Below is my column in The Messenger on what I called Biden’s “break-the-glass” option after the disaster in Delaware. After the column ran, Fox News asked White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre about the possibility of a pardon. Jean-Pierre cut him off and responded unequivocally “no.” I hope that proves to be true but it would have been more assuring to come from someone who did not clearly misrepresent the President’s earlier denial just a day earlier and change his long-standing position. The President previously denied a series of facts that have been proven, including the fact that his son did make money in China and President Biden did have knowledge of (and interact with) his son’s business dealings. The real question is whether the fix in this case will fail and leave the President with the pardon option behind the glass.
Here is the column:
The collapse of the Hunter Biden plea bargain has left many in Washington shocked. After all, this is a city that knows how to fix a fight. After five years, the Biden corruption scandal was supposed to die with a vacuous plea bargain and no jail time. Most everyone was in on the fix, from members of Congress to the media to the prosecutors. The problem was the one notable omission: Judge Maryellen Noreika of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
The sentencing hearing was a moment that made the Hindenburg disaster look like a seamless landing. Noreika asked a basic question on the implications of the agreement, and the entire deal immediately collapsed.
Now the Justice Department is in a bind. It could not admit in the hearing that Hunter Biden could escape future liability for a host of uncharged crimes. Yet, when a defendant backs out of a generous plea deal, federal prosecutors ordinarily will pursue all of the available charges — and jail time.
While President Joe Biden once declared, in more colorful terms, that no one messes with a Biden, the Justice Department may now find it has no choice. It could be forced to actually treat Hunter like an ordinary citizen.
The debacle in Delaware still could result in a plea deal. The parties have a month to “work things out,” and most judges sign off on deals, given the discretion afforded to the executive branch on criminal charging decisions. They just need to be clear about the terms, and clarity is something neither side seemed eager to establish publicly during Wednesday’s hearing. However, an agreement would require prosecutors either to fight to preserve a sweetheart deal — one without additional future charges — or to proceed, as they would in most cases, with a full prosecution.
That would include obvious potential charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Noreika forced the Justice Department to admit that it still could charge Biden as an unregistered foreign agent. That was the charge used against onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the similarities between the cases are striking. It took little time for the Justice Department to use the charge against Manafort. Yet, in the Hunter Biden investigation, five years have passed, and the Justice Department seemed mired in doubt over applying the same standard to the president’s son.
A FARA charge could further expose Hunter’s alleged influence-peddling operations, with what House GOP investigators say were millions in foreign payments from a virtual rogue’s gallery of foreign officials. The Justice Department also would face pressure to seek the same long jail sentence given to Manafort; he was sentenced to 73 months of imprisonment, which included the statutory maximum 60 months for a conspiracy to violate FARA. (That same year, political consultant W. Samuel Patten pleaded guilty to lobbying and consulting on behalf of the Opposition Bloc, a Ukrainian political party, and received 36 months of probation.)
That is not even including potential felony charges for the original gun violation, money laundering, or other crimes. If the Justice Department were to show the same aggressive effort toward Hunter Biden that was shown to figures like Manafort, Hunter could be looking at a real possibility of years in jail.
There is, however, the ultimate “break-the-glass” option that I raised previously if the Bidens and their supporters could not rig the process: Joe Biden could pardon his son and then announce that he will not run for reelection.
Facing an impeachment inquiry, low public support, and a son in the legal dock, Biden could use the case to close out his political career. Of course, a pardon would be what I consider another abuse of the pardon power for personal benefit. President Bill Clinton waited until the end of his second term to pardon his half-brother. Biden could do the same by acknowledging that the pardoning of his son is a form of raw self-dealing. However, as he has said throughout the scandal, he loves his son and blames his crimes on his struggle with addiction and grieving.
With that, Biden could bow out of the election without admitting (as many on both sides are saying) that old age has taken its toll on his mental and physical capacity. He would end his political career with an act as a father, which some would condemn but most would understand. That would clear the way for a new generation of Democratic candidates who would have a better chance of defeating Donald Trump or another Republican presidential candidate.
President Biden could even give Hunter a preemptive or prospective pardon. That would effectively end any federal investigation, although the pardon would need to cover the waterfront of possible charges. By resigning and becoming a lame-duck president, Biden also would undermine congressional Republicans’ impeachment calls. And it would allow his own allies to declare the scandal over, with Biden taking responsibility by giving up a second term in office.
Of course, there is no guarantee that the congressional investigation would end. Even if such a move dampened the demand for an impeachment inquiry, it would not likely stop Republicans from pursuing answers about the official handling of this investigation and claims of political interference.
Yet, any damage would be contained by Biden offering himself up as a sin-eater for his family. Democratic candidates would not likely face backlash for their opposition to investigating the scandal; their chances of retaking the House could be substantially increased. Likewise, the media would not have to face the mounting evidence that it has steadfastly ignored for years.
The pardon-and-apology approach might appeal to Biden not only as an effort to convert vice into virtue but to justify his withdrawal from the election as a selfless act.
Everyone in Washington would win — except, of course, the public: The Bidens would keep alleged millions in influence-peddling profits; Hunter would not even have to pay his full taxes; members of Congress and the media could avoid taking responsibility for burying the reports of corruption.
That is what is called a “happy ending” in Washington.
Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.
Pardons and commenting sentences aren’t always partisan.
Remember Jimmy Carter commuted the prison sentence of former FBI agent and Nixon Aide G. Gordon Liddy for all of the felony crimes he committed during the Nixon Administration.
[source: television series “White House Plumbers” on HBO Max].
Just a simple question from the Judge and nearly everything falls apart. Pretty lousy legal work. I know local attorneys who are routinely of better quality and produce a higher caliber of work.
I think the Professor is too optimistic. The malignant fingers of this case reaches too far into all aspects of the Federal Government. I don’t think those fingers of influence peddling will just go away. More likely the void of Hunter Biden would be assumed by someone else who co-opts the network for their own use. Because it has been revealed that this is a network. I am not so naive to think that this is only a democratic problem. On the Democratic side It would appear to have been planted in the Clinton Administration, flowered in the Obama Administration and has been harvested in the Biden administration. I am sure the “W” administration and Trump may have had some corruption but they were separate and different wings of the Republicans and hardly speak to each other. Also Reagan and H.W. have passed on and left little to investigate.
There is too much rotten garbage to reveal and shine sunlight on because this case has brought this all out of the shadow. Republicans will likely hit harder. Covid 19 dishonesty, suppression of opposing views in medicine , suppression of free speech in the media (to support covid marching orders and block the exposure of the “laptop”), the lies about the border and how porous it is, the collapse in Afghanistan, the trans debate, targeting parents and more and more. All by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. I could write the campaign slogans myself .
Whether military or politics, when the opponent retreats that’s the time to launch you offensive. Just be aware of traps.
If Joe pardons Hunter then there will be a huge chorus of “What about Trump”? And why not pardon him and clear the field. If he does pardon Hunter and Not Trump., then all bets are off.
GEB: There’s an alternate explanation you might consider. This was hardly an adversarial hearing. Both sides were on the same side. The prosecutor knew all along that this was a fraud but agreed to go along if the judge signed off. When she didn’t immediately sign off and, instead, asked the $64 question, the prosecutor had to tell the truth and his parner at the other table had to appear flummoxed, jump up, and terminate the “deal.” Had the judge simply rubber stampted this deal – as she was expected to do – none of this would have come out and you and I would not be discussing it this morning. No, it wasn’t good lawyers doing bad lawyering; au contraire, mon ami, it was bad lawyers doing good lawyering and getting caught cheating!
“Both sides were on the same side.The prosecutor knew all along that this was a fraud but agreed to go along if the judge signed off. “
—
JJC, I believe you to be correct. Knowingly or unknowingly, all the lawyers fell into the trap of practicing political expediency rather than the law.
Your response is spot on.
The game might have been, ‘let’s blame the judge.’
I agree with all you write except your use of the term “progressive”. Marxist and Maoist is more descriptive of what we have facing us. Until we can define the enemy, and they are our enemy, we will not be able to defeat them.
@mike
I’ve nearly always considered them more or less equivalents, Che Guevara or Marx are not at all new folk heroes to such people. Additionally, those names do not have much impact on many today, and in the case of younger voters, to many are actually a *positive* thing, such is their immaturity and cluelessness. Getting people to care AT ALL is the first step, most do not follow blogs like this one or ask these questions. We, here, are in the severe minority even among the non-radical.
Joe Biden is honest for once in his life: he is against Make America Great Again, not that any sane person doubted it. He really hates America. Period.
“Biden to run against MAGA in 2024, not just Trump”
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/28/biden-run-against-maga-2024-not-just-trump
Pardoning Hunter would not require that he withdraw. Pardons are constitutional and the media would fall in line and sympathize with a father whose only crime is loving his troubled son.
Nobody will change their vote based on that.
The Norman Rockwell version of the loving father & son went out the window decades ago and millions of dollars of bribe money-ago. The Big Guy is 80 and his “child” is 53. No sympathy warranted here. Mob boss John Gotti loved his son, too, but that never excused either of them from being prosecuted for their many crimes. A pardon would immmunize the person pardoned from prosecution, thus releasing that person from being able to invoke a Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Perhaps for the first time in his miserable life Hunter would have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth – or, simply, go to the DC jail and enjoy living in a tiny room with a combo stainless steel toilet and sink and a non-binary roommate named Bubba.
The plea deal will be redone and the judge will sign off on it. The DOJ will now not agree expressly to wipe out all possible charges because it looks too bad and it wants to preserve the sham of being able to say that it is still investigating, to have an excuse for stonewalling Congressional investigations. But in the end it will bring no further charges. Hunter Biden will rely on this tacit understanding and wait for the statute of limitations on the FARA charges to run out, which must be pretty soon.
If Biden loses the election and Hunter remains at risk, he will pardon Hunter for every possible charge. If Biden wins the election, his DOJ will never take any further action against Hunter.
The main issue here is not Hunter but Joe. He was running an extortion/bribery racket as VP and thereafter. It is only the Republican-controlled House that can uncover this.
Good analysis. Joe could also let another Democrat run and still pardon Hunter after the election.
The nice thing about corruption is that it offers so many possibilities.
Daniel, your comment was spot on. He will pardon the crook, the media will make it as a father’s love and therefore a positive, Claire McCaskill will over up accolades and Joe will then forget it ever happened.
How will such a plea deal impact hearings? Won’t it make it easier to investigate Hunter?
Neither Hunter nor his father will be prosecuted and sentenced for their crimes because, in the end, Biden can pardon Hunter and Himself. That ends any justice from the start, as conviction is actually a dead end.
Information is the key, including the demonstration that Democrats and some Republicans have been trying to subvert our democracy.
I see one huge problem with this proposed “break glass” option: Joe and Jill Biden’s narcissistic hubris. This would require a selfless act on their part, and I honestly don’t think they are capable of that. It’s just not in their lexicon.
BTW, Professor Turley, I have great respect for you, but this almost reads like a proposal offering to his team of advisors. I fear there is a prevailing view inside the beltway that y’all are “too big to fail.”
Your idea may seem like a short term fix to DC, but believe me, it would be possibly the final nail in the coffin of our Republic.
If I were Hunter, I wouldn’t go fishing with a bodyguard. He’s Catholic, so he knows the Hail Mary, I guess.
“Jean-Pierre cut him off and responded unequivocally ‘no.’”
Until some time in the future, when her answer remains the same: “Maybe.”
Not only does Turley jump the shark daily, with his distraction, dismissing and disinformation, he has made it a art form.
No kidding.
Total silence about yesterday’s superseding indictment for Trump, charging another employee as a co-conspirator and adding a charge for the Iran document for which there’s audiotape of Trump admitting that it’s classified while showing it to people without clearances.
Frankly, I’d hate to see Joe Biden get off so easily. But if he does pardon his son, be assured it won’t be out of any misguided “fatherly affection.” It’ll be because the truth is getting too close to the Biden crime family, implicating Joe and “doctor” Jill to the eyeballs. Throwing Hunter under the bus would only be tying up loose ends for the Don. The real shame of this is how the entire Democrat party marched in lockstep with corruption and censorship, with not a single courageous individual breaking with the herd.
All paths are fraught with dangers for both sides. This might be the smart way out, but Biden is far too stupid and stubborn to accept it. Nixon was able to resign because Agnew had bowed out and a solid and unobjectionable backup had been installed in his place. With Clinton, an impeachment could be risked, because a similarly solid replacement was standing by.
It is difficult to imagine any circumstances that could develop that would allow them to dispose of Harris; the thing is now playing out too quickly, they waited too long, and overestimated their ability to bury the story. Biden may pardon his son, but he has his own culpability to worry about, and there is certainly no guarantee that either Harris or the Republicans would follow through on any unwritten deal to shield him from prosecution. He has to be aware that his party prioritizes staying in power over any consideration of his future comfort. There are signs that the party is inclining toward tossing him overboard, and might be willing to risk an impeachment, but those Republicans who are less reckless are leery of making Biden appear sympathetic, remembering the unsatisfying results of the Clinton impeachment and it’s after-effects. There is no easy way out for either side, and Harris looms large in any calculation, not a pleasant option for either side.
What Turley describes today is what I have described to friends as the “nuclear” option because it blows up the administration and its sycophantic supporters in the media and the Democrat party in ways that will never be reversed. If Jean-Pierre says a pardon is off the table, we should immediately conclude from this that it is on the table and, in fact, the only thing that is on the table. Turley’s fin de siècle description suggests a happy ending but that likely is fanciful thinking. The bribing of a U.S. President by foreign adversaries is of unprecedented historic significance and brings into play a constitutional crisis that will require massive restructuring of our national psyche and ethos. It’s not simply a question of vengeance or even Justice – these may be our initial motives – but more a question of retrospection and whether we can continue as a nation united by principles, principles that we believed in for almost two and a half centuries. We believed ourselves and taught our children that these principles were immutable and sacred. This speeding train is moving toward unchartered territory suited more for the humanists among us to figure out than the politicians and/or lawyers. The president must pardon his son and in turn forfeit his administration and its honorable place in history. Because the Justice Department and the FBI are corrupt at the top, Congress must use the only enforcement power given it under the Constitution and that is to initiate impeachment proceedings to remove the President, Attorney General, and the FBI Director. These proceedings will explain but certainly not excuse how the Biden administration brought us to this point. It will be the ideological equivalent of a Civil War without the violence. Afterward, we must have a reconciliation period, during which we resolve our petty differences and arrive at some mature understanding of what is needed to reconstruct the nation. This will not be easy; thoughtful and vigorous leaders will be needed and in large numbers. Finally, it is with some trepidation that I predict that the “days after” this nuclear devastation will be fruitful and happier than the days before. Those prior days will leave nothing but shame and sorrow in the hearts and minds of all Americans.
The Democrats are keeping a tight lid on How the 2016 & 2020 Election-Debauchery was Funded.
Because if you Follow-‘Crypto’-Money it leads to the Top Members (DNC, Hillary, Obama, ….)
WHY? is the prosecution of SBF on Election’s Campaign Finance Charges so important!
Because that’s the was the money used to ‘Frame’ Donald Trump, during the Campaign period(s).
Russiagate, Political Smears, Disinformation, does not happen for free. People don’t; Lie, Cheat, Steal, stick Their Neck out on the line for Nothing ($).
They gotta get paid.
Two things remain, What the Democrats & Deep State did to Donald Trump (and Others) still happen whether you can prove the Money Trail or not,
and secondly, more importantly, The Crypto-Money-Machine is in place for Election-Debauchery 2024.
Watch Newsom, The ‘Ken Doll’ toy-boy of the California Cabal, the subliminals are already in place*, and the DNC Manchurian is ready.
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1684576839384317953
https://www.reuters.com/legal/bankman-fried-campaign-finance-charge-dropped-lessening-trials-political-focus-2023-07-27/
Hunter-Joe sideshow will continue throughout the 2024 Election Cycle
* Barbenheimer = Barbie (Ken Doll) + Oppenheimer (Tactical Nuclear War) imprint – Double Feature!
ASK: Are Washington’s politics decided/dictated by Hollywood Generated Social Media?
(Is it a ‘Political Clam Plate Orgy’ ? (BOOK: The Clam Plate Orgy by Wilson Bryan Key)
These ‘PRODUCTIONS’ cost Big Money Kids, Hollywood isn’t Cheap!
[Now New & Improved “Paid-by-Crypto”]
The Gavin Newsom Show is already in Post-Production and being readied for Election 2024
Why do you think that the DNC paid a Hollywood Producer to do the J-6th Congressional Hearings (Hummm ?)
And don’t you think that the coming Donald Trump Trials won’t be ‘Produced’ like the O.J. Simpson Trails.
Oh you betcha it will. ‘Stay Tuned’ starting this Fall-Season/September the DNC is bringing you a Mind Full.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/09/why-television-shows-premiere-in-september.html
2023–24 United States network television schedule
You nailed it with the “Ken Doll” analogy.
Even for Mr. Sniffer Whiffer, it’s all about legacy. He can’t risk the public learning that he was shaking down world leaders for bribes by pimping out his crack addicted son to get the money, Not a great look for the Biden Presidential Library don’t you think ? Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.
As an old friend with family ties to organized crime once told me: “If you want justice, don’t go to court. Go to the Mafia. But be prepared to pay Mafia prices”. In France, the people dealt with the aristocrats of Versailles with the guillotine. In other countries like Romania, the people executed them with firing sqauds. So far, the USA has escaped all of the above. But for how long? The corruption extends so wide and runs so deep—perhaps so wide and deep as to be beyond repair and retribution. After all, the people can’t shoot everybody ever to inhabit the corridors of power in Washington. Or will they some day? Personally, at the moment, it seems hopeless. The corruption ultimately will bring the entire Republic down. And of course, we exist as a Republic in name only. We exist under govenment by bribery both legal and illegal—but bribery just the same. Sad.
Just because the spokeditz says there will be no pardon doesn’t mean that there will be no pardon. Just imagine 6 months from now and a reporter asks the spokeditz about Joe pardoning Hunter and she says, “I’ve answered this a million times and the answer won’t change, the president will pardon his son.” But Karine you said there would be no pardon?? “As I have said before, there will be a pardon.” But, but, but…. “I answered the question and we are done here.”
The manner and frequency with which the elite are engaged in criminal behavior and subsequently never held accountable, has forever changed my view of justice in this country. We now have a complete government crisis of corruption. Unfortunately, I really don’t see how much changes without a full-blown revolution. Now, even the average citizen is figuratively – if not literally – beaten and personally/financially beaten into submission if they don’t comply. Utterly discouraging.
RWEFAIR, only liberals and Democrats get away with criminality, Republicans and conservatives pay the price.
“It could be forced to actually treat Hunter like an ordinary citizen.”
What a novel thought. After all, the mind numbing mantra of the media is “No one is above the law.”
Nah, the administrative state will still make it all go away. Judge is the one who is in trouble now.
The professor calls it a “happy ending in Washington” and he is right only this time the entire country gets screwed.
One issue with Professor Turley’s observation is that he says if Biden pulls out it would end impeachment because he is leaving but the Democrats impeached Trump one weak before his term expired. Of course Democrats are viscous and Pelosi especially so, but it is time that Republicans actually fought the entity fighting them and act accordingly.
It’s amazing how feckless the Republicans continue to be. This is a do or die battle and the latter verb increasingly appears to be what will happen to the country before the July 4, 2026.
The minute raggedy Ann said no pardon for Hunter I said they’re going to pardon Hunter.