The Biden pardon

 

As my readers are doubtless aware, yesterday President Biden pardoned his son Hunter for any and all offenses against US law from 2014 until 2024.  In case you were wondering about the ten-year period, that's when Ukraine became the focus of US money-laundering and jiggey-pokery by our politicians.  Effectively, Hunter Biden was the bagman for certain corrupt US interests (some would call it the Biden crime family) during the whole of that period.

The pardon comes after President Biden repeatedly promised he would not pardon his son for his crimes.  There again, promises seldom (if ever) mean anything to crooked politicians, so we need not be surprised that the President broke them yet again.

I'm curious about the timing of the pardon.  I'd expected it, but figured it would more likely come as President Biden's term of office ended in January 2025, a last-minute "up yours!" to his political opponents and the American people.  I suppose it was brought forward to forestall a guilty verdict in the charges Hunter Biden was facing over tax evasion and other crimes.  The message conveyed by the pardon to the American electorate is, of course, the same.

I doubt we'll ever see President Biden and/or his family called to account for their crimes and misdemeanors while in office.  However, there are many politicians who "made hay while the sun shone", taking advantage of his protection to enrich themselves and get away with all sorts of shenanigans.  One hopes the incoming Trump administration will shine a light into the dark corners of American politics, uncovering those machinations and holding the guilty accountable.  That may be a pipe-dream - politicians tend to cover for each other, even their opponents, because so many of them are guilty of the same crimes - but we may hope.

Peter