So begins the top story at the NYT right now, "For President Biden, a Political Liability That May Not Go Away Soon/The collapse of a plea deal and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden mean the president could face political fallout for months to come," by Peter Baker.
August 12, 2023
"They thought it was over, that they could put it in the rearview mirror. All that Hunter Biden had to do was show up in a courtroom, answer a few questions..."
"... sign some paperwork and that would be it. Not that the Republicans would let it go, but any real danger would be past.
Except that it did not work out that way. The criminal investigation that President Biden’s advisers believed was all but done has instead been given new life with the collapse of the plea agreement and the appointment of a special counsel who now might bring the president’s son to trial.
What had been a painful but relatively contained political scandal that animated mainly partisans on the right could now extend for months just as the president is gearing up for his re-election campaign. This time, the questions about Hunter Biden’s conduct may be harder for the White House to dismiss as politically motivated. They may even break out of the conservative echo chamber to the general public... It may be that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s decision to designate Mr. Weiss a special counsel with more independence to run the inquiry means that there is still more potential legal peril stemming from Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign firms. Yet it may amount to less than meets the eye in the long run...."
So begins the top story at the NYT right now, "For President Biden, a Political Liability That May Not Go Away Soon/The collapse of a plea deal and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden mean the president could face political fallout for months to come," by Peter Baker.
So begins the top story at the NYT right now, "For President Biden, a Political Liability That May Not Go Away Soon/The collapse of a plea deal and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden mean the president could face political fallout for months to come," by Peter Baker.
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"This time, the questions about Hunter Biden’s conduct may be harder for the White House to dismiss as politically motivated. They may even break out of the conservative echo chamber to the general public..."
LOLš¤£ Lmao even.
The crunchy NYT word salad fails to stick the landing- the acting President Joe Biden is as corrupt as Democrats make republicans out to be…
We are so being Bullshitted.
With Weiss(D) at the helm -this will all be a fake investigation used to clear international bribe-crook money-grubber (in secret) Joe Biden and give Hunter, the Biden family bag-man, a slap on the wrist.
If Merrick OKed this - it's a sham. That man is corrupt to the core.
Less than meets the eye, wishes the NYT.
You gotta love it.
All the news that's fit for Baghdad Bob to spin. Geezus, what embarrassing toadying.
" It may be that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s decision to designate Mr. Weiss a special counsel with more independence..." Let's stop it right there.
Here's Mr. Weiss's performance so far:
>He was the US Attorney who agreed to the original plea deal that gave Hunter a broad immunity over any other 'things' that might pop up in the future- essentially letting the entire case (and the Bidens) go free without another thought. The judge, who took the time to actually read the plea deal and not just rubber stamp it, blew it up. Which is why we're in this place now.
>We just had two whistleblowers testify in Congress that Weiss told them he had final say in this investigation. The whistleblowers stated, without question, that this case was fixed. (If Weiss had control and final say, why is he now being appointed as Special Prosecutor? Why now?)
>He (Weiss) oversaw the investigation in which the Bidens were tipped off that the FBI was coming to search their premises. They had plenty of time to rearrange or move things. Weiss oversaw that.
>In this previous investigation he also allowed the statute of limitations to be reached and passed on some of the charges on Hunter. Knowingly.
Are you kidding me? And this is the guy being made Special Prosecutor by the AG who's job it has been to cover up for the Bidens while attacking anyone who says bad things about them?
Nice country you have there. Would be a shame to lose it.
"They may even break out of the conservative echo chamber to the general public."
LOL - as if the obedient corrupt Democrat party press will let that happen.
The paid and mobbed loyal D-hack press will circle the wagons around Joe ... (If I may steal from Trump...) LIKE NEVER BEFORE.
Merrick Garland designated David Weiss, the same man who negotiated the plea deal that the judge rightly called out for its absurdity, as Hunter Biden’s special prosecutor. Sort of like putting Frank Nitti in charge of investigating Al Capone instead of Elliott Ness. (If you aren’t from Chicago you may miss the reference.)
A corrupt plea deal, authored by our new Special Counsel.
Weiss was not assigned to investigate Hunter, he was charged with killing the investigation.
Garland just affirmed how politicized and corrupt he is. SCOTUS Judge material, indeed.
The special counsel in this case is BS. They will use this to clear the Bidens.
watch. and the media will dutifully tell us this is only about Hunter. Poor poor Hunter.
Banana Republic - notch it up to quantum.
I detest the news media.
Biden just asked for $25bn more for Ukraine, his son has been paid a gratuitous salary in the millions from Ukraine (with Joe phoning in to discuss the weather over dinner), and all they can say is that Biden might be inconvenienced if he leaves his basement to campaign this year.
But only if the story breaks from its "conservative echo chamber".
Well that's another 5 years to play it out between the hash marks. And more time to run out the clock for any and all penalties. Hunter's already immune by the statute of limitations from any FARA charges...no?
Addendum: By the time this is over Weiss will have spent 10 years cleaning up Biden shit. What a waste of a career and a life.
--- Since Mr. Trump and his allies did not like the apparent outcome of the investigation, some have painted Mr. Weiss as a lackey of the Biden administration
How clueless does one have to be to accept a DOJ investigation at face value, as this NYT "analyst" seems to be doing? Especially when the Congressional committee has bank transactions totaling over $20 million in payments from overseas governments or government-related entities? And all the rest of the laptop evidence and the testimony from Hunter Biden business chums.
This analyst should be analyzing the NYT coverage of this fiasco. What wars were bought and paid for from bribes? Why does Joe Biden think giving nuclear weapons to both Saudi Arabia and Iran is a great idea? Would this man be in a position to affect the world in such drastic and potentially drastic ways without the huge amoral assist of intellectually corrupt reporters and the newspapers that direct their coverage? NYT, WaPoo, et al., Althouse's favorite sources.
Isn't David Weiss the man that negotiated the shabby plea deal with Hunter? Therefore, I am not sure this is really progress. They can kick the can well past 2024 if the swamp's track record on fast investigations is a hallmark. Of course Mar-a-Lago was different.
Since Trump had his guy appoint the man who had carefully crafted the plea agreement to make it all go away, and had only presented that agreement to the judge minutes before the hearing, to keep that judge from having time to digest what had been done, I think it is fairly safe to say that it's going to go away "in the long run."
And oh, just a happy accident, the man who tried so hard to get Hunter completely off the hook for everything except the child porn on his laptop, which nobody but Rudy is mentioning, is now in charge of bringing "justice," now won't have to testify to Congress, and will shut down the Congressional investigation due to an "ongoing investigation." Look what they did to Rudy for mentioning it, seized his computers and his phone in a FBI Goon raid. Probably to seize any evidence that Rudy found, as Trump's impeachment lawyer, of Biden corruption in Ukraine.
Manafort is in prison right now for the same FARA violations that the plea agreement blithely forgave.
The only recourse Congress has right now is impeachment, Biden has escalated again, since we have the precedent of the massive powers to subpoena that an impeachment hearing gives. Why doesn't Congress subpoena the tax records of that shell corporation with 16 million dollars in income that Joe and Jill Biden have, but that Joe didn't include in his "Middle Class Joe" tax return, that he made public? Democrats went through the underwear drawer of the wife of Donald Trump, never forget that. It's important to by thorough.
Pffft. Weiss will spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money and at just the right time for Biden he will say, “Nothing to see here. Move along.” Why appoint a special counsel who was the one who negotiated a “sweetheart” deal? (Imbedded with an especially sweetheart of a deal.) Weiss shouldn’t have been appointed special counsel in the first place since the law requires someone outside the DOJ. Banana, banana, banana.
Cue the commenters, "They know Biden is a loser and the campaign has begun to get rid of him."
As explained on numerous talk shows yesterday, now Hunter won't be charged with anything at all, as the statutes of limitations on his crimes run out without indictment. 2014 and 2015 tax crimes were allowed to lapse without charge or penalty, so why not all the rest, now?
In an alternate rational universe, he'd be indicted and already convicted, facing the full penalty for at least his felony illegal gun purchase while a crackhead, and that conviction and long jail sentence would be used to coerce pleas and allocution on everything else. Simple, effective, and achieves both his punishment and full disclosure, which is after all what the investigation is supposedly seeking.
The big thing to know here is that Weiss, the special prosecutor (illegally) appointed by AG Garland, is the DE USA who tried to slide the sweetheart plea deal with Hunter by the judge. It had the blanket immunity deal in a side document that was not submitted to the judge. The deal fell apart when the judge started probing. Weiss has already let the statute of limitations run on Hunter’s 2014 and 2015 crimes. This appointment of Weiss does a couple things for the Bidens. First, it presumably shields Hunter from the ongoing Congressional investigation of him. It also is supposed to shield Weiss from Congressional investigation. Finally, it allows Weiss to offer nationwide immunity to Hunter, when, before as DE USA, he could only offer immunity for crimes committed in DE (though my understanding is that the now rejected immunity deal purported to be nation wide). Keep in mind that the Deep State was able to thwart Congressional investigation of Crossfire Hurricane the same way with the appointment of Mueller as Special Prosecutor. It stinks. Weiss was handpicked as USA of his home state by FJB because of his personal loyalty.
This special prosecutor an ILLEGAL appointment. The law authorizing a special counsel specifies that the counsel cannot be an employee of the Federal Government.
It's obstruction of justice, committed by the sitting US Attorney General and the US Attorney for Delaware. The entire design of this is to PREVENT justice from occurring.
This guy has NO INTENTION of prosecuting either Hunter Biden or Joe Biden for their crimes. That's right THEIR crimes. Both are guilty of serious felonies. So his Joe Biden's brother and many of their other family members - all participating in the money laundering scheme to wash these bribes through off-shore shell companies to avoid taxes.
Weiss will drag this out for 3 years, then pull a James Comey Rabbit Out Of His Hat and declare that "no true prosecutor" would ever bring charges.
Of course the statute of limitations will have expired on some of their crimes by then.
It's obstruction of justice, plan and simple. This country is degenerating far faster than even I could have imagined. If we want Justice, we're going to have to get it elsewhere.
“… the president is gearing up for his re-election campaign.”
To write about Biden as though the putative president is going to do now, 4 years later, what he got away with scarcely doing 4 years ago, is why I find these opinion pieces harder to read. Suspension of disbelief is a luxury I can’t afford now.
"They may even break out of the conservative echo chamber to the general public..."
If it is true that questions about Hunter Biden's conduct are confined to the conservative echo chamber rather than the general public, we are in a strange place. The facts are there. Payments to members of the Biden family from foreign sources were reported inside the banking system. That's where the congressional committee found them. They are up to $20 million so far...and counting. What are those all about?
Questions need to be asked and answers given. Where is CNN? MSNBC? ABCNBCCBSPBSNPRBloomberg? FOX sacked Carlson. Why? It might have been that unaired Sund interview, which raised real questions about Speaker Pelosi's role in Jan 6.
I grew up in the Watergate era. The hearings happened while I was in law school. If any administration ever begged for a serious, all-hands-on-deck, roto-rooter clean-out, it is the Biden administration. Trillions of taxpayer funds are being sent we know not where.
Republicans Pounce!
But we know what really means, the eunuchs of the GOP will preen, grandstand and bloviate and then do absolutely nothing. The little Gobbels of the MSM will downplay all of the Biden’s crimes and the partying in DC at the American taxpayer’s expense will continue.
As long as it doesn’t dip too deeply into the Biden family treasury they’ll be fine.
That's a lot of verbiage to try and dismiss a train coming at you,...
"What had been a painful but relatively contained political scandal"
Hey, NYT, what might be the "scandal"? Who did the containing?
"that animated mainly partisans on the right"
Of course, no prog could be bothered with mere corruption. Hey, NYT, what services did Hunter provide for the $$$? What was his "brand"?
"They may even break out of the conservative echo chamber to the general public"
Hey, NYT, who kept the issue from reaching the "general public"?
"it may amount to less than meets the eye in the long run...."
Of course. The point is to squelch the problem. Weiss is a Biden admin flunky, not the sort of outsider the law requires, as Andy McCarthy explained. The sweetheart-deal-maker now gets to do his thing.
It’s all a ruse to help put a stop to the Republican House’s investigation of Biden corruption. What a crock. This DOJ and FBI are weaponized and Weiss is Scheisse.
The panic is real among the elite - the scandal might “ break out” to the great unwashed since all their efforts got tripped up by that nosy judge who saw throw the sweetheart deal.
Weiss was made “ special counsel” to give him an excuse not to be summoned before Congress. And he’s blatantly illegal for the role since the statute for special counsel says the person has to come from “ out of government”. It’s more in your face banana republic garbage from Garland.
So they appointed the same guy who came up with Hunter's plea deal as Special Counsel.
This is just another path to the same destination. And it allows them to stymie the House investigation as well.
The House should vote to defund the DOJ until we get a real investigation. It'd be ugly, but what else could they do? That won't happen, of course.
"that animated mainly partisans on the right", ie We in the MSM tried our best to ignore it, then bury it.
To the NYT the downside of this is political fallout for the President.
At least Hunter’s hookers demanded payment for their services, even if he wrote them off as a paralegal expense. The NYT gives it for free.
The special counsel will kick the can down the road past the election, generate a plea agreement and paper it over with a report saying it was no big deal.
Sure. It may amount to “less than meets the eye in the long run.” Don’t all politicians and their families GARNER millions from foreign enterprise? And what are you gonna do about it anyway, you pissant peasants? Hold a Biden accountable? Ha! Ha, ha, ha!
An honest sub-head would read:
The collapse of a plea deal and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden mean the president could face political fallout for months to come...but don't worry, that's where we come in.
How exactly can Weiss NOT take it to a trial? And for a larger set of charges?
They needed to pick a non-Fed SC
The title of special counsel being added to Weiss is a public relations gimmick. Weiss was caught trying to put the case to bed cheaply. He is not independent as a special counsel is supposed to be. He has already let the statute of limitations run on some crimes.
Weiss's proposed settlement was designed to preclude any subsequent prosecution for violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Unfortunately for Weiss, Judge Maryellen Noreika did her job properly.
NY Times: "It may be that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s decision to designate Mr. Weiss a special counsel with more independence to run the inquiry means that there is still more potential legal peril stemming from Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign firms. Yet it may amount to less than meets the eye in the long run...."
In other words: Don't hold your breath.
This investigation is already compromised. Before the statute of limitations ran out, Weiss told his team that his request for being named a special counsel was refused. Wray has contradicted this statement. It’s easy to make a case that the goal is to deliberately delay justice to ensure justice is denied.
Shorter Peter Baker: anything may happen.
Nice that he acknowledged the hermetic seal the MSM enforces on ideas within the conservative echo chamber.
“Echo chamber.” How rich is the writer’s total lack of awareness or, if you prefer, intellectual dishonesty, as if our entire popular culture and the political speech flowing from it isn’t an echo chamber owned lock, stock, and barrel by his paper’s side of the political spectrum, thanks in no small part to its sins of omission and commission as one of the leading causes of our country’s polarization.
"the appointment of a special counsel who now might bring the president’s son to trial."
Pigs will fly first.
Just to make sure..
Mr. Weiss is the US Attorney that was going to (quietly, and off the frontpages) give Hunter COMPLETE immunity, for EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that he EVER did... RIGHT?
And NOW.. HE'S the 'special counsel' ? That bodes ill
Furthermore.. Don't the Law state, that a 'special counsel' MUST BE "OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT" ??
HOW, exactly is a US Attorney "OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT" ??
Rough day for Hunter Biden’s Presidential aspirations. Let it go to trial. If he is guilty of something he should be held accountable. And if he hasn’t, let it go. That’s a concept Republicans haven’t quite grasped, apparently: a trial can exonerate or convict.
The key word for me is "might" as in maybe we do something maybe we don't. What better way to protect the President than to have an "ongoing investigation" with maybe a trickle or less of leaks to refute, but certainly the case where the FBI and DOJ have a wall to hide behind if questioned about Hunter and Joe's involvement.
If Joe loses this all disappears, if he wins it all comes to show Hunter is a great guy.
The Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for over 5 years (Trump appointed Weiss five years ago) now over this laptop and his business dealings. Time to …. or get off the pot if you’re going to prosecute him or not. If he’s really done something wrong charge him in court and let the courts decide if he’s guilty or not. If the courts find him guilty lock him up, Just doing a never ending investigation around this recovering drug addict is unfair to him and embarrassing to the Republican Party as a whole and wins the Republicans no new votes.
It's all merely a "tempest in a teapot". As Special Counsel law requires appointment of an individual independent of the Government, Weis is not one. Biden's consigliere, Garland, appointing the initiator of the "sweetheart deal" just maintains the fiction of investigation followed by justice.
So a special counsel with the guy pushing the sweetheart deal. Right. Another corrupt coverup by Biden’s DOJ.’ The unit d states is no longer a legitimate government. Tyranny.
NYT decides Biden is too old
orders their reporters to attack him now
Wow, the NYT just won’t stop going to bat for the Bidens, country be damned. Good lord, it’s all politics, “Republicans pounce.” One sentence (one!) about Biden’s crimes and it claims, without evidence, that “there may be less than meets the eye.”
What scoundrels.
Seeing as Althouse hadn't posted anything new, I came back to the article and hit another snag.
"It may be that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s decision to designate Mr. Weiss a special counsel with more independence to run the inquiry..."
Link to my X : "Garland’s appointment of David Weiss as special counsel in Hunter Biden investigation appears to be ILLEGAL per statue 600.3 which states “The special counsel shall be selected from OUTSIDE the United States Government”.."
Of course, I take everything from my X with a grain of sodium chloride.
You hate to see it.
I'd have more faith in the special counsel investigation if it were being run by someone other than the man who tried to give Hunter Biden that sweetheart plea agreement.
The Hunter Biden legal team wants certainty that a guilty plea would end the matter, given that Mr. Trump has vowed to prosecute him if elected president.
I thought that they wanted a guilty plea to some minor stuff to mean he had immunity to being prosecuted for pretty much anything and everything. Doesn't double jeopardy keep him from being prosecuted again for whatever he pleas guilty for? What would end the matter is for Hunter to get the same punishment that the average (criminal) citizen would get for the same charges. Plot the outcomes of others and put him right in the middle of the bell curve and I'd be satisfied.
Andrew McCarthy has suggested that appointing a special counsel is merely a ploy to allow the "investigation" to continue till the statute of limitations has run out on all tax and FARA violations. The ones at issue took place while Joe Biden was VP 2008-2016 and some years have already run out. Moreover, a special counsel investigation allows agencies to deny information to Congress so that the special counsel will also halt the committee investigations by Senator Grassley, Reps. Comer and Jim Jordan. The Biden corruption issue will be alive but frozen like mastodon in Arctic ice. I'm sorry to say that I think this will lead to more up-to-date investigations about the Bidens being blackmailed during the current administration and, just as a US President is more important than a US VP, so these will be more significant and likely to drag other very consequential issues down into the current US political sewer. That would be a tragedy but ... you remember the tremor in the glass of water in Jurassic Park? I can feel a political tremor of a similar nature though the NYT people are just having fun like tourists in a harmless nature park.
Weiss is a stooge who has already compromised himself with the "hidden" plea deal and lies about his authority.
This is not a good faith appointment and the mediaswine have already begun to whitewash it.
Before it was, "Hunter is not Joe." Now it's, "Joe knew. Joe helped. Joe is guilty too."
Or so some will say. Loudly.
The fix is in.
It may not go away, but it will not come to fruition either. Weiss is the guy who approved the sketchy (at best) plea deal to begin with; he's there to make sure this thing drags out through the election and expiration of the statutes of limitations. And now the DOJ can stiff the Congressional investigators on grounds of not interfering with the Very Special Counsel.
Win, win. Unless the American people catch on.
Gamblers sometimes employ the "double down" strategy: every time you lose, you bet twice as much in hope of breaking even. They believe the "gambler's fallacy" of thinking that red simply must come up after black came up 8 times in a row. Nope. Doubling down works until you run out of money (or political credibility), and when you can't double down again you leave the table very, very, very deep in debt.
Democrats have been doubling down on lies -- running across a crumbling bridge -- since 2015. They initiated a systemic strategy of lies, bluff, and bluster in 2010 after losing control over congress and long before the Hillary-Russia-Trump saga began. Obama broadly legislated through absurd, expansive agency rules after failing to pass his new and desired laws. Democrats were consciously breaking all sorts of laws at that time (e.g., EPA has control over all waterways in the country), but thought friendly judges would let it ride until they could get the votes. "The ends justify the means."
https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/27/politics/obama-epa-water-rule/index.html
After the flagrant Trump-COVID-Hunter lies of 2015-2023, foreigners may stop buying our (useless, sloppy) paper debt. If so, then Democrats squandered their political credibility for a stupid, short-term gains at the expense of a very, very, very serious long-term failure.
"So, Mr. Biden we are buying your debt so you can siphon it off to personal accounts as you lie, bully, and let your economy fall into shambles? Why don't I stop buying it and put money in my local and equally incompetent banks here in (China, Russia, EU, Japan)?"
the questions about Hunter Biden’s conduct may be harder for the White House to dismiss
Sure, let's keep pretending it's about Hunter Biden's conduct.
As long as we’re on the topic of Hunter Biden….
Top Fox lawyer and Lachlan Murdoch confidant Viet Dinh to resign ~ NYT
“Dinh would receive a lump-sum payment of $23 million Fox said in a filing on Friday.“
“Mr. Dinh’s departure raises questions about how Fox will handle the major lawsuits it still faces for airing false claims about widespread election fraud after the 2020 election. Another elections technology company, Smartmatic, has sued Fox for $2.7 billion.”
$23 million sure puts the treasure into treasured relationship.
The appointment of David Weiss to the position of special counsel with full prosecutorial independence is just semantic chicanery if he enjoyed full prosecutorial independence when he "negotiated" (the accurate term is offered) the now-rejected plea deal to Hunter Biden that would have granted him perpetual immunity from every possible prosecution regarding every imaginable crime. If Weiss was calling the shots then what possible distinction does "special counsel" entail? If you ask me this appointment carries all the power and authority of a chicken inspector badge.
What goes on here is the solution the mainstream media would have never allowed for Richard Nixon. Imagine the history of Watergate if John Mitchell had appointed L. Patrick Grey as the special counsel and had gotten away with it.
The appointment of David Weiss is illegal. Weiss is clearly a member of the Biden administration and not a disinterested party as required by the statute. An honest newspaper would not neglect this fatal impairment, but we're reading the NYT, aren't we?
This is why we need DeSantis, to dismantle the Borg state.
Biden had better hurry and steal Trillions more to stop Global Boiling before he is replaced as our un- elected selected President.
Those $200+ billions dumped unaudited into the Great Democrat Money Laundering eternal war will only go so far. People may wake up and decide the Commie USSR has been kaput for 30 years.
I've been saying since 2021 that Hunter would be the lever to pry Biden out of office if he refused to go.
Bummer when a usually compliant Justice Department and system suddenly stops jumping through various legal hoops to protect your sorry butt, eh?
Weiss Ist Scheisse !
The appointment of Weiss as SC, the very one who negotiated the plea deal in the first place, is to make sure that this time the investigations into Hunter's activities do actually go away. It is a Garland sanctioned cover-up to make sure Hunter cannot be charged with anything, and all investigations that may implicate the President will be ground to a halt. Statute of limitations will expire (the gun charge SOL expires in October), and we will hear no more of the investigation until Biden pardons his son prior to the ending of his first term.
All cleaned up nice and tidy.
I think it's awesome how many of Trump supporters do the left's hard work and bidding.
On the PBS NewsHour roundtable, liberal David Brooks said that he couldn’t find any evidence of influence peddling. I guess he never heard of Viktor Shokin. Jonathan Capehart, the fake conservative counterpart to David Brooks, agreed with Brooks. Apparently Capehart never heard of Viktor Shokin either or Richard Haas, for that matter.
I saw Garland's announcement and I continue to wonder if he may have lost a few of his marbles. His reading of the teleprompter was even more wooden than usual and had a hostage video quality.
There are so many things wrong with the decision to appoint Weiss as SC that it looks like it was not made competently.
This is just another part of the cover-up. Another plea deal will be offered in a different jurisdiction with a more compliant Biden/Obama judge. Weiss will then write a report exonerating the rest of the Biden family released just prior to the primaries or the general election, whichever helps Biden the most.
Why does the target's father and possible co-conspirator get to choose the Special Counsel?
Doesn't the Special Counsel have to be from outside the government?
They're laughing at us.
Do they think people are stupid?
They just relabeled the same guy who wanted to give the sweetheart deal the "special counsel"
Now they can spend another few years without oversight making sure nothing comes out before the election.
and of course, the real damage, the removal of 2014-2015 via statute of limitations slow walking has already happened...that's when The Big Guy was in elected office.
It's like listening to the radio announcer at the Hindenburg disaster........
"Oh, my god, the narrative is crashing!!"
The "Special Counsel" is in charge of the coverup, just like he has been all along.
according to the special counsel statue the appointee must be from outside the Oovernment. Is this the case here?
I believe that (a) Weiss's office, if not Weiss himself, was involved with Hunter Biden's "sweetheart" plea deal and (b) that deal was rejected by a federal judge who noted its unusual nature.
If so both Garland's appointment and Weiss's accepting appointment as a special counsel seem inappropriate. Am I missing something?
The NYTimes is stupid or dishonest. This was option 2 all along. If they couldn't snooker the judge into rubber stamping the deal, they'd give Weiss special counsel status and he'd refile in a different district.
Weiss was the same prosecutor who set up the sweetheart plea deal that the judge nixed. Weiss is no antagonist for the Bidens, Hunter or Joe. It might just be a coincidence that Weiss is German for ‘white,’ or it may not be. You can definitely expect a Weiss-wash, however. The fix is in.
>>the appointment of a special counsel who now might bring the president’s son to trial.
...and monkeys might fly out of my butt.
Hunter could cut a deal and rat out his old man.
Edit:
"It may be that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s decision to insulate Mr. Weiss a special counsel..."
This designation means that Congress can't probe Weiss until he completes his "probe." This is a sham and a cover-up.
Remember, Trump didn't demand Zelensky investigate Biden; He demanded that he announce an investigation. Trump knew there would be no investigation results before the election, but he wanted the publicity/black eye for himself and Dem rivals to trumpet on the 2020 campaign trail.
The GOP should be doing the same here, trumpeting the investigation, not denigrating it.
President Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee in 2024. So that has to be factored into the Hunter Biden prosecution and pleas. I predict President Biden will pardon Hunter late in 2024 after they slow play the Hunter prosecution and suppress it from the news. Everything will be upside down in 2024.
Absolutely less than meets the eye. Merrick Garland's "special counsel" is the same doofus who slowwalked the investigation to let the statute of limitations expire, and then negotiated the "sweetheart plea deal" that stunk so bad the judge threw it out of her courtroom.
Merrick Garland remains the Biden family's private attorney.
Pretty sure NYT damage control can handle this.
Tired and predictable. Don't focus on the actual crimes committed, but on Republicans, the right and their echo chamber.
Pathetic, worthless hack.
The US ATTY who rigged the plea deal is now the Special Counsel? That seems strange and convenient.
I am flabbergasted that as yet, no comments have appeared, with mine seemingly being the first. I wonder if that is a sign of the fatigue that has set in over what has been an unending series revelations of criminal and possibly-not-criminal-but ultra-sleazy activities by the Biden Crime Family. Anyway, from what I can see from my perch in the middle of God'n'guns country, this alleged "special prosecutor" charade is just another gambit to shield them all from prosecution. For those who may be laboring under the misapprehension that this is a sign that the DOJ under its current management is somehow rousing itself to righteous action, I have some very nice beachfront property in Utah for sale. Contact me at BR549 and ask for Junior.
Weiss was picked by Garland to make it go away without making it look obvious. Biden, his and brother grifted at least twenty million dollars and who knows what else. If Hillary can be exonerated by the DoJ for running the state department from her homebrew server then what Trump is being charged with is nothing more than a Democrat Communist show trial. Thank God McConnell kept Garland of the Supreme Court. The man is showing his true colors and modern day American Beria. Show me the man and I'll show you the crime.
"When Republicans screw up, that's the story. When Democrats screw up, the Republicans' reaction is the story,"--Jim Treacher
It's too bad that Peter Baker never asked his son how to uncover a scandal because now he wouldn't have to be playing catch up.
https://babylonbee.com/news/garland-appoints-special-counsel-to-cover-up-bidens-crimes
hahaha. This is a clear attempt to bury the scandal. Otherwise, why is David Weiss of the ridiculously lenient plea deal the special counsel?
"Hunter's business dealings with foreign firms?" No, no, no. JOE'S dealings.
BS. Weiss will bury it. Any public questions or hearings will be swept away with "It's under investigation." There will be no leaks to the WaPo and NYT. The general public won't hear about "The Big Guy".
What will breakout is that the special counsel is not independent. He’s a lackey from Delaware.
"For President Biden, a Political Liability That May Not Go Away Soon"
Hunter's not the liability; Joe is.
Every single Republican officeholder and presidential candidate should be shouting nonstop about what a corrupt coverup deal this is. Nonstop and nothing else. Make the Democrat echo chamber actually deal with it.
And those who want to crap on Trump can do so by saying that Trump rubber-stamped Weiss. It doesn't make Weiss less of a stooge.
Blogger Harun said..."Do they think people are stupid?"
I don't think they care. Their supporters will play stupid and the rest of us can pound sand. What can we do?
“I thought that they wanted a guilty plea to some minor stuff to mean he had immunity to being prosecuted for pretty much anything and everything. Doesn't double jeopardy keep him from being prosecuted again for whatever he pleas guilty for? What would end the matter is for Hunter to get the same punishment that the average (criminal) citizen would get for the same charges. Plot the outcomes of others and put him right in the middle of the bell curve and I'd be satisfied.”
Sure, Double Jeopardy typically prevents people from being tried twice for the same thing. And that means that if you plead out to Crime X, they can’t retry you for X again. But they can try you for Y and Z, if they aren’t part of a plea deal. So, what you see hundreds of times a day, around the country, are prosecutors stacking charges against people, then pleading out to just a couple of them. The defendants get immunity for the stacked charges, the prosecution gets a guilty plea, and they didn’t have the bother of going to trial. It turns out to be as corrupt as hell, but nothing that anyone can really do about it. There just aren’t enough resources to try every case, with every possible crime, so this system has grown up to the extent that over 95% of criminal cases are pled out, and never go to trial. Even then, the judge who taught my Crim Pro class, over 30 years ago, estimated that 90% of his time was spent on the 50% of his docket that was criminal cases.
As noted, plea deals wouldn’t work if you only got immunity through Double Jeopardy for what you pled out to. Instead, the prosecution invariably packages in immunity for other crimes - at a minimum, the rest of the stacked charges. But the immunity given defendants for pleading out can be as broad as the prosecutor can give the defendant. In Hunter’s case, DE USA Weiss was offering blanket immunity for any federal crimes Hunter had committed. Turns out, as the DE USA, he couldn’t legally immunize Hunter for crimes outside DE. That might have worked anyway, because of the rule of lenity, that plea deals are interpreted against the prosecution, since they are the ones drafting them. It was in a side deal, so that the details wouldn’t be reviewed by the judge. She got curious at that, and when she got her hands on the side deal, and questioned the parties about the extent of the immunity, it fell apart, because Hunter’s attorneys wanted blanket immunity everywhere in the country, and Weiss could only offer it in DE. And nailing that down in court would have prevented Hunter from using that rule of lenity, where plea deals are interpreted against the prosecution. That’s essentially why the plea deal fell through - Weisse tried to pull a fast one on the court, and was caught by the judge. But critically, as Special Counsel now, Weiss can offer national immunity.
It is amusing that the "paper of record" can still not admit that the plea deal was a scam of the first order. The feds had slam dunk convictions on tax evasion, which they let the statute of limitations expire for no apparent reason. The punishment for the crimes that were included was exceedingly lenient. The plea bargain that was brought to the judge was an attempt to give Hunter a pardon without actually giving him an explicit pardon. This included trying to hide the details from the judge. This is as corrupt as possible without declaring that Democrat politicians are now immune from all prosecution.
It is difficult to come to any other conclusion that the New York Times is utterly corrupt or is staffed with idiots.
So in the alternative universe people here keep alluding to, in which Trump breaks with tradition and appoints a USA to DE that’s not nominated by the two Senators from DE, do you really believe the outcome would have been an honest actor swimming against the Deep State current? Would your imaginary USA be vigorously prosecuting the Biden Family? Do you really believe Merrick “Judy” Garland would be supporting such a rogue USA given the evidence we have of Garland’s disrespect for law and tradition?
Thank God McConnell kept Garland of the Supreme Court.
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was that a good idea?
Consider the ripeness of 'Banana that is USA' by now if Obama had been allowed his SC seats.
when do Mark gadfly and Mutaman come to rescue Weiss and the bidens?
The fact MAGA Republicans are complaining, means that Garland did something right. Imagine thinking the GOP is ever operating on good faith….
If any of you all remember back before the Obama election you should be very careful voting for Obama. Because despite all your,"Oh we need a black president!" rhetoric what I warned you of was that we would get Chicago style politics on a nationwide scale. And that is exactly what we got.
readering said...
"Remember, Trump didn't demand Zelensky investigate Biden; He demanded that he announce an investigation. Trump knew there would be no investigation results before the election, but he wanted the publicity/black eye for himself and Dem rivals to trumpet on the 2020 campaign trail."
In effect you're saying, "Well. He raped you once why not let him rape you again." Re Weiss
Trump knew because he knew Zelensky was bought and paid for by Biden. Biden bragged about it. Just like Biden bragged about the vote fraud his party committed.
You have a very cynical view of your fellow citizens. Just because you'll lie, cheat and steal doesn't mean every one does.
The GOP should be doing the same here, trumpeting the investigation, not denigrating it.
Biden has two kinds of special counsels, frame up guys and coverup guys. He is corrupt to the core.
Imagine thinking the Dems are ever operating on good faith…
I saw discussion elsewhere of which section of US code pertaining to special attorneys v special counsel!!?? applies in current instance.
how would that matter to change things?
Wait, I hear something:
"He's my son and I love him. He's made some awful choices and I tried to help him. Yeah, I was wrong. Wrong to step in, wrong to try to cover for him. As many, many families know, when you're a parent, sometimes it's the hardest thing ever."
Did Weiss tank his own plea deal? I guess we’ll find out if he covers for Hunter or prosecutes him to the fullest extent of the law.
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