Military Veterans and Patriots

Tag: Pardon

  • The Real Scandal of Hunter’s Pardon

    The Real Scandal of Hunter’s Pardon

    The Real Scandal of Hunter’s Pardon

    By Ron Paul for Mises.org 12/11/2024

    Politicians and pundits spent much of last week commenting on President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter for lying on a federal gun purchase form, failing to pay taxes, and any other offenses he may have committed over the past decade. Much of the controversy is because President Biden repeatedly pledged that he would never pardon his son.

    Some have also observed that the pardon’s timeline starts the year Hunter Biden joined the board of the Ukraine energy company Burisma. This has led to speculation that President Biden is trying to block any investigation into links between his son’s business dealings and President Biden’s Ukraine policy.

    What has not been widely discussed is the fact that Hunter Biden may be the only American President Biden has pardoned for violating unconstitutional federal gun and drug laws.

    Hunter Biden was convicted of lying on federal Form 4473. This is a form Americans must fill out to get federal government “permission” to purchase a firearm. Specifically, Hunter Biden gave a false answer to the question, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”

    The Second Amendment forbids the federal government from limiting the ability of any American to exercise his natural right to own a firearm. Furthermore, federal drug laws are themselves unconstitutional.

    The Constitution only creates three federal crimes: treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. All other crimes are under the jurisdiction of state and local governments. So, the required use of this form is a constitutional violation of the rights of Hunter Biden and all other Americans who are subjected to it when they seek to obtain a gun.

    Form 4473 warns Americans that “the use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.” Thus, someone could be prevented from exercising his Second Amendment right because of his activities that are perfectly legal in his state. This turns federalism on its head.

    Hunter Biden was also convicted of, and pardoned for, tax evasion and the filing of fraudulent tax returns. It is hard for anyone who values liberty to get upset at those who violate the tax laws since the income tax is a form of theft by the government of people’s hard-earned income.

    An outrage of Hunter Biden’s pardon is President Biden’s hypocrisy. When he served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s, then-Senator Biden played a major role in getting through Congress the Brady Law that created the federal gun purchase background check system that Hunter Biden was convicted of violating. Senator Biden also was a leading drug warrior who led the fight to pass the 1994 crime bill and was a champion of mandatory minimums and other infringements of civil liberties in the name of the war on drugs. President Biden also supported hiring more IRS agents to squeeze more money from taxpayers.

    Then-Senator Biden wrote large parts of the PATRIOT Act. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Biden also led the effort to pass the unconstitutional (and disastrous) “authorization for use of military force” against Iraq.

    President Biden should spend his last month in office pardoning more Americans for violations of unconstitutional drug and gun laws. This would serve as a small gesture of atonement for a political career spent advocating policies destructive of peace, prosperity, and liberty.

    Originally published by the Ron Paul Institute.

  • The Crackhead Gets a Pardon

    The Crackhead Gets a Pardon

    After years of denial, the news broke last night that Joe Biden was granting a pardon for his son Hunter, AKA the 1st Crackhead. Today brings us the details of this sordid affair. And sordid it is. The Biden White House issued a statement spelling out Joe’s reasoning and oh boy.

    Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.
     
    The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.  
     
    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.
     
    For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.

    Uh huh. The first sentence of the final paragraph of the announcement kind of encapsulates this whole deal. “For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth...” Nothing about this process has been truthful, least of all this announcement. For his entire presidency, Joe has repeatedly said he would not under any circumstances pardon Hunter. Yet with 50 days left, the pardon is issued.

    The pardon itself is something to behold. It covers all federal criminal behavior – charged and uncharged – from 2014 thru December of this year. For reference, the pardon Gerald Ford granted Richard Nixon, while also a blanket pardon, was limited to a much shorter time frame, between Jan. 20, 1969, and Aug. 9, 1974.

    Before anyone gets all worked up, despite being unprecedented, this pardon is completely Constitutional as spelled out in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, which says:

    The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

    There are some limitations to the pardon power. It can only be used for federal offences and cannot be used in cases of Impeachment. But other than that, the President can pardon whomever he wants whenever he wants more or less. The pardon cannot cover future criminal acts, hence the 1 Dec. end date.

    This blanket pardon opens up a can of worms for the Biden family. With criminal jeopardy removed, Hunter cannot plead the 5th if called before Congress. And expect him to be called.

    It also opens the door to pardons of the J6 defendants. I have to admit I am somewhat ambivalent about a general pardon for the J6 folks. There are some people who were involved who deserve all the jail/prison time they got. That said, the majority, and all of those who were overcharged for political reasons, should probably be pardoned.