By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on December 3, 2024
An Editorial Opinion
President Joe Biden and incoming president Donald Trump agree that the federal criminal justice system is corrupt and weaponized. Both men became outspoken about this topic only after this corruption and weaponization touched them and/or members of their family.
In pardoning his son Hunter Biden over the Thanksgiving weekend after a discussion with Hunter and other Biden family members, Joe Biden said Hunter had been “treated differently” in the federal criminal justice system. Biden added:
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
Since May 2018, Donald Trump has made the same claims about the federal criminal justice system. Trump has repeatedly declared that the system is "rigged."
In December 2019, Trump twice called FBI agents “scum.”
Since the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022, Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against the weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
In 2024, Trump campaigned for president on a pledge to reform the DOJ and clean out the corruption in its leadership ranks.
Interestingly, Donald Trump did not pardon himself or any of his adult children before leaving the presidency in January 2021, even though allegations of wrongdoing swirled around all of them.
Why Hunter Biden’s Pardon is Controversial
Joe Biden granted Hunter Biden, an adjudicated dope-head and tax cheat, a pardon for gun charges on which he had already been convicted and tax crimes to which he had pleaded guilty. President Biden also pardoned Hunter for any other federal crimes he may have committed from 2014 to 2024.
Unlike previous nepotism pardons, Hunter Biden never served a day in jail for his crimes. In contrast, Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger after his younger brother had served one year in prison on cocaine distribution charges. Donald Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of daughter Ivanka Trump, after Kushner served 18 months in prison on tax evasion charges.
Furthermore, Hunter Biden was exempted from the five-year waiting period before a person convicted of a federal crime can apply for a presidential pardon. In fact, it does not appear that Hunter Biden even applied for a pardon.
Finally, Joe Biden granted Hunter a pardon after he promised the American people he would not do so. Obviously, that was a lie.
With his nepotism pardon, Hunter Biden has now achieved icon status in the age of DOJ corruption.
My Take on Hunter Biden’s Pardon
The presidential pardon power is unlimited and unreviewable. It is a power that is expressly enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Considering the acknowledged corruption within the DOJ and weaponization of the federal criminal justice system, the pardon power is the only tool available to correct manifest injustices in the system.
All U.S. Presidents should use the pardon power liberally throughout their term in office to free innocent persons who have been wrongfully convicted of federal crimes and who are languishing in 122 federal prisons solely because they were railroaded by “scum” FBI agents and “rogue” prosecutors in a “rigged” federal criminal justice system that both Biden and Trump agree is corrupt.
The overwhelming majority of these innocent federal "offenders"are Black and Brown people who did not benefit from the special treatment afforded to privileged White males like Hunter Biden, Roger Clinton, and Charles Kushner. These innocent "offenders" share two things in common -- the system failed them in spectacular fashion and nobody in the DOJ or White House cares about their fate.
Marilyn Mosby is one of them. After receiving 90% of the Black vote in 2020, an ungrateful Joe Biden ignored a rare request in May from the politically impotent Congressional Black Caucus for a pardon for Mosby.
Marilyn Mosby is not alone. There are thousands of innocent federal defendants like Mosby who have been forsaken by Democrat and Republican presidents alike.
Even Barack Obama, who is a constitutional lawyer and a former two-term president, failed to address and end the corruption within the DOJ during hiss presidency. Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, ducked this responsibility, as well.
I do not blame Joe Biden for pardoning Hunter Biden. I would have done the same thing for my son.
However, I do blame Joe Biden for leaving behind thousands of innocent federal "offenders" in federal prisons after he rescued Hunter from the grip of the DOJ corruption and weaponization he decried in his son's case. To me, this kind of abandonment is unforgivable and is typical of Joe Biden's demonstrably flawed character.
What future president will reform the corrupt and weaponized DOJ, and when will that be?
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