4 Takeaways From NYT s Attempt To Control The Hunter Biden Narrative
Revisiting the Times s article from last week, then, with the premise that the reporting seeks to get ahead of the story, suggests federal prosecutors may have some serious charges in mind for the president s son. Tax evasion seems the most likely charge Hunter will face, given that the Times reported that the president s son paid more than $1 million in tax liability while spinning any such criminal offense as Hunter s mere failure to pay all his taxes.
A second charge floated by the Times concerns violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires disclosure to the Justice Department of lobbying or public relations assistance on behalf of foreign clients. Here, the Times efforts to frame Hunter s potential violations of FARA as unintentional and thus not criminal suggests the Delaware U.S. attorney has a solid FARA case in the works.
The Times s coverage, however, indicates federal prosecutors are looking at much more serious charges related to payments Hunter Biden received from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, as well his financial interests in Kazakhstan and China. Publicly available evidence already suggests Hunter Biden profited from these, and potentially other foreign interests, by selling access to his father when the elder Biden was vice president, which the Times casts as possibly allowing for a money laundering charge against Hunter.
In last week s article, the Times reveals that prosecutors have accumulated significantly more evidence suggesting Hunter profited from these relationships, with prosecutors allegedly investigating payments and gifts Mr. Biden or his associates had received from foreign interests, including a vehicle paid for using funds from a company associated with a Kazakh oligarch and a diamond from a Chinese energy tycoon. The Times also reported that prosecutors have sought documents related to corporate entities through which Mr. Biden and his associates conducted business with interests around the world.
The Times further revealed that federal prosecutors have issued scores of subpoenas, related to Hunter Biden s foreign work and for bank accounts linked to him and his associates. They even traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, according to The Times, to interview Ms. Lunden Alexis Roberts, who sued Hunter for paternity payments, questioning her about Hunter s business dealings. As for the emails recovered from the abandoned MacBook, federal investigators have authenticated those as well.
All of these details the Times reported in its article purportedly focused on the tax case against Hunter Biden. Other than the details confirmed by Roberts s lawyer, the information came principally from people familiar with the investigation, which means one of two things: someone with the prosecutor s office talked, or someone connected with Hunter Biden did.
History provides a pretty good hint of the answer and its reason: Hunter Biden s team likely gave the Times the heads-up to the case being crafted against the president s son to allow the liberal mainstay to massage a narrative before any potential charges became public. Given the details shared with the Times by people familiar with the investigation, then regurgitated by the Times for the public, it seems some pretty serious charges may be in store for Hunter.
Very strange way to run a government, but ok. Separation of powers, 240 years later I guess. Shatter power into a bunch of fractal pieces going at each other and hope for the best. The worst Constitution, except for all the others.