Michael Ramirez Essay: Hunter's Blame Game
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Hunter’s Deflection
By Michael P. Ramirez
According to the psychology therapy website BetterHelp.com, “Deflection is the act of blaming another person for your own mistakes or shortcomings rather than accepting the blame or criticism yourself.”
In an interview with musician Moby, Hunter Biden explained his refusal to comply with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee subpoenas by blaming Republicans, saying, “It’s not about me, and in their most base way, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to kill me, knowing that it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle.”
The subpoenas couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Hunter’s unscrupulous behavior, law-breaking, the over $20 million in foreign payments to Biden family enterprises, or the myriad of federal charges levied against Hunter for the failure to pay taxes on his income.
Nooooooo. Republicans made me do it.
For all his shortcomings, getting kicked out of the Navy for testing positive for cocaine, drug addiction, and his lack of experience, Hunter has certainly made a lot of money. It’s good to be the Vice President’s (and now, the President’s) son.
Let’s try to sort through this mess….
As far as I can tell, there have been payments of approximately $23 million from foreign entities to Hunter Biden or his associates’ businesses. Most of the money went to associates of Hunter. About $7.5 million went to the broader Biden family, including President Joe Biden’s brother James, his son Beau’s widow, Hallie, and of course, to Hunter. $7 million of the $7.5 million went to Hunter.
Here's the breakdown from the Washington Post:
$10 million in Chinese Payments – ($3.6 million to the Bidens, most to Hunter).
$6.5 million from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma ($2.6 Million to Hunter).
$3.5 million from Russian Billionaire Elena Baturina for a real estate transaction (none to Biden)
$3 million in Romanian Payments – (about $1 million to Hunter Biden and at least $10,000 to Hallie Biden)
$142,300 from a Kazakh Businessman (to pay for Hunter’s Porsche sports car)
The reason they paid money to Hunter & Co is pretty obvious. Since they probably were not paying him for his experience with crack, Hunter was most likely cashing in on his father’s positions. Unfortunately, while selling influence is clearly unethical, it is not illegal unless it is actually influential and proven to be tied to an act of corruption.
I have discussed this in previous essays. (07.17.23 Hunting for Answers)
“Does his freeloading off of foreign entities constitute a crime? They can certainly be described as unethical, improper, unscrupulous, wrong… pick your adjective. But, unless there is a quid pro quo, an exchange resulting for a direct service, it is not against the law.
James Roosevelt, Don Nixon, Billy Carter, Hugh Rodham, Neal Bush… the list goes on and on.”
It is illegal if:
There is any illegal activity in exchange for payment.
There is a direct action taken by the President (or Vice President) in exchange for payments, a quid pro quo.
Payments are not disclosed to the IRS
Taxes are not paid on the income.
It is a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act I – The person or agency has to be “any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal.”
With Hunter’s record of being ethically challenged, I think all these questions deserve to be answered.
Given the nature of the Chinese energy firm CEFC and their relations with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), what exactly did they pay Hunter for?
What was Hunter’s relationship with CEFC Vice Chairman and Secretary General Patrick Ho, who was later charged with trying to bribe leaders from Chad and Uganda and convicted of bribery and money laundering?
What did Burisma get in return for their $6.5 million investment?
Who is Hunter selling his paintings to for outlandish sums of money?
What is the connection between all these entities and President Biden?
Did President Biden do anything beyond being a supportive father?
So far, there’s a lot of smoke but little evidence, beyond President Biden’s pants being on fire.
Evidence so far has revealed that foreign firms were willing to pay Hunter millions of dollars for nothing.
Accusations against President Biden are centered on his misleading answers to questions about his knowledge of, and involvement with, his son’s businesses. Specifically, House committees are focused on a $200,000 loan repayment from James Biden to his brother Joe.
They have produced a check for $200,000 payment to Joe Biden for… drum roll here… a repayment of a $200,000 loan wired to James 48 days prior to the loan repayment. The House committee claims there is no proof the loan came from Joe Biden but the check contains an account number with legible last four digits that match an account that Biden has used before to wire money to James.
There has to be more than that.
Impeachment should not be idly carried out, especially when there is little chance of conviction. It should retain its magnitude. It should be reserved for demonstrable and verifiable high crimes and misdemeanors, not just the feeling that somewhere in there, there must be proof of some kind of high crime and misdemeanor.
In American jurisprudence, the accused doesn’t have to prove they are innocent; the accusers must prove the accused are guilty. You know, that whole innocent until proven guilty thing. Otherwise, you’re just weaponizing the government against your political opponents.
Although there is more than enough evidence to prove that Hunter is an unscrupulous screwup who brought all of this upon himself, there are many questions that still need to be answered.
Hunter’s calamities are clearly self-inflicted. Blaming Republicans for his legal troubles is like blaming lightning for striking a guy standing on the top of a high-voltage transmission tower while wearing a metal helmet and pointing a seven iron into the sky during an electrical storm.
Editor’s note: Scott Johnson’s The Reid Rationale at Power Line nicely updates the new FBI stance on Hunter’s Laptop From Hell.
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