this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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In short:

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, saying "raw politics … led to a miscarriage of justice".

Hunter Biden was convicted of gun charges and tax evasion and was facing sentencing hearings scheduled for mid-December.

Joe Biden said he made the decision over the weekend while spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If Trump hadn't won the election, I would disapprove of this action. But he did and he has promised to weaponize the DOJ, so this is the smart move.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

If Trump hadn’t won the election, I would disapprove of this action.

If this was using presidential dictatorship to pardon someone actually meaningful or forcing through progressive legislation, I would say it's fine, but this is just run-of-the-mill corruption as far as I can tell (but I don't follow this celebrity drama closely so maybe there's more to it).

The only silver lining I see is that it proves Biden is willing to use their presidential powers, and we get to see their true colours once more in how they choose to and choose not to use them. If they don't use this powers to try and stop Republican terror, then we know they're complicit.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Hunter Biden was convicted and will be sentenced under Biden's DOJ. I don't see what Trump's election has to do with it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

After a trump appointed judge killed the plea deal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

a trump appointed judge

Yeah, appointed by Trump in 2018.

killed the plea deal

Yeah, they killed the deal in July.

So again, I can't see how Trump's inauguration in January, and any 'weaponising of the DOJ' that would occur after that, could have any bearing on Hunter's conviction earlier this year, and sentencing this month.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Trump appointed judges are likely to be loyal to trump, like that loose cannon which delayed trumps document case. So pressure from the trump team derailed the plea deal and and made it impossible for hunter to get a fair trial, especially under a trump doj. If he wasn't joe bidens son he probably would have never gone to trial.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The comment I was originally responding to said:

If Trump hadn’t won the election, I would disapprove of this action. But he did and he has promised to weaponize the DOJ, so this is the smart move.

That is what I was responding to.

So your responses, correct or not, are not relevant to my comment or the comment I was responding to.

You said:

So pressure from the trump team derailed the plea deal and and made it impossible for hunter to get a fair trial

If that is what happened, it happened before Trump got elected.

especially under a trump doj.

Hunter has already been convicted, and will be sentenced this month under a Biden DOJ.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Under a harris doj you could expect a fairer trial than now under trump.

[–] shalafi 1 points 1 day ago

It's to stop him from coming after anything else they might trump up. (Weird that trump the verb is doubly appropriate.)

[–] morphballganon 4 points 2 days ago

Are you one of those "the Trump admin doesn't mean what it says" apologists?