[Feng Yaren, a special correspondent of Global Times in the United States] On the 14th local time, hunter biden, the son of US President Biden, was prosecuted for illegally buying and possessing firearms, becoming the first son of an incumbent president accused by the Ministry of Justice in American history. Hunt, who has had frequent scandals in recent years, reached a plea agreement with the prosecution in June this year, but did not expect the incident to reverse. In the eyes of many American media, the US judicial department’s pursuit of Hunter has been subjected to "political pressure", and the Republican Party needs to use this "soft rib" as a starting point to drag down its father’s election. However, former US President Trump issued a document saying that Hunter’s gun-related accusation was the only one that was not implicated in his "liar dad".
CNN said on the 15th that Hunter had been accused by the Delaware federal prosecutor of three charges, two of which involved that he concealed the fact of drug abuse when filling out the documents related to gun purchase when he bought a gun in October 2018, and the other was illegal possession of a gun as a drug addict. All three are federal felonies in the United States. If all three charges are established, Hunter can be sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison and a fine of $750,000.
CNN mentioned on the 15th that court documents show that the court has issued a subpoena to Hunter, and he will appear in court for the first time in recent days. However, the specific time and place of the trial have not been announced. In addition, Hunter’s previous tax charges are not over, and the prosecution said that this case may be opened in California, where Hunter is currently living.
Hunter has been intensively investigated as early as Trump’s administration, and the legal disputes surrounding him have lasted for several years. In June this year, Hunter reached a plea agreement with special prosecutor Weiss appointed by the US Department of Justice on two charges of tax evasion in 2017 and 2018, as well as a gun charge. However, Delaware judge Noreka, who presided over Hunter’s case, called such an agreement "form is greater than substance" and rejected the plea agreement. Noreka is a federal judge appointed during Trump’s administration.
The US VOX website said that Hunter’s previous plea agreement with the prosecution was a common "sweetheart agreement" in the US judicial system, and the Republican Party obviously would not allow the son of the biggest political enemy to be "exalted and lightly put". On the evening of 14th local time, Hunter’s lawyer Lowell said in a CNN program that this was the result of "political pressure".
At the same time, the US House of Representatives also launched an impeachment investigation against Biden. Congressional Republicans claimed that Biden had "helped" his son’s overseas business and profited from it as early as when he became vice president. Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee who led the impeachment inquiry, said that the gun charges against Hunter were "just the beginning" and the Republican Party would spare no effort to investigate whether Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings.
The Los Angeles Times analyzed that as of now, the Republican Party has not grasped any substantial evidence of Biden. It is precisely because of this that they need to forcibly establish a connection between the president and his son’s mistakes, even through "some wild speculations." The newspaper also said that Hunter’s real "sin" is the problem of birth. After all, his father is the Republican Party’s "opponent who has to fight for his life."
With the approaching of the US presidential election, the struggle between the two parties is heating up. "For the impeachment, the Biden team is actually prepared." According to CNN, the presidential advisory group began to formulate relevant strategies to deal with impeachment more than a year ago, recruited new aides, and specially consulted relevant experts for this purpose. According to the report, the White House is currently dealing with the impeachment incident mainly from the perspective of public propaganda, not from the legal level. On the one hand, they want to create public opinion and emphasize that the Republican Party has insufficient factual basis, on the other hand, they want to establish the image of Biden’s active governance. The Democratic Party has also generally shown a dismissive attitude towards this matter, calling this move "ridiculous" and nothing more than a cover-up to divert public attention.
Just the day after Republicans announced that they would launch an impeachment investigation against Biden, Hunter sued Ziegler, a former assistant of Trump, and 10 others, accusing them of "illegally accessing, tampering, manipulating, copying and destroying other people’s computer data", and obtained their own "tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, dozens of videos and recordings" and spread them online.
According to the American business insider website, Hunter’s lawsuit against Ziegler and others seems to be opening up a "second battlefield" for his father, aiming at "attracting firepower" and collecting "black materials" from his opponents, while trying to excuse Biden. Ziegler’s side said that Hunter filed a lawsuit the day after his father was impeached, indicating that this was a typical "strategic lawsuit against public participation", and its purpose was nothing more than to quell the criticism.
However, Reuters believes that the Republican impeachment will inevitably affect Biden’s election in the long run, because the investigation process will continue to attract media attention, which will distract the public’s attention and make a considerable part of the audience have no time to take care of Biden’s political views. On the other hand, Biden’s poll data is not optimistic. His current support rate is 42%, only slightly higher than Trump’s level in the same period.
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