the business, which is a tacit admission that Joe was personally involved, as the evidence shows. But don’t look for the mainstream media to acknowledge the new narrative in the Biden family business saga.
This is so bad. @nytimes doctored what Hunter said today, leaving out the key word. Wow.
NYT: “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not involved in my business.”
Hunter: “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not *financially* involved in my business.” pic.twitter.com/cDQEnShr6n
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) December 13, 2023
The bottom line is that Joe and Hunter both believe that the Biden family is untouchable by virtue of the position of power that Joe currently holds. It is up to the Republicans to prove otherwise to them. We should all be concerned that not enough Republicans are willing to see an investigation or an impeachment through to its bitter end. Yesterday’s vote along party lines, with no Republican defectors, was a sign of solidarity that was needed. Ironically, it was likely Hunter’s arrogance in blowing off his Congressional subpoena that ensured the party line vote approving the impeachment inquiry. I can definitely see that stunt hardening the resolve of certain Republicans to make sure the Bidens are held to account.
The next move MUST be contempt charges against Hunter Biden. The House Oversight Committee already said that they would pursue the contempt charges, and I don’t think they should give Hunter a second chance to testify. If the Bidens believe that they are above the law, then the Republicans in Congress have no option but to prove them wrong. The Biden name has already given Hunter the lives of a cat, and the money to fund every single whim he has ever had. We need to know where “the poorest man in Congress” got the money to keep loaning out funds to family members, and just where all that money has gone over the years. Undoubtedly a lot of it went up Hunter’s nose, but somehow Joe owns lots of houses and manages to keep them up on the presidential salary and whatever Jill brings in as a community college instructor. Republican investigators need to follow the money, and put some steel in their spines to do it. If they can’t – well, then the Biden name really does mean “untouchable.”
Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click
A reader says: Oh puh-lease. He was there and willing to testify, just not behind closed doors so the Republicans can create a spin on the narrative that benefits them. They can certainly try to charge him with contempt but I wish them luck on having it enforced since again, he was willing to testify.
And before you make any other arguments consider that Jim Jordan refused to testify to the January 6th committee. So if we’re all about enforcing subpoenas, how about that one? What’s fine for the goose should be fine for the gander, as it were, although that phrase should be switched because this is a wild goose chase. The Republicans know they have nothing and this is all a sham. They’ve basically admitted as much, including Chuck Grassley on camera yesterday.
I don’t know what happened to make you so angry that you continually insists that there must be dirt on Biden. What the rest of us on Earth 1 see are people trying tear him down when all he’s done is love his former drug addicted son, especially since there is zero evidence of any wrong doing after several years of investigation. (Burisma has been proven to be a nothing burger, just so we’re clear.) This is a true and complete waste of taxpayers’ money and Republicans know it.
SFC D says: Hunter does not get to dictate the terms of the subpoena. And the dirt on Joe, Hunter, and others in the Biden family is documented and obvious. Hunter’s addiction is irrelevant. His actions as an peddler and his financial gain made by it are the point of the investigation. He deserves no sympathy.
Scott says: Wow dude (a reader) you really need to lay off the lead paint chips… not a single thing you said above (as is you’re usual) had even the slightest basis in fact. You are either a dog faced pony liar, or a serious mental defective that actually believes that the biden family is not a bunch of criminals…
Lloyd says: Yes, in fact, they are above the law. If not, Hunter would have been in jail before this. Will we ever return to “Justice For All” ?? I doubt it. But, who knows….That swiftee singer(?) and her hunky boyfriend might intercede and make things right.
Ann in L.A. says: If Joe encouraged or otherwise participated in Jr’s illegally blowing off a hearing, it’s also RICO.
Mad Celt says: Answer: yes.
Wfjag says: Deanna, you must be doing something right. Your columns are now attracting the attention of professional trolls. Only someone whose columns are influential receive the honor of that.
Cameron says: They’re only professional in that they have no other skills to offer the world.
Scott says: The standards Soros has for those he pays to destroy this nation are NOT very high…
Are the Bidens above the law? In effect they are. They’re card-carrying Establishmentarians who did the rest of the Establishment a huge service by “defeating” Donald Trump. That won them lifetime protection from any and all consequences of their many misbehaviors. Ironically, what Trump said about himself is truer of the Bidens: Ol’ Joe could shoot a nun at high noon in Times Square, and the Deep State would see to it that he suffer no consequences.
10 Comments