Hunter Biden gets off easy

    By Reginald Johnson

          

           Commentary

    

   The slap on the wrist that Hunter Biden got yesterday for serious crimes he's committed is really an outrage.

 Biden was facing tax evasion charges and unlawfully possessing a gun, felony crimes that upon conviction would result in serious jail time. But instead the government offered the President's son a plea bargain that will likely spare him prison time.

 Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanors on the tax fraud and get placed in a cushy "diversion program" on the gun charge. No ordinary person would get this kind of a deal, believe me.

 Meanwhile, the government led by Hunter's father, President Joe Biden, is throwing the kitchen sink, the barn and the garage at former President Trump, trying to convict him of violations of the Presidential Records Act. They’ve hit him with a 37-count indictment.

 Though this is a civil law, prosecutors have twisted Trump's alleged violations into a criminal case, charging him with obstruction and even violations of the fascistic Espionage Act. That’s the law which was used to lock up dissenters during World War I and then in the 1950s to send alleged Soviet collaborators Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair.

   The government also wants the trial schedule on the Trump case speeded up. Throw him in jail NOW! Two-tiered justice? You bet.

 Two side by side headlines on the front page of the New York Times today tells you the story: The one on the left said, "Trial Judge puts Documents Case on Speedy Path." Over the story next to it was the headline: "Hunter Biden Likely to Avoid Prison in Deal." Such is the politicized state of our criminal justice system today.

  Another disturbing aspect of the Hunter Biden case --- which his lawyers are saying is now over --- is that prosecutors so far have not held the younger Biden culpable for his likely influence peddling with countries around the world. Documents recently turned over (reluctantly) by the FBI alleged that Hunter and Joe Biden took millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in Ukraine, in return for US government favors. There were also claims that Chinese officials may have been funneling improper payments to Hunter Biden.

  The US Attorney in Delaware who has been in charge of the Hunter Biden investigation says the probe is not over, but you have to be skeptical, given the pro-Biden bias that the Department of Justice has shown to date.

 I don’t think there will be any more focus on the bribery claims by the DOJ, and it will be up to the House Oversight committee to continue pursuing the matter. Expect them to be stonewalled by the administration as they move forward.