A US court found Presidential son Hunter Biden is guilty of lying – he said that he did not use drugs when he purchased a firearm 6 years ago. According to media reports, he faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine of $750 thousand, writes American lawyer and political consultant Yuri Vanetik.
Even Republicans find this case extremely strange. If Hunter Biden, for example, had been found guilty in the Burisma case, legally convicted of large bribes, misbehavior in Ukraine, and so on, it would have been more understandable. Now he has been found guilty of stupidity. Hunter Biden's lead lawyer, Abbe Lowell, put forward dubious arguments like: Biden Jr. did not seem to be a drug addict at that time, or “the relevant question on this topic sounded somewhat abstract at that time.” etc. Naturally, these arguments were not accepted. There, however, many in the United States believe that this did not and does not give anything, since Biden’s son was found guilty of nothing. Only in stupidity. While the real “things” are were left out of the proceedings.
President Joe Biden has made it clear that he will not forgive his son, but there are doubts about this. Biden has already said that Hunter is not guilty, and this accusation is rather a political game before the presidential election. Therefore, there is a possibility that immediately after the election, Hunter will be pardoned by his father. If we look at the situation more broadly, it turns out that the Democrats are using double standards in matters of justice.
How will this situation affect Ukraine and the US attitude towards it? I don’t think it will have any particular impact. Democrats have a larger advantage in this presidential election. Despite the fact that the Trump team is conducting a competent campaign and acting more coherently than the Democrats, the Democrats still have more voters. We must also not forget that the incumbent president always has an advantage. Therefore, if there are no further mega-scandals, Biden will maintain a fairly strong position.
Joe Biden can forgive his son if he wins the election – this is his right as president. Despite his statements, do not do this. However, in the USA there is another interesting thing – presidents can forgive people when they leave office. Therefore, even if Joe Biden leaves, he can forgive Hunter on his way out. Outgoing presidents in the United States typically sign thousands and thousands of pardons on their way out. There are several relevant categories of people.
The first category of people whom presidents forgive are people who truly deserve it. That is, those who, due to technical accidents, received a very long sentence, but in essence they should be forgiven. Anyone would say that this is logical.
The second category is those close to the president. That is, those who had problems related to politics, and those who had some kind of business or personal connection with the president. In America, this is not considered corruption, but rather a kind of “justified injustice.”
The third category is the darlings of fate. People who today have no problems at all, but once upon a time, when they were 19-20 years old, they made a reputational mistake. And despite their wealth and power, a problem from the past weighs on them. Some of these people want to go as ambassadors to some distant exotic countries, some want to spend 30-40 million in order to erase from their common memory a situation that happened to them at the age of 19-20 (car theft, a fight, hooliganism or something… something like that). For terribly rich people, this is purely psychologically disturbing, so they hire the most powerful lobbyists close to the President of the United States in order to forever remove the mistake of youth from their biography. Here we are talking only about the “price of the issue.”
Therefore, Joe Biden can forgive his son both at the entrance and at the exit. I think that if he is re-elected (which I am almost sure of today), he will do this at the entrance to the presidency. And he will continue to help Ukraine financially no less than he is doing now. During his second presidential term, I think Joe Biden's actions will be even more predictable – if, of course, he wins.
Prepared by: Nina Petrovich