this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, will plead guilty to three federal charges, the Justice Department said Tuesday in a court filing.

Poster Comment: If the man committed a crime, then he needs to do the time.

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[–] JakeBacon@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Is this all that was on this "laptop" I keep seeing people meme about? I haven't paid the whole situation much attention but this seems like a lot less of a deal than what some people were making it out to be.

[–] IHeartBadCode@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Um, sort of. Biden will plea guilty to two counts Federal misdemeanor of willful failure to pay income taxes (26 USC § 7203). Additionally, has entered into a pretrail diversion agreement on a felony charge of possession of a gun by a person who is addicted to illegal drugs. The agreement requires the defendant to comply with particular conditions set in the deal to avoid prosecution.

While none of this per se is from the "laptop", an investigation was opened up and these issues were discovered along the way. The original investigation was into any kind of money laundering scheme and thus it involved his taxes. Biden's lawyer indicated:

With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved.

So given that, that is pretty much the end of any kind of criminal investigation. Each count can offer a fine up to $25,000 and 1 year minus a day prison time. However, considering that he is pleading guilty it will be significantly less than that. In fact, I believe I read somewhere that the DOJ was recommending probation, fine, and paid back taxes which is pretty consistent with how post-1980s IRS deals with tax evasion.

I think Trump's response is classic however:

Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere "traffic ticket." Our system is BROKEN!

One... Hundreds of years? Really? Two. Yeah, funny thing when you cooperate with investigators and have a competent legal representation, they tend not to want to throw the book at you. Three. STOP NOT PAYING YOUR LAWYERS DIPSHIT!! It really runs the pool down of lawyers that represent on complex legal issues pro bono.

That last one I cannot stress enough. Proper legal representation is critical to not getting railroaded. If you've got a pretty toxic reputation where few if any lawyers will work with you, you better buckle up and say "choo choo".

[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn, dude got caught because his dad is Joe Biden. Hope my dad never becomes the president of the United States.

[–] kestrel7@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

It is a little ironic given how Joe Biden is expanding the IRS.

[–] Invalid@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've mostly seen the laptop being related to the accusations of quid quo pro between Hunter, Joe, and some Ukrainian businessmen or officials. The same accusations as the FBI informant.

There were a bunch of photos and emails from the laptop but it seems they mostly just want to use it against Joe.

[–] mustyOrange 8 points 1 year ago

There's no way that laptop didn't have extra shit put on it. Im not a fan of Biden by any stretch, but the whole thing is just silly and murky. Could there be some possibility of corruption with the Bidens? Absolutely - but this laptop will never prove anything

From the hunter Biden laptop Wikipedia

Neither analyst could verify the vast majority of the data, nor could they find clear evidence of tampering but they note "key pieces of evidence useful in discovering tampering were not available." In some cases, The Post matched content to other sources "that the experts were not able to assess". The unverifiable emails included some prominently reported previously by other news outlets. The analysis found that people other than Hunter Biden had created six new folders on the drive over a week after the original report by the New York Post and months after the laptop had been taken into FBI custody. It also found that data had been accessed and copied off the drive by people other than Hunter Biden over the course of nearly three years.

The whole thing is a bunch of disinfo bullshit

[–] TwistedFox@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

The GOP accusations were a tonne of child porn and conspiracied themselves into proof of murder, pedophilia rings and all sorts of crime. The laptop likely didn't exist, and if it did, certainly wasn't his.