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Hunter Biden warned of ‘real’ Trump threat before pardon

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 09:22:11 +0000

Left: President Joe Biden talks with his son Hunter Biden as he arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta). Right: Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, Pool)

Hunter Biden’s legal team released a report over the weekend that included a “stark warning” that the first son may face retribution at the hands of incoming President-elect Donald Trump. With the election of the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president, the “threat against Hunter is real,” his lawyers claim. The report was released on Saturday ahead of President Joe Biden issuing a full federal pardon for his son on Sunday night.

The 52-page report, obtained by the Washington Post and Washington Examiner, laid out the criminal prosecutions that led to convictions for Hunter Biden.

“Here, in one place, is the complete and reprehensible history of the political persecution of Hunter Biden,” one of Biden’s lawyers, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “This is a seven-year saga propelled by an unrelenting political desire to use a son to hurt his father.”

More coverage from Law&Crime: ‘Unprofessional and unwarranted hostility’: Ex-Overstock CEO says Hunter Biden’s request for sanctions violates court rules and is ‘factually and legally baseless’

With Trump coming to power in January, things could have become dicey for the president’s son if he weren’t pardoned. Per the Post, the report contains a timeline of the allegations against Hunter Biden.

“It is a wild and terrifying story that serves as a stark warning of what is to come as some of the same Republicans who targeted Hunter prepare to resume power and have stated their intention to use the government’s vast power to pursue their perceived enemies,” Lowell said.

Hunter Biden could have faced serious jail time for crimes ordinary citizens would not be prosecuted, his lawyers argue.

“There is no disputing that Trump has said his enemies list includes Hunter,” the report says, according to the Post. “The prospect that Trump will turn his vengeance on the Special Counsel prosecutors if they fail to take a harder line against Hunter no doubt exerts considerable pressure on them not to let up on Hunter.”

The document also pointed out that Biden suffered from addiction at the time of his criminal activity.

“A system that is supposed to protect against abuses failed to do so and was corrupted by political leaders in this country,” the document reportedly said. “As a result, Hunter faces significant sentences for felonies and misdemeanors far beyond precedents of others committing less serious offenses or where civil resolutions or consent judgments are normally sought — all on the basis of his mistakes, made while in the throes of serious drug addiction.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, Biden was convicted in June of three felonies relating to gun possession dating back to 2018.He’s slated to be sentenced on that case in the coming weeks.

In 2023, it had appeared that Biden’s tax and gun charges would be resolved by a plea agreement, but when that deal fell apart, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David C. Weiss as special counsel, soon after leading to separate indictments on the West Coast and East Coast.

Then in September, Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax offenses in a California federal court. He was charged last year on nine tax-related accounts, including an accusation that he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019.

In the gun case, the first charged count alleged that Biden “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive” StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply to obtain a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, averring that he was not an “unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false an fictitious.”

The second count alleged that Biden falsely “certified” to the ATF on “Form 4473” that he was not an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs by checking the boxes “no.”

The third count alleged that Biden illegally possessed the revolver from Oct. 12, 2018 to Oct. 23, 2018, an 11-day period, while “knowing” that he was an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs.

Jurors heard that Hallie Biden, Beau Biden’s widow and the subsequent girlfriend of Hunter Biden, on Oct. 23, 2018, tossed the firearm in the garbage behind a grocery store located across the street from a high school in Delaware, but when she and Hunter went back to the scene later to retrieve the gun, it was gone. The gun was recovered and turned in days later by a man who had sifted through trash, Politico reported. No state charges were brought, but the federal case against Hunter did eventually come.

The jury also heard from the defendant’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, who reportedly testified about finding drug paraphernalia in Hunter’s car in 2018, not knowing exactly when that year this allegedly took place. Biden ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan, CNN additionally reported, testified that she saw Hunter smoking crack the month before he bought the revolver.

The defense maintained that, despite its client’s published crack addiction admissions, that the prosecution did not have solid proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Hunter Biden, a trained lawyer, “knowingly” viewed himself as an addict after exiting rehab and buying the revolver at issue by lying. A jury quickly convicted Biden.

Marisa Sarnoff and Matt Naham contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story now includes updated information that President Biden issued a pardon to his son.

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Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC reportedly warned by the feds

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 06:59:21 +0000

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump attend a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly issued a warning to a pro-Donald Trump political action committee run by Elon Musk over the group’s daily $1 million lottery for registered voters in swing states.

A letter from the DOJ’s public integrity section was recently sent to Musk’s America PAC about the lottery, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed “people briefed on the matter.”

The anonymous sources cited by the cable news network say the letter warns that the lottery potentially violates federal law.

Musk announced the lottery at a Trump campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Since then, at least two winners have been announced — each of whom had already voted by mail as Republicans in the Keystone State before they entered the sweepstakes.

Under the contest rules, a registered voter must sign a petition expressing support for the First and Second Amendments. Only then are they entered the lottery for the daily $1 million prize.

“We want to try to get over a million, maybe 2 million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendment,” Musk said last weekend. “We are going to be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition, every day, from now until the election.”

Under U.S. law, it is plainly illegal to pay people to vote. Musk’s contest is several steps removed from that clear prohibition.

Some election law experts, however, say that paying people to register to vote is also illegal under federal law.

On his Election Law Blog, UCLA Law Professor Rick Hasen wrote that paying people to register to vote is “clearly illegal” under 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), which criminalizes “false information in registering or voting” and punishes the offense by up to five years in prison.

That law reads, in relevant part:

Whoever knowingly or willfully […] pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both …

Critics say the status condition of the lottery — that it is only open to registered voters — is merely a way to encourage voter registration and, therefore, a stealth way of paying people to register to vote.

In response to one high-profile complaint posted on Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) that the outspoken tech billionaire was “paying to register Republicans,” Musk said: “You can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote.”

Musk’s America PAC also offers a lesser financial incentive for every person who refers registered voters to sign the operative petition.

“Receive $47 for each registered voter you refer that signs a petition pledging support for the First and Second Amendments,” the website reads.

Concerns have only continued to swirl as the election nears.

Earlier this week, a group of former federal prosecutors and onetime Republican-appointed government officials sent a letter to the DOJ voicing concerns about the financial incentive. On Tuesday, the agency confirmed they were aware of the letter and had received it — but declined to say anything substantive about it.

Now, if CNN’s report is any indication, the DOJ’s own stance on the matter is less than concrete — but leans toward an interpretation of federal law wherein a contest premised on voter registration is a way of paying people to register.

Of note is the ambit of the DOJ division that reportedly sent the letter. The public integrity is a self-proclaimed arbiter of “election crimes.”

It is unclear if the reported warning also contained any kind of potential threat or warning of an enforcement action or whether the warning was more academic in nature. The DOJ has declined to comment on the matter.

Law&Crime reached out to America PAC officials in each of the seven swing states where the $1 million daily lottery is available — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona — for comment on this story, but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.

Matt Naham contributed to this report.

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