Hunter Plea Deal Falls Apart

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

15 hours ago, KansasTiger said:

This board would have you never make an inference or read between a single line with Joe and Hunter, and jump to massive conclusions with Trump.

Precisely. 

[Didba 5,256]

Good, let him feel what those without privilege deal with every day. 

[AU9377 4,935]

1 hour ago, NolaAuTiger said:

@AU9377you are intelligent enough to look at Hunter-Burisma for what it is. Come on now . . . 

I have always said that I think all of this crap has a stinch to it.......   What I haven't seen is any connection whatsoever between the money being spent by these companies in hopes that it will gain them some favor and an elected official actually doing some act or influencing policy as a result of them doing so.  Trying to claim that having the prosecutor, Shokin, fired was part of some scheme is not going to advance the argument.  Plainly put.. that dog don't hunt.  Any source that pretends that to be some smoking gun is either ill informed or simply lying in order to keep their viewers tuned in. 

Who else wanted Shokin fired?

Bipartisan Senate Committee on Ukraine (wrote a letter demanding the same)

International Monetary Fund

The EU

The UK

Canadian Prime Minister

Australia.............Just to name a few.

We also can't pretend that Hunter Biden is the only family member of elected officials to take advantage of overtures from foreign companies.  Both Democrat and Republican elected officials have family members that take advantage of these type of business arrangements.  I don't even believe that there is anything that we can do about it.  Passing a law preventing family members of elected officials from doing business with international clients would likely be unconstitutional. Had Hunter Biden paid his taxes, the door wouldn't have been open to very much of an investigation.  In that regard, he did bring this on himself.

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by AU9377

[LPTiger 5,166]

Regarding the judge being a Trump appointee...    She is 100% a democrat, but one that is intent on doing her job.   Both of the democratic senators from Delaware supported her nomination 100%.    What really happened here is that the language regarding immunity was vaguely written (purposely so I believe) so that in the future, once the plea was approved, Biden could argue complete immunity.   But once the judge questioned the vague language, Biden said he was getting full immunity and Leo Wise said he was not.   If you have ever practiced in this area you know that there is no area in these plea agreements where the language is vague and certainly not with respect to something as important as immunity.   One can envision a case where the prosecution does not have the strongest of cases and might fudge the language a little to get the plea, but here Hunter has no defense.    His accountant prepared returns and he failed to pay the taxes on time.   There is ZERO reason why a legitimate prosecutor in this case would not make perfectly clear that immunity only applies to tax charges and gun charges.  The fact that is wasn't clear speaks volumes.  Everyone here was in on the con except the judge, and as she said multiple times yesterday, she is no rubber stamp like both sides had hoped for.   As to the gun charge, the judge doesn't believe the law is unconstitutional she believes the language in the deferral agreement might be because it caused her to enter a finding of fact of a violation of the deferral before Hunter could be subsequently charged.   She rightly said prosecutors must make charging decisions not Art. III judges.    Her most stinging question was "is there any precedent for an agreement like this" and DOJ said "no."    Why would the parties together create a unicorn agreement for a plea involving 2 misdemeanors?    The answer to me is crystal clear.  

[AUDub 11,149]

2 hours ago, Didba said:

Good, let him feel what those without privilege deal with every day. 

If it wasn't for his profile he probably wouldn't even be in that courtroom.

Accusations like this are very rarely prosecuted. 

[AUDub 11,149]

Ken White, a former AUSA, has a take:

https://popehat.substack.com/p/hunter-biden-and-the-fog-of-war

[LPTiger 5,166]

3 minutes ago, AUDub said:

If it wasn't for his profile he probably wouldn't even be in that courtroom.

Accusations like this are very rarely prosecuted. 

First point "Accusations"?    An accusation is something that has been suggested, but not yet proven as a fact.    The man failed to pay his taxes for 5 years straight.   That is a fact.    Second point -- "rarely prosecuted" maybe so for someone earning lower wages and failing to pay taxes for a year or two, but this man earned decamillions, some from from foreign adversaries and did not pay taxes for 5 years.    Proof is in the pudding Dub, why don't you show us you mean it, throw caution to the wind, not pay taxes for 5 years and then copy us on a letter to your US Attorney daring her/him to prosecute you.  

[AUDub 11,149]

1 minute ago, LPTiger said:

First point "Accusations"?    An accusation is something that has been suggested, but not yet proven as a fact.    The man failed to pay his taxes for 5 years straight.   That is a fact.  

Oh there's no question he broke the law. 

1 minute ago, LPTiger said:

Second point -- "rarely prosecuted" maybe so for someone earning lower wages and failing to pay taxes for a year or two, but this man earned decamillions, some from from foreign adversaries and did not pay taxes for 5 years.    Proof is in the pudding Dub, why don't you show us you mean it, throw caution to the wind, not pay taxes for 5 years and then copy us on a letter to your US Attorney daring her/him to prosecute you.  

Let me sum up this entire mess:

Hunter Biden broke the law.

Here's the thing; the laws Hunter Biden violated are seldom prosecuted. By seldom, I mean almost never.

Hunter Biden was prosecuted because the DOJ didn't want to seem like they were playing favorites, especially right now. The DOJ was not going for the throat when they made a deal because they knew this was not something they'd normally **** with. 

The plea agreement was squirrely as a result and the judge was right to point it out. 

[AUDub 11,149]

I'd suggest reading Popehat's measured take above. 

[LPTiger 5,166]

6 minutes ago, AUDub said:

Oh there's no question he broke the law. 

Let me sum up this entire mess:

Hunter Biden broke the law.

Here's the thing; the laws Hunter Biden violated are seldom prosecuted. By seldom, I mean almost never.

Hunter Biden was prosecuted because the DOJ didn't want to seem like they were playing favorites, especially right now. The DOJ was not going for the throat when they made a deal because they knew this was not something they'd normally **** with. 

The plea agreement was squirrely as a result and the judge was right to point it out. 

Dub, can you give us some examples where someone made over $10MM in a five year period, failed to pay taxes 5 consecutive years and was not prosecuted?   If that is the case, and all you have to do once caught is borrow money from a friend and then pay what you owed years ago -- there sure isn't much of a determent there.

[AUDub 11,149]

25 minutes ago, LPTiger said:

Dub, can you give us some examples where someone made over $10MM in a five year period, failed to pay taxes 5 consecutive years and was not prosecuted?   If that is the case, and all you have to do once caught is borrow money from a friend and then pay what you owed years ago -- there sure isn't much of a determent there.

The unreported amount was something like 1.2 million over two years - veritably peanuts - and he's paid his back taxes. That's the exact scenario in which they'll let you down easy. 

Here's a similar case. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/roger-stone-wife-agree-to-2-million-settlement-in-tax-case

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

Hunter Biden paid nothing back.

A Hollywood lawyer paid his back taxes.

https://nypost.com/2022/05/08/hollywood-lawyer-kevin-morris-paid-off-over-2m-of-hunter-bidens-taxes/

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

 

 

[AUDub 11,149]

20 minutes ago, Auburnfan91 said:

Hunter Biden paid nothing back.

A Hollywood lawyer paid his back taxes.

https://nypost.com/2022/05/08/hollywood-lawyer-kevin-morris-paid-off-over-2m-of-hunter-bidens-taxes/

That's legal, believe it or not, as long as they followed the steps to ensure it is legally a loan, which I would expect a lawyer like Morris to do.

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by AUDub

[LPTiger 5,166]

57 minutes ago, AUDub said:

The unreported amount was something like 1.2 million over two years - veritably peanuts - and he's paid his back taxes. That's the exact scenario in which they'll let you down easy. 

Here's a similar case. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/roger-stone-wife-agree-to-2-million-settlement-in-tax-case

Dub the unpaid taxes totaled just under $1MM, the unreported amount was closer to 5MM and that was just for the 2 years where the government had not intentionally allowed their SOL run.  Despite the running of the SOL his actions in prior years are relevant and admissible.    5 years of not paying taxes on over $10MM. 

[AUDub 11,149]

14 minutes ago, LPTiger said:

Dub the unpaid taxes totaled just under $1MM, the unreported amount was closer to 5MM and that was just for the 2 years where the government had not intentionally allowed their SOL run.  Despite the running of the SOL his actions in prior years are relevant and admissible.    5 years of not paying taxes on over $10MM. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/06/20/hunter-biden-failed-to-pay-taxes-heres-why-hes-likely-not-going-to-jail/?sh=aee9422b5b46

After months of speculation, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has been charged with tax and gun charges. According to court documents, he is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges as part of a plea deal.

In a letter filed in federal court, the charges are docketed as "Informations." When charges are brought on information, it usually means that the defendant has accepted the charges and is cooperating with the investigation—and that's the case here. Notably, the letter is signed by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018 and has overseen the Biden investigation since that time.

Tax Charges

According to the letter, Biden has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of failure to pay under section 7203 of the Tax Code. That section covers a wide variety of offenses, including:

failure to pay estimated tax or tax;

failure to file a return;

failure to keep records; and

failure to supply information.

In this case, the charges focus on failure to pay taxes for the 2017 and 2018 tax years.

Typically, failure to pay does not result in jail time. It's considered a misdemeanor and usually results in fines of up to $25,000, though prison time of up to a year can be tacked on if the situation warrants.

According to the court documents, the tax liability was related to combined income of $3 million for those two years—$1.5 million per year. In 2021, Biden claimed to have paid the IRS what he owed. However, paying the liability after the due date (in this case, April 17, 2018, for the 2017 tax year and April 15, 2019, for the 2018 tax year) doesn't mean a crime was not committed.

A misdemeanor failure to pay can be escalated to a felony in some cases. According to the Department of Justice manual, those involve individuals who fail to file tax returns or pay a tax “but who also commit acts of evasion or obstruction.” In that case, the charges would be brought as felonies under sections 7201 or 7212(a). That’s not the case here—likely because Biden paid the tax due and was cooperating with authorities.

This is the part of the story that often makes taxpayers worry. It's important to understand that failure to pay is a crime under the statute. But most civil matters don’t typically become criminal investigations—though there are occasions when they may be referred for criminal investigation when there are indications of possible fraud. Criminal investigations may also be initiated when information is received from the public as well as from ongoing investigations underway by other law enforcement agencies or by U.S. Attorneys offices across the country.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS and they work closely on tax-related investigations with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners and agencies. While they may work cases that involve other financial crimes, in 2022, IRS-CI opened 1,388 investigations into what they call “pure tax” or general tax crimes. Those include cases—like this one—where they take looks at high-income taxpayers who deliberately choose not to file returns or pay taxes owed, as well as abusive tax schemes and tax-related fraud (like refund schemes). In 2022, this resulted in 789 recommendations to the Department of Justice for prosecutions and 699 sentences.

Those numbers are evidence that taxpayers who come forward on their own and those that initially cooperate with tax authorities by establishing payment programs or otherwise working to resolve their debt rarely face criminal charges. Those are typically reserved for willful cases—as here. In addition, government authorities often bring tax crime cases against high-profile individuals to prove a point (just look at Messi and the Giudices, for example).

Overall, tax crime prosecutions do not typically take up significant real estate on federal sentencing dockets. Perhaps unsurprisingly, drug offenses were the most common federal crime in fiscal year 2021, accounting for 31.3% of the total caseload.

Gun Charge

The gun charge is being handled a little differently—it's being treated as a diversion case. This is important from a legal perspective because entering the diversion program means he is not technically pleading guilty to gun charges. Criminal possession of a gun can be considered a felony, depending on the jurisdiction, and can result in a considerable jail sentence.

However, some jurisdictions offer diversion programs for nonviolent offenders with substance abuse problems. Typically, compliance consists of the kinds of behaviors you'd associate with probation: curfew, random drug testing, and participation in substance-abuse treatment programs. A 2018 National Institute of Justice study found that participants in alternate-sentencing programs like diversion programs tended to result in reduced rates of recidivism. The prosecutor-led study also found that these programs resulted in cost savings in the judicial system.

Biden's substance abuse issues have been widely reported. He claims that he began using in 2016, and by 2018, he wrote in his autobiography," I was smoking crack every 15 minutes."

That timeframe is key. According to court documents, Biden bought a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver on or about October 23, 2018. He was using drugs at the time. The gun was later found, allegedly thrown in the trash by Joe Biden's daughter-in-law Hallie Biden, the widow of the president's son Beau Biden. Biden told police that he thought Hallie believed he would use the gun to kill himself.

His family staged an unsuccessful intervention in 2019, but later that year, he finally turned things around, which he credits to his wife and family.

Court Appearance

Biden will have to appear in court to answer the charges officially, and a judge must approve the plea deal. So far, no court date has been made public.

Reaction From The White House

A White House statement from spokesman Ian Sams released on Twitter said: "The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment.”

Edited July 27, 2023 by AUDub

[LPTiger 5,166]

1 minute ago, Auburnfan91 said:

 

 

THIS X 1,000.   Immediately above the above quoted parts of the transcript -- at the bottom of page 45 the court asks:  What I want to talk a little bit about -- this agreement not to prosecute.  The agreement not to prosecute is in the gun case but it also includes crimes related to the tax case.   We've looked through a bunch of diversion agreements that we have access to and we can't find anything similar to that.   So let me ask you, first do you have any precedent for agreeing not to prosecute crimes that have nothing to do with the case or charges being diverted?   Mr. Wise (the prosecutor):  I'm not aware on any.       This should concern everyone.  

[homersapien 11,379]

2 hours ago, AUDub said:

Ken White, a former AUSA, has a take:

https://popehat.substack.com/p/hunter-biden-and-the-fog-of-war

Excellent article on this issue.

 

[AUDub 11,149]

1 minute ago, homersapien said:

Excellent article on this issue.

 

Well get these two yahoos to read it. 

[LPTiger 5,166]

If you read the transcript you will see several interesting things.    One really interesting point that the government states in the statement of facts is that the reason Biden ultimately filed returns and paid his taxes is because the judge in the civil paternity case actually ordered him to produce his tax returns or else face sanctions.   So the Biden daughter/granddaughter obtained some level of "justice." 

[homersapien 11,379]

6 minutes ago, AUDub said:

Well get these two yahoos to read it. 

With my influence? 

Yeah right. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,379]

8 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Excellent article on this issue.

 

My favorite part:

"Also, the transcript seems to show that the parties and the judge all think that the GOP filing attacking the plea is nonsense and the judge doesn’t care about it."

[LPTiger 5,166]

As I think about this much more, AUdud may be 100% correct.   Let's assume this should have never been prosecuted?    Why then was it?   Was it perhaps prosecuted so that Hunter could plead to two minor misdemeanor charges and the DOJ could deliver for him a one of a kind get out of jail free card?   Hunter gets a slap on the wrist for crimes typically not charged but in return he gets immunity the type of which the prosecutor admits he had never seen before.    Read the above from Auburnfan91 and my add on to what he said.

[AUDub 11,149]

3 minutes ago, LPTiger said:

As I think about this much more, AUdud may be 100% correct.   Let's assume this should have never been prosecuted?    Why then was it?   Was it perhaps prosecuted so that Hunter could plead to two minor misdemeanor charges and the DOJ could deliver for him a one of a kind get out of jail free card?   Hunter gets a slap on the wrist for crimes typically not charged but in return he gets immunity the type of which the prosecutor admits he had never seen before.    Read the above from Auburnfan91 and my add on to what he said.

An important thing to note is that his immunity is in the diversion. 

I.E, if he relapses, he's on the hook for whatever comes up.

The plea agreement is a wreck and the judge was right to be skeptical. She did her job well here.

She's about the only one. The prosecution and Biden's legal team look like fools. 

It was prosecuted because in the current political climate this DOJ doesn't want to appear biased and is doing it to CYA. If Biden was just Joe Investment-Banker it would likely never see the inside of a courthouse. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by AUDub

[AUDub 11,149]

I guarantee you Biden would rather not be having to deal with a situation in which words like "immunity" are getting chucked around.