Hunter Biden is causing a lot of trouble for Joe Biden, but where is there legal trouble?
Vox broke down the investigation into three topics.
Taxes, money laundering, and whether he was a registered foreign agent.
- Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company, paid Hunter millions over five years. A Kazakh oligarch was behind a $142,000 payment to Hunter’s investment firm that Hunter used to buy a sports car. A Chinese energy company paid $4.8 million to Biden entities (Hunter and Uncle Jim), and the CEO of that company sent Hunter a diamond that Hunter gave away. The question is whether Hunter paid taxes on his income, and last year he made a $1 million payment, but prosecutors are looking at whether Hunter “moved funds in a way to obscure his tax liability.”
According to the IRS, the government must prove willful evasion of tax payments, and willful omission is not enough to convict someone of unlawful tax crimes.
- Potential money laundering? This would mean bringing foreign funds into the US financial system in connection with some sort of crime.
According to the DOJ, money laundering is triggered if someone conducted a financial transaction “knowing that the property involved in the transaction represents the proceeds of some unlawful activity,” and with an intent to engage in the unlawful activity or to commit tax fraud, among other factors.
- Likewise, a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act must be a willful act, not a clumsy mistake. Ordinary business work for foreigners does not require a FARA registration. Political, public relations, or lobbying work for foreign clients does require registration. Hunter brought clients into vague contact with his dad via dinners and foreign trips. The lines for Hunter are blurred, and the NYT reports that prosecutors are considering this aspect as a civil case instead of criminal.
The bottom line is that the public record to date doesn’t reveal evidence sufficient to prove any crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Of course, there’s also the infamous laptop, although most of its data is reportedly corrupted and cannot be authenticated.
The Hill reports that the justice system is working despite the vile politics surrounding Hunter Biden.
Even the Trump administration under Bill Barr found no “there” there, even under the wiley investigations brought by Rudy Giuliani. And Joe Biden has shown his son no favors by allowing the same prosecutor, appointed by Trump, to continue the case.
The political fallout will continue to be damaging for Joe Biden and Democrats through the midterms, while we learn about a $2 BILLION deal that went to the pockets of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, an actual representative of the Oval Office.
Walter Shaub, director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, states, “The real concern here is that the public has no way of knowing exactly what favors someone like Kushner may have done for the Saudis.”