Constitution
Tainted legacy?
President joe Biden tainted his legacy with the pardon of his son – a gesture his son does not deserve – after saying he wouldn’t.
Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 6th of December in the year of our Lord 2024. I will be talking about the decision of President Joe Biden to issue a blanket, all-encompassing pardon for his son Hunter. The pardon covers all acts known and unknown including the crimes for which he was convicted and the crimes for which he pled guilty as well as any crimes from murder to treason which are currently unproven but which may have occurred between January 1st 2014 and December 1st 2024.
Everyone expected the pardon
So, the pardon is now a done deal. The most surprising thing about it is that:
- It was not surprising, and
- Many, including me, thought the president was lying when he repeatedly said he would never pardon his son.
Hunter was convicted of crimes and pled guilty to others. But none of those addressed what might be in that laptop portrayed to us by the media as Russian disinformation. It doesn’t matter anymore does it? There is no longer a reason to wonder if the laptop contained any secrets about influence peddling by Hunter’s father, the big guy. Whether or not that last statement is completely true or whether there is wiggle room to some extent, is up to Congress.
The President said repeatedly that he would not pardon his son. But in true Biden fashion, he did. Pardons reside with presidents and governors who are supposed to use them to correct an injustice. But sometimes they are used for other purposes, such as:
- Rewarding a political donor, or:
- To avoid hostile testimony from the one pardoned.
That brings me to why this is up to Congress to some extent at least. If Congress wanted to conduct hearings into influence peddling by then former president Biden it could call Hunter to testify.
Hunter loses his right to refuse to answer!
If a person is questioned under oath about something that could possibly implicate him in a crime he can always take shelter under the 5th Amendment. In that event he would respond to the question by saying I decline to answer on the grounds that my answer might tend to incriminate me or he could simply say I plead the 5th. He could then not be held in contempt for not answering the question but if he had been previously pardoned the 5th amendment protection would no longer be available to him.
Since he has been pardoned in such a blanket all-encompassing pardon, Hunter would no longer be subject to criminal charges so fear of self-incrimination would no longer be valid. If he were, for example, asked if he shared any of the proceeds from his influence peddling, his bribery, etc. with his father, the big guy, and he refused to answer he could be held in contempt and sent to jail. If he lied, under oath, and his statement was later proven to be a lie, then he could be prosecuted for perjury, which is a felony. Congress could, therefore, make things hard for President Biden but I doubt that would ever happen.
A self-serving pardon
Hunter was convicted of a felony and pled guilty to other felonies. But he was pardoned before he served a day of any possible sentence. We are told that this is merely an example of a father looking after the welfare of his son. I would argue that it is more an example of a father looking after himself and anyone else involved in his corruption of the various agencies of the federal government but in any case I imagine there are many sons sitting in prison who would be free if their fathers had been able to issue a ten-year-get-out of-jail free pass to them for any crime, even treason.
Biden, of course, couldn’t do one honest thing and say:
Look, I know I said repeatedly that I would not pardon him, but I saw my only living son facing prison and I just could not let that happen.
Even that statement would have been another lie, but not as embarrassingly bad as the one he told. I suppose it would not be Joe Biden if he did not explain the pardon with another big presidential lie. So this was his explanation.
No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son, and that is wrong. PResident Joe Biden
So, he pretended that the charges against Hunter were politically motivated and designed to hurt the president. That is despite the fact that the FBI and DOJ covered up the laptop and the evidence contained within it for years. They repeatedly made-up stories and sent them to the New York Times and Washington Post that the laptop was just Russian disinformation.
Biden has destroyed the woke movement
We can think Joe Biden for one thing and that is that his disaster of a presidency brought about the utter destruction of the Democrat woke movement. He put the final period on that movement with the pardon of his son. Oh, don’t get me wrong I know he is still out there trying his best to cause more death and destruction in Ukraine and Gaza, and now Syria as well, but this was the big lie that is so difficult to explain any other way than the obvious way.
We were promised by the media that Biden would never do such a thing as pardon his son because of some principle that he and all Democrat politicians hold sacred. When you look at the time frame of 2014 the question arises about why that exact date. That is coincidentally the date Hunter was given a seat on the board of Burisma despite having no qualifications for the job. Ana Kasparian of the New York Times pointed out that the date coinciding with the exact appointment to the Board of Burisma was super fishy. Yes Ana, the date is super fishy and it sure looks like the President was trying to pardon himself.
Destructive hypocrisy
The hypocrisy of it all has left any Democrat statements about respect for the rule of law, and no one is above the law in a messy pile. So Joe Biden will return to Delaware and the Democrat Party will try to clean up the mess and spin it so that it doesn’t stink quite so much. Law Professor Jonathan Turley sums up the pardon like this:
This is one of the most disgraceful pardons in the checkered history of presidential pardons. President Biden has lied to cover up a corruption scandal that reportedly brought his family millions in raw influence peddling. His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of betrayal. There were diamonds as gifts, lavish expense accounts, and a sports car, in addition to massive payments that Hunter claimed were loans. There are messages where Hunter belies the President’s portrayal of a political witch hunt, including messages like the one to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money is not sent to them immediately. Jonathan Turley
I will spare you the entire message with the Chinese businessman. But it is bad and very difficult for the media to spin. So, far a party that prides itself on the moral high ground, a ground that is so high that if you are not on it with them you must, therefore, be at least a fascist and possibly a Nazi, the pardon is a very bad look. I have a feeling that the president is not through because he has several more family members who are exposed and that exposes him. Dr. Jill, Uncle Frank, Uncle Jim, Ashley, and all other members of the Biden family who received curious amounts of money from Hunter. Will they all get protective and blanket pardons from the big guy before January 20. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
Is the pardon business as usual?
Was the Hunter pardon a stain on the legacy of President Biden, or just business as usual? For many reasons the pardon fits the cliches adopted primarily by sports announcers to indicate a very unfavorable result. It was a trainwreck decision, a dumpster fire of a decision. And the American people, especially the Democrat Party, got boat raced by the decision. The man, Hunter Biden, and even his father can no longer be painted as saints or victims. It’s not just about his addiction to crack and prostitutes which he publicly pursued all across the world. He lied about his influence peddling operation as did his father. He was found guilty of federal gun charges and pled guilty to tax evasion charges earlier this year.
The pardon did something else in case there were some of us still harboring doubts. It proved the justice system operates differently for the wealthy and well-connected. It also emphasized to the American people that they were correct to bring in Trump’s message of reform. The pardon then, can serve as the capstone on the legacy of this corrupt man. It is perhaps the final chapter, at least I hope it’s the final chapter in the tainted legacy of this disaster of a presidency. It’s not the end though, I can sense the next few weeks will be very important considering how much damage is left for this administration to do.
This lame duck is not lame enough
Normally, the lame duck time, or the interim between elections and inauguration is an uneventful one. That is because most presidents have enough honor to respect the mandate given by the people to the incoming administration. It has always been understood that the incoming administration had been given a mandate and so the outgoing administration just went quietly away with the memories of their days in the sun. This president, however, has decided to run roughshod over the will of the people.
Whoever is running the country for Joe Biden, and I don’t know who that is, I only suspect who it is, has apparently decided to thwart the peace mandate given to Trump by making peace very difficult to achieve. To bring America to the brink of nuclear war with Russia, Biden approved firing long range US missiles into the heart of Russia. Biden had promised that he would not do it because as he put it, “make no mistake, that’s called World War lll.” Since the missiles are complicated and the targeting must be done by Americans, then American missile officers are firing directly into Russia something unimaginable even during the cold war.
Weapons to Ukraine
U.S. defense officials have stated that the president ordered them to ship as much in weapons and material to Ukraine as remained in their budgeted amount before January 20. I suppose that would be to kill every last Ukrainian and Russian possible in the 50 days or so that is left. It is probably also likely that he wants to give Zelensky the opportunity to continue the bloody sacrifice after Trump demands that it be stopped. The U.S. is preparing to send another $725 million in military assistance including counter-drone systems, and ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. In addition, about $7.1 billion in weapons would be sent from the Pentagon’s existing stockpiles.
Zelensky has already seen the handwriting on the wall to some degree and has admitted that Ukraine does not have the manpower to retake the Crimea and the eastern Russian speaking provinces. He said he would be open to negotiation if Western guarantees of protection were available. Nato membership, in other words, would bring Ukraine’s war to a close. I certainly hope that Donald Trump would resist even a discussion of such a proposal. Nato literally on the border of Russia is something that ensures war for many years in the future thus making the neocons, the globalists, the WEF, and the military contractors happy, but the part of mankind that bears the burden, very unhappy.
Africa, Syria,…
The President took a quick trip to Africa to give away a billion dollars of U.S. debt to whatever regime runs the nation of Angola. The trip got him out of public view and avoided questioning about the pardon, but if he had just gone to visit some billionaire friend in the Caribbean it would have been cheaper for the rest of us.
Also, he is apparently trying to finish his presidency by stirring up war in Syria again. The former U.S. proxies in Syria who go back to the days of al-Qaeda in what appears to be a repeat of Obama’s Assad must go policy. I haven’t even had a moment to touch on the Middle East, specifically Gaza with its mass casualties, its dead women and children, its famine and mass starvation, and its complete destruction of the infrastructure including medical facilities of that entire country. I mean folks, what kind of man would try to make it harder for his successor to bring it to an end. Our President I guess.
The pardon demonstrates corruption
In conclusion, folks, I want to leave you with a quote from the great Dr. Ron Paul.
Upending the card table just because you lose the game not only shows blatant disregard for the “democracy” his party constantly preached on the campaign trail, but by pouring gasoline on these two very dangerous conflicts as he heads for the door President Biden puts each and every one of us in grave danger. Ron Paul, M.D.
Finally, folks, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely as Lord Acton said. And the power of a president to pardon is about as absolute as power gets in this constitutional Republic.
At least that’s the way I see it.
Until next time folks,
This is Darrell Castle.
From CastleReport.us; appears by arrangement – Ed.
Darrell Castle is an attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, a former USMC Combat Officer, 2008 Vice Presidential nominee, and 2016 Presidential nominee. Darrell gives his unique analysis of current national and international events from a historical and constitutional perspective. You can subscribe to Darrell's weekly podcast at castlereport.us
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