On a news-packed Tuesday, Hunter Biden pled guilty to two misdemeanors for not filing his taxes and agreed to a pre-trial diversion for a gun charge that could have sent him to prison for years.
Immediately, reactions started flowing in, describing the deal as a “sweetheart” deal. Jonathan Turley said it felt like “ticketing a getaway driver” after a bank robbery. Others suggested that the DOJ had broken its own protocols in handing out such an obvious slap on the wrist.
Of course, mainstream press outlets are taking the opposite approach. Outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and others are rushing to play clean-up crew, declaring the deal to be fair and suggesting this means Hunter Biden is free and clear on all the alleged charges of influence peddling and monetary corruption with foreign nations.
CNN defends the DoJ for letting Hunter Biden off the hook for facilitating corruption & other major felonies: "This is not a sweetheart deal." pic.twitter.com/wKwX24B8Nh
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 20, 2023
Fact-Check: It is, by all available evidence, a sweetheart deal. Typically, when you are caught on tape distributing illicit drugs (much less something as hard as crack cocaine) while brandishing an illegally obtained firearm (because he lied on a federal form), that escalates matters and the DOJ doesn’t back down.
To say it’s not a sweetheart deal is simply not accurate, and it’s obvious that regardless of how good Hunter Biden’s lawyers were, they were given treatment usually not available to normal Americans. To put it lightly, if you were filmed doing what Hunter Biden was doing, including taking prostitutes across state lines, you’d be in jail. That’s not even considering the possible corruption-related crimes.
The stupidity didn’t end with CNN, though. MSNBC took the cake with several hits that belabored belief.
MSNBC's @FrankFigliuzzi1 on Hunter getting charged for lying on a gun application: "It’s a rare charge and it indicates the prosecutor has gone out of his way to charge everything that could have been charged." pic.twitter.com/z40Scq46eM
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 20, 2023
Yes, it’s a rare charge because most people aren’t dumb enough to film themselseves breaking the law. Hunter Biden did, and when that information became public, there was no choice but to go after him. Had that been your laptop, you’d be going to jail right now, not getting a favorable deal from a DOJ that has you dead to rights.
Lastly, there was this.
.@KenDilanianNBC: "You could see this as a significant victory for Hunter … [They] looked into whether he was violating the law by representing foreign companies or governments. NBC News reported he was paid millions $, some $13 million from Ukrainian and Chinese business… pic.twitter.com/aXjuXRN5Wn
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 20, 2023
It’s worth noting that what is said there is not true. The investigation into Hunter Biden is technically ongoing. Therefore, he has not been exonerated of criminal wrongdoing in regard to all his foreign dealings, influence peddling, and corruption.
Leave it to the press to make that connection though, absent of any evidence. They so badly want to sweep this under the rug. It’s crazy to see how in the tank they are.