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The move by President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter Biden has led advocates to make their case for former prosecutor Marilyn Mosby to receive a pardon as well.
The decision by President Joe Biden to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, earlier this week after previously stating he wouldn’t, has prompted advocates representing the former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to request one for her. “It is time for Joe Biden to pardon Marilyn Mosby,” said civil rights attorney and media figure Angela Rye, who is working on Mosby’s legal team. Mosby, who rose to prominence in 2015 for charging six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, Jr., was convicted of mortgage fraud and perjury earlier in the year. Critics of the decision have maintained that the prosecution was politically motivated due to her racial justice policies.
“There are thousands of people who have been wrongfully convicted and sit in federal prisons today. While Hunter Biden was selectively prosecuted, he’s not the only one,” Rye said in a joint statement with attorney Ben Crump, who is also working with Mosby’s legal team. They point out that the application for Mosby’s pardon is still with the Department of Justice with proof of “receipt of the application on May 28.” That request is accompanied by 91,000 signatures petitioning the government for Mosby to be pardoned. The former attorney was on home detention after being sentenced and has appealed the decision. The Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland called for her law license to be suspended, but the Maryland Supreme Court dismissed that request.
“Marilyn Mosby is on house arrest right now with her law license hanging in the balance over purchasing property with her own money. Kim Gardner (the former East St. Louis prosecutor) was forced into taking a plea deal for a $5000 expense that was approved in an ethics opinion,” Crump and Rye wrote. They cited similarities in the two situations – the lead prosecutor in Mosby’s case, Leo Wise, also successfully brought charges against Hunter Biden for the purchase and possession of a firearm in 2018 and on federal tax charges. They also pointed out that the basis for Hunter’s pardon can be applied – selective prosecution. “They need to find a rule and equally apply it,” Rye stated.
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President Joe Biden is nearing the end of his term, and as that time nears, he has just weeks to make any sweeping orders before he leaves office at the top of next year. Hunter Biden, the first child of a sitting United States president to be convicted of a crime, was pardoned by President Joe Biden over the weekend, sparking critique from lawmakers and other figures on both sides of the aisle.
President Joe Biden issued the pardon of Hunter Biden on December 1 and the flurry of comments since the news broke have ranged from understanding a father’s position to protect their children to those bashing Biden for reneging on a promise to not grant his son’s clemency.
Not surprisingly, many of Biden’s opponents from the Republican Party had plenty to say, including President-elect Donald Trump. Trump took to his TruthSocial platform and called the pardon “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice” while calling for the pardon of 29 inmates at the District of Columbia Jail, who he referred to as “J-6 hostages.”
For comparison purposes, Biden has granted just 26 pardons in his time in office while Trump pardoned 143 individuals during his time, some of which were questioned.
Beyond Trump, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer spoke on the pardon and did not mince words.
“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities. Not only has he falsely claimed that he never met with his son’s foreign business associates and that his son did nothing wrong, but he also lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden,” Comer wrote.
Rep. Greg Stanton, a Democrat representing Arizona’s 4th Congressional District, took to X to blast the pardon.
“I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” Stanton said.
Adding to the criticism from members of Biden’s party, Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio wrote on X, “As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas appeared on MSNBC and pushed back on the comments made by her colleagues on both sides and spoke in her usual direct fashion.
“So, for anyone that wants to clutch their pearls now because he decided that he was going to pardon his son, I would say take a look in the mirror because we also know that when it comes to this cabinet, this cabinet has more people accused of sexual assault than any incoming cabinet probably ever in the history of America,” Crockett said. “So we are living in unprecedented times, and we know that this was completely political.”
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Hunter Biden, the second eldest child of President Joe Biden, was pardoned by his father over the weekend in a move taken as an affront to the legal process by right-leaning observers. Earlier this year, Hunter Biden pled guilty in connection to a federal tax matter with President Biden issuing the pardon after previously stating he would not do so.
Hunter Biden, 54, was the target of false allegations concerning claims that Biden — when he was vice president — took a bribe to suggest that Ukraine fire prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to halt an investigation into Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son from charges since he worked on the company’s board.
Facing federal tax and gun charges, Biden admitted to lying on a federal form to obtain a firearm in 2018 as a drug user and was found guilty on three felony charges over the summer. The conviction made Bident the first child of a sitting United States president to be convicted in a criminal trial. Biden, who had his license to practice law suspended due to the conviction, was due to be sentenced on December 12 which no longer will happen after getting pardoned on Sunday (December 1).
Biden was a favorite target of Donald Trump and MAGA extremists during the 2020 presidential election cycle, harping heavily on the Ukraine matter despite little evidence supporting the claim. However, conservative pundits continued to seize on Biden’s legal issues and many are seemingly enraged that President Biden issued the pardon. President Biden stated the reason for the pardon was to counter the political motivations of his critics.
On X, formerly Twitter, MAGA Nation is attempting to turn the pardon of Hunter Biden around on President Joe Biden despite him leaving the office in January. We’ve gathered some responses and shared them in the list below.
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Hunter Biden’s conviction on felony charges in Delaware may have dismantled a major Republican conspiracy theory in the process.
On Tuesday (June 11), a jury in a Delaware court found Hunter Biden guilty on three felony counts related to him purchasing a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. It marks the first time the offspring of a sitting president was found guilty in a criminal trial. The verdict, however, might have taken the steam out of one of the Republican Party’s conspiracy theories that they’ve pushed to hurt President Joe Biden’s chances of reelection – that he’s “weaponized” the Department of Justice to protect his family and persecute former President Donald Trump.
The line of thought, which was the focus of a House of Representatives sub-committee hearing led by Republicans last week, wasn’t only shared by the fringe element but peddled consistently on conservative media and on Fox News as they taunted, “Where’s Hunter?” But as the trial moved on towards its conclusion, President Biden’s assertion that he would not only stand by the verdict but make no moves to pardon Hunter Biden if convicted loomed large. One unnamed juror told ABC News after the verdict was announced that “politics never came into play” as they deliberated and that the prosecution achieved their burden of proof: “the verdict absolutely was not politically motivated.”
“I don’t think the verdict will materially impact the race,” said Republican strategist Rob Stutzman about the potential to impact the upcoming presidential election. “It does mute GOP claims that the Biden DOJ is weaponized against Trump and MAGA, but the election isn’t turning on that question.” The conviction comes less than two weeks after Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts related to fraud in the “hush money” trial where he was accused of hiding payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Biden campaign fundraiser John Morgan remarked that “only a person with no heart would not be sympathetic” to Hunter Biden’s issues with addiction and recovery. “And [Biden] isn’t saying the trial is rigged. The contrast between the two trials will be a huge boost for the president,” he asserted. Others note that Trump’s conviction might compel voters not to pull for him instead of Hunter Biden’s situation. “The Trump verdict I think could force some lean conservative people to stay home. No poll can measure that. No one is staying home because of Hunter,” stated Democratic strategist Peter Giangreco.
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Things are not looking too good for the President of the United State’s oldest living son.
On Thursday (Dec. 7), Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California after a special counsel investigation into the business dealings, according to the Associated Press. In all, Biden—who was already facing federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging that he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018—is looking at three felonies and six misdemeanors under the new filing.
Special Council David Wiess said in a statement that Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”
From AP:
The charges are centered on at least $1.4 million in taxes Hunter Biden owed during between 2016 and 2019, a period where he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. The back taxes have since been paid.
If convicted, Hunter Biden, 53, could receive a maximum of 17 years in prison. The special counsel probe remains open, Weiss said.
In response to the indictment, Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, accused Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure” by prosecuting President Joe Biden’s son for alleged infractions he wouldn’t have prosecuted otherwise. “Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Lowell said in a statement.
Lowell might be on to something, especially regarding the Delaware charges. Republicans are so anti-gun regulation that they fall all over themselves to defend guns after mass shootings, and under Donald Trump, an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns was rolled back. Certainly, right-wing Second Amendment advocates would stand against a person being prosecuted for owning guns just because he has a history of drug use—unless we’re talking about the son of a Democratic commander-in-chief, of course.
As for the charges in California, where Hunter lives, Thursday’s filing details how the accused allegedly spent money on drugs, strippers, luxury hotels, exotic cars and, “in short, everything but his taxes.”
As AP noted, the “indictment comes as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, claiming he was engaged in an influence-peddling scheme with his son.” Of course, there has been zero evidence presented that indicates the president had anything to do with his son’s alleged activities, or that Joe Biden accepted any bribes or abused his role in office in any way, as his opponents have claimed. But Republicans aren’t likely to let facts get in the way of a good political prosecution, which is what they claim all the indictments of Trump are.
Anyway, Lowell indicated that he plans to fight the new charges against his client and that he will motion for dismissal of the Delaware charges next week, calling them “unprecedented and unconstitutional.”
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