RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Biden’s spared his son Christmas in jail. But the real reason why is utterly self-serving – and he’s the one who REALLY benefits

With less than seven weeks until the second coming of Donald J. Trump, Joe Biden is cleaning house.

On Sunday night, he pardoned his degenerate son Hunter, who was due to be sentenced for tax and weapons crimes, despite repeatedly denying he had any such intention.

“No one is above the law,” he insisted.

Biden Junior could have faced up to 25 years in prison, although it was unlikely that, as a first-time offender, he would have been given such a long sentence.

But the moment of the pardon was crucial. Hunter was due back in court this month and would almost certainly have served some jail time. If Joe Biden had waited until leaving office in January, his son could well have spent Christmas and New Year’s behind bars.

Traditionally, presidents have granted pardons at the end of their term, often on the last day. Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger, who had a conviction for drug trafficking.

Trump pardoned, among others, his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, who had been convicted of tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal contributions to his campaign. (Former presidential candidate, New Jersey governor and big Bruce Springsteen fan Chris Christie prosecuted Kushner, calling him one of the “most disgusting and disgusting” criminals he has ever had the misfortune to deal with. Kushner just being nominated by Trump as US ambassador to France, which he probably deserves).

Barack Obama pardoned, commuted or overturned the sentences of nearly 2,000 people.

While every president since George Washington has granted pardons, few – if any – have been as self-serving as the one granted to Hunter Biden by his own father. The suspicion is that Joe is not only forgiving his son, but is also protecting himself from possible future prosecution.

This particular pardon applies not only to the charges for which Hunter was to be sentenced, but to any and all crimes he has committed since January 1, 2014.

The significance of that date is that it extends to Hunter’s time on the board of the Ukrainian energy corporation Burisma, for which he was paid a staggering $1 million a year, despite having no prior experience. in the oil and gas sector.

During this period, Joe Biden was Obama’s vice president, responsible for US foreign policy in Ukraine. Since then, a source described by the FBI as a “trusted confidential informant” has alleged that both Bidens received bribes of $5 million each from a corrupt Ukrainian businessman.

Joe is also alleged to have pressured the government of what we used to call kyiv to fire a prosecutor investigating corruption at Burisma, threatening to block $1 billion in American aid unless he got his way.

What is not in doubt is the fact that Hunter and Joe’s younger brother, James, have been involved for decades in a series of business ventures that capitalize on their political connections, prompting Trump to dub them the “Family.” Criminal Biden”.

Two Internal Revenue Service agents told a Senate hearing that the Biden family had received $17 million in fees from foreign corporations.

I covered all this in a Saturday essay for the Mail last year. It was further reported that Hunter is said to have taken advantage of his father’s position to force a lucrative business deal with a Chinese conglomerate.

In 2017, an email from Hunter about the China deal said 10 percent was for the “big guy.” Whistleblowers have since said the big guy was Joe Biden.

That email was recovered from a laptop computer abandoned by Hunter in a Delaware repair shop, along with another to his sister complaining that she was expected to hand over half of her income to her father.

The hard drive contained a mine of explosive material and was copied by the repair shop owner, who gave it to Trump’s then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

It featured photographs of Hunter using crack cocaine and associating with prostitutes. One image showed a completely naked Hunter waving a gun.

Although the potentially incriminating evidence was published online by Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, Fox News and Dailymail.com, it was ignored by America’s mainstream pro-Democratic media because it could have jeopardized Joe Biden’s first presidential bid in 2020. .

In the run-up to that election, the FBI refused to admit that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden and insisted that it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign, a fiction proposed by none other than Joe Biden himself.

President Biden has always denied ever discussing business or being “in business” with his son or brother, something challenged under oath by Hunter’s former business partner as evidence before a Senate committee.

Whatever the truth of these claims and counterclaims, there is no hiding the fact that Biden has done well financially over the years.

It has always taken advantage of its image of the “middle class” – what we call working class – of the average citizen. When he became Veep in 2009, he claimed to have a net worth of only $30,000. As he prepares to leave office, his wealth is estimated at up to $40 million, depending on who you believe. It must have come from somewhere.

There is a widespread belief that any prison sentence for Hunter, especially with an incoming Trump presidency, would open a super-sized can of worms, potentially implicating Joe in all sorts of financial irregularities.

For the past eight years, the Democrat-dominated Deep State has been waging an all-out war against Donald and now craves revenge. He’s putting MAGA loyalists in the Justice Department and the FBI, and they’ll soon begin sifting through what’s left of the files.

That sound coming out of the retreating administration in Washington is that of shredders working overtime and hard drives breaking under the hammer, Hillary Clinton style.

Biden’s presidency is ending in ignominy and disgrace. No one was particularly surprised that he pardoned Hunter, but what’s striking to the real ‘ordinary’ is that Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people.

When he resigned in the summer, was there a deal with the Democratic establishment based on the assumption that Kamala Harris would beat Trump and give Hunter a get-out-of-jail-free card?

When she lost, having backed herself into a corner, Joe had no choice but to walk through the paint.

It cannot be ruled out. Biden had already lost one son to premature death and did not want to lose another to Rikers Island prison.

Yesterday he said his decision to pardon Hunter was based on fatherly love, but he couldn’t resist adding that “crude politics have infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

Which is pretty interesting coming from a cynical, partisan president who unleashed the legal dogs of war on his Republican political opponent, dragging Trump through the courts, raiding his Palm Beach home military style, and attempting to jail him.

Politically motivated cases against Trump have collapsed since the election. And as he seeks retaliation against the Democratic deep state apparatuses responsible, there are signs that he’s willing to let Joe slip off into the sunset, taking Hunter with him.

Was there a split when the two men met recently at the White House, which would allow Joe to pardon Hunter and, in return, Trump would pardon all of the January 6 ‘rioters’ at the Capitol convicted of non-violent crimes ?

I shouldn’t be surprised. Everything is transactional with Trump. America needs a clean sheet start after decades of bitter division.

As for Biden, he’s a walking dead man, but I don’t give much credence to the speculation that he might now walk away and let Kamala become America’s first black female president in the last ten minutes.

I think Trump was right when he said at a pre-election rally, “I think Joe likes me more than she does.”

So Biden has a few more weeks to clean up before the Second Coming. But whatever it is, he will not leave office with clean hands.