Now we learn that Hunter Biden, son of President-elect Joe Biden, is under criminal investigation by the US Attorney's office in Delaware for tax matters. Partisans on the right have jumped on the story, eagerly focusing on its titillating aspects such as a 2.8-carat diamond given to the younger Biden by a Chinese businessman. (In a profile last year, Hunter Biden told the New Yorker's Adam Entous that "he gave the diamond to his associates, and doesn't know what they did with it.")
Hunter Biden disclosed the investigation himself and professed his innocence. Like all Americans, he is entitled to the presumption of innocence. We don't have much else to go on. We will have to wait and see if there is a there here.
The facts we do know are actually cause for celebration. They reveal a return of normality, of the quaint concept of the rule of law. Criminal tax evasion is not normal, of course, though it happens at all levels of life and politics. Vice President Spiro Agnew was investigated while in office by the US Attorney for Maryland. His resignation came with a no-contest plea to criminal tax fraud.
But what is normal -- or what should be -- is that when politicians' family members or friends are suspected or accused of wrongdoing, the free press and law enforcement do their jobs and the politicians keep their distance. They remain open and transparent and don't abuse their influence. They put country before family.
How strange that all that seems now.
We have today a President who fights all accountability and transparency, stonewalling on disclosing his taxes, even to government investigators. Who surrounds himself with family in a sea of conflicts of interest. Who hires advisers repeatedly indicted in or found guilty of crimes, and who stays in touch with them afterward. Who dangles and grants pardons to his own associates and who reportedly considers using pardons preemptively for himself and his family. Who has fired one acting attorney general and constantly threatens to fire the current attorney general, always for failure to do the President's bidding.
If Hunter Biden is guilty, he should be punished. President-elect Biden has shown no inclination to meddle as the investigations play out. "It's not my Justice Department. It's the people's Justice Department," he told CNN. How pleasant that sounds.
As for the diamonds? It turns out that diamonds have a long history of use in sophisticated and not-so-sophisticated tax avoidance. So the diamond is not a "good fact" for Hunter, as lawyers say. Time will have to tell whether or not he committed any crimes. But diamonds, like tax evasion, are forever.
"Opinion" - Google News
December 11, 2020 at 07:46AM
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What's different about the Hunter Biden investigation - CNN
"Opinion" - Google News
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