President Joe Biden’s decision to grant his son a broad pardon may have prevented Hunter from facing a prison term, but it could signal the start of more serious legal issues for the Biden family.
By absolving Hunter of any potential criminal wrongdoing dating back over a decade, the President exposes his son to extensive questioning in future Congressional hearings, civil proceedings, or even criminal inquiries.
This is due to the fact that Hunter Biden can no longer invoke his Fifth Amendment right, which safeguards individuals from self-incrimination during testimony.
Since Hunter is now effectively immune from federal prosecution, he cannot plausibly claim that testimony could constitute self-incrimination.
That makes Hunter a potential key witness for years to come.
Biden’s blanket pardon is, in fact, a gift to President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, should she ever choose to look into allegations that the Biden family has corruptly profited off foreign influence peddling for decades.
One Republican-led House committee has estimated that the Bidens and their business associates have raked in more than $27 million in overseas business deals in recent years. However, not a single Biden family member has ever registered as a ‘foreign agent’ as may be required by law.
That seems like fertile ground for investigation.
President Joe Biden’s extraordinarily broad pardon of his son may have saved Hunter from a prison sentence, but it might actually mark the beginning of worse legal troubles for the Biden clan.
It’s true that prosecutions of those who fail to report their work for foreign governments have been rare. But that’s changed in recent years.
In July, Senator Bob Menendez was convicted for, among other charges, failing to declare himself as a foreign agent for Egypt.
On the first day of the new administration, Bondi, a former Florida AG, will be free to convene a grand jury and start her investigations.
Indeed, investigators likely have many questions for a political family that has become fabulously rich operating in close proximity to power.
Hunter may be asked what Biden knew about the son’s foreign business deals while he was reportedly hitching rides on Air Force Two while Joe was serving as Barack Obama’s Vice President.
Hunter allegedly accompanied his dad at least 13 times on trips to China, Egypt, Mexico and South Korea while Biden was VP.
Another topic of interest may be what Biden said when he attended dinners and joined phone calls with Hunter’s business associates during that period.
Or what Hunter meant when he wrote in an email to his sister, Ashley Biden, that ‘pop’ takes ‘half his salary’.
Perhaps most critically, Bondi may probe the true identity of the infamous ‘Big Guy,’ so characterized in the ownership documents for Oneida Holdings, a now-dissolved firm owned by Hunter Biden, his ex-business associate Tony Bobulinski and others.
Bobulinski provided hearsay testimony to Congress this year that the ‘Big Guy’ was Joe Biden, who he claimed requested a cut of the profits of Onedia Holdings.
Two IRS whistleblowers involved in a federal investigation of Hunter’s tax case have also said that Biden was the ‘Big Guy’.
While this pardon immunizes Hunter from federal prosecution, it does not protect him from civil litigation, including possible fraud charges.
Hunter Biden can no longer claim the privilege of the Fifth Amendment – a Constitutional right that protects people from offering testimony that may incriminate them.
A topic of interest may be what VP Biden said when he attended dinners and joined phone calls with Hunter’s business associates. Or what Hunter meant when he wrote in an email to his sister, Ashley Biden (pictured in between Joe and Jill), that ‘pop’ takes ‘half his salary’.
New York Attorney General Letitia James went after Trump for inflating his real estate assets and obtained a nearly half-billion-dollar civil judgment against him.
Might incoming Trump officials now follow her politically-minded lead?
President-elect Trump publicly expressed sympathy for Hunter in the waning days of the 2024 campaign and reportedly said as much privately when meeting with Biden at the White House after the election. This may incline his administration to be lenient with the outgoing president’s son – but it’s not a guarantee.
And if Hunter is subpoenaed by Congress to testify against family members that opens up a terrible can of legal worms.
Hunter will face several options, few of which are particularly appealing.
Firstly, his lawyers may concoct an argument that he is still due his Fifth Amendment protections because the President’s pardon only protects Hunter from federal charges, leaving him vulnerable to potential state charges which, therefore, makes him capable of self-incrimination.
But that’s a weak legal argument. The statutes of limitations on any state tax and gun charges (the only offenses that investigators would likely be allowed to question him on) are bound to have expired. There is no self-incrimination risk here.
Secondly, Hunter could defy the subpoena, though I wouldn’t recommend that course of action.
Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon just completed a four-month sentence for refusing to appear before a congressional committee investigating the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Thirdly, Hunter could agree to testify and then lie. Of course, this is the least likely scenario and I have no reason to believe that Hunter has anything to lie about.
But, hypothetically at least, that, too, would be a bad choice. Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen found out the hard way when he was sentenced to two-months in prison for committing perjury in his 2017 Senate testimony regarding Trump’s business dealings in Russia.
President-elect Trump expressed sympathy for Hunter in the waning days of the 2024 election and reportedly in meetings with President Biden at the White House after the election.
Finally, Hunter could tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
The consequences of that are still unclear.
The post-presidency outcome for the Biden family is fraught, to say the least.
But the tragedy of it all is that this conundrum could have been avoided if President Biden had waited until Hunter was sentenced for his tax offenses this month and then commuted that punishment. A commuted, rather than pardoned, defendant retains the right to plead the Fifth.
But one thing is certain: Hunter Biden’s problems – and seemingly those of his family – may be far from over.
