Andrew McCarthy penned an article explaining the charges against Hunter Biden and how much time he could serve if convicted, assuming Daddy Joe doesn’t pardon him.
Yes, we all assume that will happen. But it’s still worth nothing that three of the charges are felonies that come with lots of time in the slammer:
Six of the indictment’s nine charges are misdemeanors, each punishable by up to a year’s imprisonment. They allege willful failures to (a) pay taxes for the years 2016 through 2019, and (b) file returns in 2017 and 2018. The other three charges are felonies. The most serious is tax evasion in 2018, which carries a potential five-year prison sentence. Hunter is also charged with two counts of filing false tax returns in 2018 (involving his personal return and a corporate return), each of which carries a potential three-year term of incarceration. The felonies are the reason Weiss needed an indictment from a grand jury — misdemeanors may be charged by the prosecutor without grand-jury approval but are sometimes, as here, charged in an indictment (when there are a number of them, or when they are combined with felonies).
If my math is right, Hunter is looking at a maximum statutory sentence of 17 years. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, his sentence if convicted would be lighter, but not insignificant. (I presume the president would pardon his son rather than see him sentenced to prison, but that remains to be seen. Hunter, we should recall, has already been charged in a separate indictment on firearms offenses.)
Burisma, CEFC, Romania…
President Biden is not alluded to in the indictment, but his brother Jim is (described as one of the “business associates”), as are other Hunter partners — Rob Walker, James Gilliar, Eric Schwerin, Devon Archer, and Ye Jianming (of CEFC, the Chinese government-affiliated energy company).
If the case were ever to go to trial, it would be very embarrassing for the Biden administration. The indictment’s background allegations get into schemes with various agents of corrupt and anti-American regimes from whom the Biden family business reeled in millions of dollars.
Of course, Hunter is described by Weiss as “a Georgetown- and Yale-educated lawyer, lobbyist, consultant, and businessperson,” and Biden apologists will point to this description in claiming that the millions were legitimately earned. But on the other hand, several of the notorious schemes were laid out in some detail: Burisma, CEFC, Romania (where, in exchange for $3 million, the Bidens and their partners went to bat for corruption suspect Gabriel Popoviciu), the largesse of “sugar bro” Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, and more.
Joe Biden’s participation in these transactions is not mentioned in the indictment. But we know from various witness accounts and documents that he is here, there, and everywhere — as one would expect, given that it’s his political heft on which Hunter was cashing in.
McCarthy also argues how difficult this all could be for Joe Biden. But the media is going to allow any of this to touch daddy Joe. They are already bending over backwards to defend Joe Biden: