Hunter Biden takes the 'fall' for his family's scandal   

Opinion by Kaylee McGhee White • 2h ago

Hunter Biden takes the 'fall' for his family's scandal© Provided by Washington Examiner

Hours after being federally charged with two counts of willful failure to pay income taxes, Hunter Biden was seen strutting through the White House for his father’s lavish state dinner. He chatted, laughed, and dined with some of the dinner’s most influential guests — of which Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose department has been investigating Biden for the past five years, was one — as if the charges were nothing to be ashamed of or worried about.

The sad truth is that Biden was exactly right to feel unworried. His father's administration has his back.

The very fact that President Joe Biden’s White House felt comfortable putting Hunter Biden and Garland in the same room, for example, speaks to how little this administration cares about the criminal behavior. As far as the Biden administration is concerned, the sweetheart plea deal offered to Hunter Biden closes the case: Hunter Biden will be forced to face the minor consequence of legal probation, but not nearly enough to draw continual attention to the president and his family. And now that that’s settled, Hunter Biden is free to continue using his father’s position to cozy up to powerful international leaders and businessmen, some of whom he may very well try to influence-peddle once the scrutiny into his affairs has passed.

As noted legal analyst Jonathan Turley put it, the president’s Justice Department is attempting a “controlled demolition” of the Biden family scandal. Hunter Biden will take the fall, small and pathetic as it is, while every other Biden family member involved in the lucrative foreign business deals struck by Hunter Biden and his business associates gets off scot-free — including Joe Biden.

Whether Joe Biden personally profited from Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling has yet to be proved, but it certainly seems as though every person involved in the transactions was aware of the president’s role. A text message Hunter Biden sent in 2017 to a Chinese business associate allegedly confirms as much:

"I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

It requires effort not to recognize that Joe Biden is the key to all of this. Hunter Biden was a self-destructive crack addict who tried to write off prostitutes on his tax returns. He had nothing to offer besides his father’s name, which he did, over and over again.

And now, he’s the fall guy (albeit a guilty one), who has to bear the weight of the legal inquiries and media attention to distract from the fact that this was a family affair. Maybe that’s why the president is “very proud” of his son.

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