Thunderstorms, some heavy during the morning hours, then skies turning partly cloudy during the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..
Tonight
A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
The latest wiggle in the matter of Hunter Biden is likely to be unsatisfying for everybody, as is everything in the foreseeable future.
Young Mr. Biden was set to plead guilty in a plea-bargain with prosecutors, but that fell through, so he pleaded innocent Wednesday. He’s being charged with failing to pay taxes for two years, and with lying on a form when he said he wasn’t using drugs when he bought a gun. The plea bargain would have essentially meant the end of the case, but instead it appears it will drag on some more.
Hunter Biden is the son of President Biden; he’s a former drug addict. Federal prosecutors started looking into his affairs because, among other things, he took a $600,000 gig as a board member for a Ukrainian energy company when his dad was vice-president. That was, at the very least, a bad-looking arrangement, wherein it could appear that the Obama administration was treating Ukraine favorably so as to help Biden’s kid. When prosecutors started that investigation, it was under the Trump Administration, but the incoming Biden Administration left the prosecutor in place so that it wouldn’t look like there was any meddling. The case is also in the court of a Trump-appointed judge.
In the end, what prosecutors were able to stick him with was the tax charge and the fact that he checked a box on a form that said he wasn’t on drugs when he applied to get a gun. Trump allies have figured this case would provide evidence of corruption by the Bidens, so those charges seemed like a fizzle at most. No explosions.
Then came whistleblowers, alleging that in fact the higher-ups did meddle in the case. That – and the fact that the plea-bargain deal fell through – mean that the issue will linger on, presumably into the next presidential election.
At the moment, it’s hard to get too worked up about any of it. The president’s son, a former drug addict, took a job for a Ukrainian energy company while his dad was vice president, something that certainly raised good-government questions. But we already knew all that.
Did he do anything criminal? Well, that question now appears to be leading to an answer that’s not terribly interesting. Was there some sort of coverup or meddling? That appears to be still an open question, and presumably will be for quite some time.
In a way, it will become an ink-blot test: If you’re inclined to dislike Joe Biden, you’ll probably conclude that there was something amiss. If you’re not, you’re likely to think that the evidence is thin at best.
I don’t see much yet. But this isn’t over yet.
