Columns, Criminal law, Lawyering

Hunter Biden Loses Game of Chicken With Himself

Below is my column in the New York Post on the sudden guilty plea from Hunter Biden in his federal tax case. It was not the plea but the timing of the plea that was the surprise. What is missing is any cognizable legal strategy in waiting until the first day of the trial to make a “naked plea” when it offered the least possible benefit to him. It was like waiting for the water to reach the deck of the Titanic before asking about swimming lessons. He was a tad late and then unsuccessfully sought to plead guilty without admitting guilt.

Here is the column:

Hunter Biden just showed the perils of playing the game of chicken with yourself.

For months, many of us have marveled at the sight of Hunter careening toward a cliff while declaring publicly that he was prepared to go all the way.

The Justice Department was never going over the cliff because they had nothing to gain or lose in open-and-shut cases in Delaware and California.

There was never a serious question of convicting Hunter of these crimes, just a will of the Justice Department to secure them.

Special Counsel David Weiss inexplicably allowed serious felonies to expire, refused to bring obvious crimes as an unregistered foreign agent, and sought to cut an embarrassing sweetheart deal with Hunter to avoid any jail time on a couple of minor crimes.

The deal then collapsed in open court when a judge balked at a provision that would give Hunter sweeping immunity for any crime.

When she asked the federal prosecutor if he had ever seen such a plea bargain offered a defendant other than the President’s son, he admitted that he had not.

That is when the chest pounding began. Unwilling to accept anything but the sweetheart deal, Hunter’s defense counsel told the prosecutors in court to “just rip it up.” They did and Weiss was forced to actually prosecute Hunter.

According to the Justice Department, Weiss continued to try to cut a plea bargain with Hunter but was rebuffed by the defense.

They then went to Delaware, the home of the Bidens, and tried to convince a sympathetic jury that Hunter was a drug addict who was not responsible for his action as well as other unsupported claims.

It failed in spectacular fashion with a conviction on all counts.

Hunter then floored it for the California cliff on the tax charges as the Justice Department and most of us watched confused about how he was trying to intimidate. He hit the brakes as the trial was beginning.

Hunter has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position for a plea. He waited until he had little to trade and reportedly did not even inform the prosecutors of his decision.

But it gets worse. If he had agreed to a less generous plea deal last year, he could have secured a recommended sentence on both the gun and tax charges.

Instead, he will go into this sentencing with a past criminal record, an aggravating factor that could reduce the benefit of the belated plea.

In the end, Hunter had nothing to offer, nothing to bargain. He plead guilty to all nine counts.

This decision may still be based more on political than legal calculations. Hunter was almost certain to be convicted. But it would have taken time as his father’s administration (and pardon authority) wanes.

If Hunter still hopes for a presidential commutation or pardon, the chances of such executive action is dramatically improved after a sentencing.

The White House rarely considers pardons before a trial and sentencing. Indeed, they often wait for appeals to run their course.

Moreover, a demand for jail time seems likely from the Justice Department given this history and it is equally likely to be granted.

If that sentence is lengthy, it will add pressure on President Biden to take action with a commutation or pardon.

If President Biden does violate his promise to not pardon Hunter, it would not be a surprise for many. In 2022, I wrote that the President could resign or withdraw as a candidate and pardon Hunter.

I referred to this as “break-the-glass option”: “He would end his political career with an act as a father, which some would condemn but most would understand.”

The plea also avoided the massive influence peddling operation of the Biden family from being aired in open court.

The refusal of the Justice Department to charge Hunter as an unregistered foreign agent stands in flagrant contradiction to past and current cases under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

None of this explains the logic of Hunter’s criminal defense strategy. A legal one-man game of chicken is certainly engrossing to watch, but leaves most lawyers wincing rather than flinching as the spectacle unfolds.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

281 thoughts on “Hunter Biden Loses Game of Chicken With Himself”

  1. Joe Biden actually said it, it’s on video tape more than once —– what did Joe say, you ask?
    Hunter is the smartest guy I know
    I wonder if Joe and Jill, while alone at night, actually admit that the wrong son died– Beau should be here instead of Hunter.

  2. “. . . Department of Justice *accidentally* let the statute of limitations expire on many of the charges back in 2020 . . .”

    “[T]he Department of Justice offered a *reasonable* amnesty offer to Hunter Biden and his lawyer last year.” (emphases added)

    One thing the Leftist commenters are good for: a daily chuckle.

  3. Joe Biden (through his network of “plausible deniability”) took large sums money for influence. In the real world this is called bribery. Hunter collected for the Biden family as they raked in multiple millions.

    In the warped world of the corrupt and those who live in a bubble, they can manipulate reality by gaslighting, information suppression and subversion. It is quid pro quo. They are criminals and Hunter will take the fall. Daddy will pardon him and the ruse will continue.

    I’ve lived and traveled abroad and petty bribery is commonplace and it is how things get done. It is wrong and it is a crime. Here, it is sanitized and on this scale, it is like David Copperfield’s disappearing airplane.

    The sobering thing to realize is that every human eventually grows old and they die, alone and can take nothing with them when they pass from this earth. No matter what status we hold in this life, in our physical death we are equal.

    So, was it worth it Joe? How will you be judged in this life, when all the dust settles and the facts are eventually revealed and in the next life, when you stand in judgement?

    1. So, was it worth it Joe? How will you be judged in this life, when all the dust settles and the facts are eventually revealed and in the next life, when you stand in judgement?

      Never mind the bribery and influence peddling. Biden like Obama made decisions that had the effect of thousands of Americans dying, tens of thousands of people overseas dying at the hands of ISIS they created and empowered, thousands of would be Illegal Aliens dying on their journey here to became part of Demographics are Democrat Destiny.

      Those hundreds of thousands of deaths didn’t happen in an hour or a day. They happened over weeks, months and years as they watched and kept the policies and decisions causing those deaths in place.

      If you can sit there day after day watching your policies resulting in those fentanyl deaths, those would be Illegal Aliens dying, repeatedly raped, sold into a life of sex slavery, hundreds of thousands dying at the hands of ISIS, the Mad Mullahs you empowered and enriched continuing to murder Americans….

      Why would you care about what people think afterwards as your financial advisors keep you updated on your growing wealth and the rich and famous keep sending invitations for yacht time, etc.

      Obama spend two decades in the pews of a racist Baptist pastor’s church. Biden claims to be devout Catholic taking communion – while he fights for elective birth control abortion up to the point of birth.

      Many of their bureaucats, military generals, etc obediently ensure their instructions are implemented rather than resign, even when they know what the result would be.

      Whether they claim to be religious or not… do you REALLY believe that they think there is a next life where they will be held accountable as they lived this live out here escaping any liability?

      I believe that no matter what they claim and do, at their core they are agnostics/atheists who are convinced they have no judgement to fear after death. No Christian/Jewish faith would give them a pass for the victimization of hundreds of thousands of people they are responsible for.

      Many Christians/Jews are actually agnostic in their core beliefs and how they live, just as many Republicans are actually Democrats in how they serve in office.

  4. Hunter Biden’s criminal activity is irrlevant, so the timing of his plea deal is even more irrelevant, if that’s possible. Nothing is going to happen to Hunter Biden. The DOJ just has to pretend like they’re doing something. And the Deep State DOJ is itself totally worthless.

    There are only two scenarios that matter in Hunter Biden’s case.

    Scenario #1: Donald Trump wins the Prersidential election. In this event, Joe Biden pardons his son in late November or in December 2024. This could be characterized as a forced play. The media pressitutes will give minimal coverage of the event.

    Scenario #2: Kamala Harris wins the Presidential Election. In this event, Joe Biden does nothing because Harris will pardon Hunter Biden in January 2025. The media presstitutes will applaud the move and proclaim that Harris is a “real leader who is healing the nation with this act.” Sure, this is total nonsense if you’re not a Dunceocrat. But it makes “total sense” if you are one.

  5. Who cares, he is not in office, and his crimes are related to those in office who have gotten off the hook 100%, so this is extremely unfair to Hunter, not to mention the entire US Citizen populace.
    Some big shot national demoncrat just had some Chinese spy discovered in her left arm spot #1 but they forgot to check Joe and brother and the rest of them, and I watched the Chinese CCP Party high end brag to his local audience how they had Biden bribed and handled YEARS ago.
    So we can assume much of the agencies and NGOs as well as the top 500 internationals are in on it too.
    Like Trump said he’d buy American for his luxury skyscrapers but you can’t get parts that are made here.

    So everyone jacks their jaw then the big cover up continues, the trillion plus a year wars rage on with no goals save extraction from the Treasury and the foreign ground, and the censorship and spying apparatus has been turned inward on the right since the State Department goals got jacked by free internet speech overseas in 2014 and by 2016 Trump got elected with it, brexit, spanexit, brazxit , a whole bunch didn’t go the way of the NSC and DC, and thus, they clamped down our mouths, so their dirty tricks have a better chance.

  6. Hey Dunceocrats. Quick poll. Who is you favorite “judge” from this list:

    a. “Judge” Lewis Krapland”
    b. “Judge” Arthur Engmoron
    c. “Judge” Juan MerCon

    1. After reading your article I am left asking “wheres the beef” ?

      There is a claim of money laundering – yet nowhere in the article is there any money laundering.
      There is a claim of FARA violations – yet nowhere in the article is there any effort to lobby government or politicians.

      The gist of the indictment and article is that foreigners that the left wing nut DOJ does not like can not do business in the US.

      It makes me wonder why DOJ did not indict Rubert Murdock at the same time – what is the difference between what is alleged here and Rubpert Murdock building a media empire in the US.

      This story also begs the question Why wasn’t Hunter Biden and Joe Biden indcited for FARA violations and money laundering – there is NOTHING in this article that is even close to as egregious as the conduct of the Biden’s.

      The core to the story and the indictment seems to be that someone is being indicted for paying others to make content.

      Sounds like the normal workings of the free market.

      1. John Say: There is a claim of FARA violations – yet nowhere in the article is there any effort to lobby government or politicians.

        This is the same Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland being unable to find anything resembling a FARA violation committed by Hunter Biden, correct?

        Any of those indicted already been found guilty of writing embarrassing/exposing/critical columns about the Biden administration?

    2. I know your cult leader doesn’t like for you to read anything not on his approved reading list

      Nothing says “I’m an acolyte parrot for my cult leader” faster and more clearly than a carefully Anonymous commie coward providing a link from his cult leaders approved reading list: The Huffington Post.

      This is why, a century later, those commies are called Marxist Useful Idiots.

    3. Lets see we have Actual Chinese Spies working not only for Democrats in congress, but right up to the top of the Gov. NYS office,

      And the DOJ is whigged out because a US media coimpany was paying a variety of SU creators to create their own content – absent any editorial control, becuase MAYBE some of the funding for that media company might have come from RT or not, it is not clear.

      Lets presume (falsely) that Benny Johnson, Tim Poole and Dave Rubin actually started putting out Pro Russian content – how would that be any different from the CHinese confuscian network in the US that operates legally funding China favoring views in US colleges ?

      Even the most favorable to the left interpretation of this nonsense is a giant “So What ?”

      As well as more “Russia, Russia, Russia” nonsense.

      Absent some adult action in US foreign policy – we are not going to see an end to the mess we currently have in the mideast and Ukraine.

      Peace in Ukraine is easily accomplished – so long as it is acceptable to abandon impossible democratic policies and concentrate on an equitable resolution of the conflict.

      Peace int eh mideast would have been easy – Quit funding an empowering Iran. It will unfortunatly take years to undo the damage done by the Biden administration, and thus mideastern peace is hard.

      Walz is buysy ranting about a two state solution – as if something Israel has attempted to achieve for 30+_ years and that Palestinians have rejected throughout that time is magically now possible.
      Everyone – particularly Israel is desparate for a sustainable long term peace solution.
      Shimon Perez was willing top give Arafat most anything he wanted in return for a peace Deal, and Pres. Clinton was desperate for one as the crowning acheivement of his presiodency.

      Thje detaiul that prevented any peace deal was that the Palestinians do not want a two state solution.
      They want the eradication of Israel. And Arrafat and the PLO are peaceniks compared to Hamas.

      Regardless peace in the mideast is not possible so long as Iran is funding terrorism.

  8. America in the 1930s, as World War II brewed in Europe and the Pacific, was troubled, but not divided. As World War III brews, we are more divided and corrupt than ever. As one famous president once said, a house divided cannot stand. With each day, the divide grows and our enemies lick their chops. It’s 1939.

    2. Chris: Trump is NOT president and because he cheated to get into office and led an insurrection against the United States when he lost the second time, he has forfeited any entitlement to an honorific title.

      2. Get ready Virginia!
        PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump
        Say it, it’s the first step of your journey.

      4. You may not like him person calling themselves Gigi, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was in fact President and its customary to refer to former Presidents as President or Former President. I chose President, since he’s also notwithstanding your disdain for him likely to be President again in a few months.

        You might say I was using his preferred proper-noun… 😐

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