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After stating over and over that this absolutely would not happen, President Biden pardoned his son Hunter this week.
I think it’s kind of lousy. But against the landscape of the previous pardons, and the pardons likely to come from his predecessor who is about to be his successor, does Biden’s action send any sort of real message? I think not.
Let’s look at Charlie Kushner, father of President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He pled guilty to tax fraud in 2004. According to the Department of Justice press release on the case, Kushner “further admitted he devised a scheme to retaliate against a cooperating witness and her husband by having a prostitute seduce the husband and covertly filming them having sex. Kushner told the Court that he paid a private investigator $25,000 to arrange for the seduction and videotaping of the cooperating witness’ husband. Kushner admitted to personally recruiting the prostitute and instructing that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness.”
The “cooperating witness” happened to be Charlie Kushner’s sister. President Trump pardoned Charlie Kushner in the last month of his first presidential term. This past weekend, Charlie Kushner was announced as Trump’s choice as ambassador to France.
Trump also pardoned self-proclaimed Leninist and White House aide Steve Bannon, former national security advisor Mike Flynn, longtime advisor Roger Stone, and 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort. It seems to me that if so many aides, staff members and advisors need pardons, something might be terribly wrong with your vetting protocol.
Democrats and pundits can’t decide what to make of Biden’s action. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson says Biden did what any father would do: “save his child.” His colleague at the Post, Amanda Katz, calls it “dadcore” politicking. The Post’s own editorial board is on the other side of the spectrum: “Any Democrat who refuses this week to condemn Mr. Biden’s pardon will have less credibility to criticize Mr. Trump, his meddling at the Justice Department and his choices for key positions in that agency.”
A snap poll conducted by YouGov shows six in ten Democrats approve of the pardon. In June, the same number of Democrats were opposed to a pardon.
This could come from several new Trump administration nominees openly stating plans for reprisal against perceived enemies, most notably FBI director nominee Kash Patel.
Patel said in an interview: “we will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly.” The interview, unsurprisingly, was with Steve Bannon.
Patel has experience in defense and intelligence. He does not have experience in law enforcement. While it may seem that the military, national intelligence, and law enforcement communities are all related, they all have specific, distinct, and separate functions. If you combine them, at best, you have Hoover’s FBI. At worst, you have the KGB.
Perhaps the most worrisome analysis of Patel in an FBI role comes from other former Trump administration officials. From Bill Barr, former attorney general: “Over my dead body.” Former national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement to NBC’s Meet the Press: “Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be his Lavrentiy Beria. Fortunately, the FBI is not the NKVD. The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0.”
Beria was Josef Stalin’s deputy chief of the Soviet secret police, feared even by the most senior members of the Politburo for his ruthlessness and violence. Mastermind of the Katyn massacre and the mass expansion of the gulag system, Beria was also known for torture, rape, treachery, and being willing to do Stalin’s dirtiest work. He was executed nine months after Stalin’s death.
With the initial nominee for attorney general being former congressman Matt Gaetz, an individual with so much baggage the only way he could pass an FBI background check would be if Kash Patel were running the FBI, and Patel actually nominated to run the FBI, it’s no wonder six out of ten Democrats are suddenly less bothered by a Hunter Biden pardon.
Truly, it seems to be the tip of the iceberg.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.
