I believe it was Andrew Weissman who pointed out that lying on a firearms application is very rarely even prosecuted. I'm not sure you're right that any average American would be in trouble for this.
My hope is that the Democrats will blast the media with the blatant hypocrisy of the Right as they clutch their pearls over Hunter while ignoring Jared, Ivanka, TFG, Don Jr, Eric....
"Both Trump and Hunter Biden have behaved in ways that would put the average American in a much deeper legal hole with far fewer resources to get themselves out."
Barb McQuade offered on MSNBC that the typical citizen in the cases that Hunter pled to or got deferred wouldn't even be charged. He paid the taxes with penalties and there were no incidents in the short time he had the gun and he wasn't a prior felon. So I have to disagree with your statement. I hold Barb's opinion in high regard.
I believe you're mistaken in your last point, that "Hunter Biden is facing a gentler outcome that most Americans would in a similar position." From The NY Times: "The crimes to which Mr. Biden is pleading guilty, said Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and a sentencing expert, are ones that the average person is rarely prosecuted for because they are usually only brought along with more serious offenses."
From what I have seen and read, it looks like if anything most Americans would not even get charged for doing what Hunter Biden did. You need to back up your statement to the contrary, otherwise you are stating your opinion as fact.
Seems to me that there is a simple solution here. Donald Trump should be given the same opportunity to plead guilty to a single count, and all other counts would be dropped. The DOJ would charge him with a single count of fostering insurrection on January 6th 2021. Trump would plead guilty in exchange for not having to go to jail.
However, section 3 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution would prevent Mr. Trump from every holding public office again:
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
The section does not say that the officer of the United States needs to be convicted of a crime, only that he "shall have engaged in insurrection". Pleading guilty, presumably, would be enough.
"His favorability rating among “Republican-aligned voters” has dropped 10 points over the past month to reach 67 percent."
The fact that 67% of republicans favor a candidate indicted for 37 felonies, 31 of which entail a very likely betrayal of our country. Says way more about republicans than it does t****
My daughter recently fell into arrears with her federal taxes. The IRS sent her several notices. She ignored the first few and finally called when I pushed her to do so. She now is on a payment schedule. No jail time, or throwing the book at her, or whatever else MAGA folks seem to think should happen in such cases.
My question, what’s the typical sentencing for something like what Hunter Biden did?
I don’t expect him to get special favorable treatment, but I don’t want him to be treated more harshly than anyone else, either. Also, I would think that any lawyer worth a darn would try to negotiate the best plea deal for his client no matter who his father is.
On another note, and I am sorry for the length of this, but I have to get this off my chest. I feel so bad for Hunter Biden and his family and the whole thing just makes me sad. The targeting of him makes the Republicans seem cruel in my eyes and so many people are going along with it. To me, HB has been the subject of the conspiracy theory regarding Ukraine that has already put our country through so much, which was designed simply to damage Joe Biden politically. The Republicans casted wide net because they had a theory in search of evidence. Five years. Lots of tax payer dollars. And they found a few gotcha things regarding taxes and something from his book that got him in trouble to charge him with, but for them the ends justify the mean because they get to spin whatever came out of it.
Don’t get me wrong, HB did these things and should be held accountable, but it’s all performative politics and I think the people who have been demonizing him for years know it. He’s a private citizen and a troubled man with a family who worries about him. So many families have family members who are troubled. Why can’t we have compassion? I’m so tired of the meanness.
Trying again, as it wouldn't let me edit it! For an explanation of how IRS criminal investigations are done see: https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/how-criminal-investigations-are-initiated. It's a long term and complicated procedure. But it starts as a tax audit issue, either as a tax auditor or a revenue agent. And they do take a long time, years, to investigate and complete. And very few cases get to a trial. https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/tax-fraud Out of hundreds of thousands of audits conducted every year, only 370 were sentenced for fraud. There is a succinct pdf file you can download for 2021.
This is all very interesting. But, if the Republican Party had not defunded the IRS they would have caught Hunter Biden when it happened. And would probably have caught a lot of other tax cheats and undoubtedly reduced our deficit and national debt. This should be the main talking point for Democrats on this subject!
I’ve been sober in AA for 29 years now and I’ve seen many people get probation before judgement (pbj) for worse than tax evasion and a mild firearms offense.
It can be surprising how much leniency there is for someone who admits fault and makes a good faith effort at restitution.
Here is Darrell Issa’s comment: “I don’t want to be a part of a place where every president doesn't want to leave office without their successor being picked because that makes them vulnerable.” I assume that this is intended to sound vaguely unsettling, but can someone explain what this actually means? Literally every President that has left office has had their successor “picked” before they left. It’s the way the system works. We almost always find out who the next President is going to be before Inauguration Day.
And then there’s MTG claiming that “Jack Smith wants to throw Trump in jail for 100 years for legally possessing documents he’s allowed to possess”. Putting aside the highly exaggerated time frame, there may be some questionable parts of the Trump indictment. But the idea that he was legally allowed to possess those documents is decidedly not one of them. It’s not complicated – he’s not President, he can’t have those documents.
I could write a lot about how outrageous and dangerous the rest of the comments from the GOP brain trust are. But what would be the point? If you don’t see that, I can’t help you. But I can’t resist three small comments:
1) They haven’t even waited until the final terms have been made public before cranking up the outrage machine.
2) They haven’t provided a single example of why they claim this shows a two-tiered justice system. They’re just stating it as a fact.
3) It’s not hard to believe that Hunter Biden received some leniency. But if he did, how does that compare with the leniency shown Trump who refused to turn over the documents that the DOJ knew that he had for more than a year?
Excellent point. For the GOP being cheated out of a long trial for Hunter Biden is bad, as for punishment, anything short of hanging would not have sufficed for republicans.
I think it is a slight reference to what happened in Rome toward the end of the republic. While in office, they were immune, but all sorts of legal retribution awaited various office holders if they left office. So they had to secure the next post.
The problem the right doesn't seem to get is that if you are actually cooking children in a cauldron, the 'witchhunt' trope kinda falls apart.
There’s no excuse for not paying taxes, and Hunter Biden’s plea deal up sets a nice standard for widely publicized Build the Wall, Big Lie & Jan 6 fund raising by the likes of grifters Trump, Giuliani, Gaetz and Greene, among others.
Hate to burst people's bubbles. But there are only 3,000 tax fraud cases in an average year which may or may not get to an actual trial. And very few, even if convicted, go to jail. Hunter's already paid the taxes, which is unusual, hence the light sentence. Now Trump will NEVER pay anything.
"August 14 falls right in the middle of the Iowa state fair, a major attraction for presidential candidates, and the first Republican primary debate will take place just nine days later. Trump has signaled that he might not participate in the latter, but his trial will certainly give other candidates quite a lot to talk about."
-----
First, I doubt TFG will go to Iowa for the state fair or the debates. He has apparently decided that he doesn't need to show his face and risk being put on the defensive (if that's possible, the man is shameless and couldn't care less what non-MAGA think of him). He wrote off the Iowa debate in 2016 and I doubt that this year will be any different.
Second, while the Tangerine Tyrant "will certainly give other candidates quite a lot to talk about[,]" the odds are stacked against anyone besides Christie and Hutchinson (if they make the debate stage) actually taking *any* shots at the current frontrunner. They are all sooooo very afraid that the Mango Menace, his sycophants, minions, toadies and turd polishers will come after them. Words, both their own and those coming from Team Trump**, seem to scare the bejesus out of them. Their fear is palpable, and irrational. The declared candidates all seemed to have forgotten the old schoolground adage: "sticks and stones...."
He's not campaigning at all; a rally here or there -- but he's spending his time with lawyers or on the golf course. It's the others that have to hob nob with the pheasants and beg for money.
I believe it was Andrew Weissman who pointed out that lying on a firearms application is very rarely even prosecuted. I'm not sure you're right that any average American would be in trouble for this.
My hope is that the Democrats will blast the media with the blatant hypocrisy of the Right as they clutch their pearls over Hunter while ignoring Jared, Ivanka, TFG, Don Jr, Eric....
"Both Trump and Hunter Biden have behaved in ways that would put the average American in a much deeper legal hole with far fewer resources to get themselves out."
Barb McQuade offered on MSNBC that the typical citizen in the cases that Hunter pled to or got deferred wouldn't even be charged. He paid the taxes with penalties and there were no incidents in the short time he had the gun and he wasn't a prior felon. So I have to disagree with your statement. I hold Barb's opinion in high regard.
I believe you're mistaken in your last point, that "Hunter Biden is facing a gentler outcome that most Americans would in a similar position." From The NY Times: "The crimes to which Mr. Biden is pleading guilty, said Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and a sentencing expert, are ones that the average person is rarely prosecuted for because they are usually only brought along with more serious offenses."
From what I have seen and read, it looks like if anything most Americans would not even get charged for doing what Hunter Biden did. You need to back up your statement to the contrary, otherwise you are stating your opinion as fact.
Seems to me that there is a simple solution here. Donald Trump should be given the same opportunity to plead guilty to a single count, and all other counts would be dropped. The DOJ would charge him with a single count of fostering insurrection on January 6th 2021. Trump would plead guilty in exchange for not having to go to jail.
However, section 3 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution would prevent Mr. Trump from every holding public office again:
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
The section does not say that the officer of the United States needs to be convicted of a crime, only that he "shall have engaged in insurrection". Pleading guilty, presumably, would be enough.
Yummy MAGA tears.
"His favorability rating among “Republican-aligned voters” has dropped 10 points over the past month to reach 67 percent."
The fact that 67% of republicans favor a candidate indicted for 37 felonies, 31 of which entail a very likely betrayal of our country. Says way more about republicans than it does t****
"We are controlled by COMMUNISTS!" -- Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Her problem is exactly the opposite: she's not even in control of herself.
MTG has absolutely no clue what communism is, just like she has absolutely no clue about much of anything else.
My daughter recently fell into arrears with her federal taxes. The IRS sent her several notices. She ignored the first few and finally called when I pushed her to do so. She now is on a payment schedule. No jail time, or throwing the book at her, or whatever else MAGA folks seem to think should happen in such cases.
My question, what’s the typical sentencing for something like what Hunter Biden did?
I don’t expect him to get special favorable treatment, but I don’t want him to be treated more harshly than anyone else, either. Also, I would think that any lawyer worth a darn would try to negotiate the best plea deal for his client no matter who his father is.
On another note, and I am sorry for the length of this, but I have to get this off my chest. I feel so bad for Hunter Biden and his family and the whole thing just makes me sad. The targeting of him makes the Republicans seem cruel in my eyes and so many people are going along with it. To me, HB has been the subject of the conspiracy theory regarding Ukraine that has already put our country through so much, which was designed simply to damage Joe Biden politically. The Republicans casted wide net because they had a theory in search of evidence. Five years. Lots of tax payer dollars. And they found a few gotcha things regarding taxes and something from his book that got him in trouble to charge him with, but for them the ends justify the mean because they get to spin whatever came out of it.
Don’t get me wrong, HB did these things and should be held accountable, but it’s all performative politics and I think the people who have been demonizing him for years know it. He’s a private citizen and a troubled man with a family who worries about him. So many families have family members who are troubled. Why can’t we have compassion? I’m so tired of the meanness.
Trying again, as it wouldn't let me edit it! For an explanation of how IRS criminal investigations are done see: https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/how-criminal-investigations-are-initiated. It's a long term and complicated procedure. But it starts as a tax audit issue, either as a tax auditor or a revenue agent. And they do take a long time, years, to investigate and complete. And very few cases get to a trial. https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/tax-fraud Out of hundreds of thousands of audits conducted every year, only 370 were sentenced for fraud. There is a succinct pdf file you can download for 2021.
It isn't "in such cases", it is to democrats.
This is all very interesting. But, if the Republican Party had not defunded the IRS they would have caught Hunter Biden when it happened. And would probably have caught a lot of other tax cheats and undoubtedly reduced our deficit and national debt. This should be the main talking point for Democrats on this subject!
I’ve been sober in AA for 29 years now and I’ve seen many people get probation before judgement (pbj) for worse than tax evasion and a mild firearms offense.
It can be surprising how much leniency there is for someone who admits fault and makes a good faith effort at restitution.
They are trying to move the cheese.
Here is Darrell Issa’s comment: “I don’t want to be a part of a place where every president doesn't want to leave office without their successor being picked because that makes them vulnerable.” I assume that this is intended to sound vaguely unsettling, but can someone explain what this actually means? Literally every President that has left office has had their successor “picked” before they left. It’s the way the system works. We almost always find out who the next President is going to be before Inauguration Day.
And then there’s MTG claiming that “Jack Smith wants to throw Trump in jail for 100 years for legally possessing documents he’s allowed to possess”. Putting aside the highly exaggerated time frame, there may be some questionable parts of the Trump indictment. But the idea that he was legally allowed to possess those documents is decidedly not one of them. It’s not complicated – he’s not President, he can’t have those documents.
I could write a lot about how outrageous and dangerous the rest of the comments from the GOP brain trust are. But what would be the point? If you don’t see that, I can’t help you. But I can’t resist three small comments:
1) They haven’t even waited until the final terms have been made public before cranking up the outrage machine.
2) They haven’t provided a single example of why they claim this shows a two-tiered justice system. They’re just stating it as a fact.
3) It’s not hard to believe that Hunter Biden received some leniency. But if he did, how does that compare with the leniency shown Trump who refused to turn over the documents that the DOJ knew that he had for more than a year?
Excellent point. For the GOP being cheated out of a long trial for Hunter Biden is bad, as for punishment, anything short of hanging would not have sufficed for republicans.
I think it is a slight reference to what happened in Rome toward the end of the republic. While in office, they were immune, but all sorts of legal retribution awaited various office holders if they left office. So they had to secure the next post.
The problem the right doesn't seem to get is that if you are actually cooking children in a cauldron, the 'witchhunt' trope kinda falls apart.
There’s no excuse for not paying taxes, and Hunter Biden’s plea deal up sets a nice standard for widely publicized Build the Wall, Big Lie & Jan 6 fund raising by the likes of grifters Trump, Giuliani, Gaetz and Greene, among others.
Hate to burst people's bubbles. But there are only 3,000 tax fraud cases in an average year which may or may not get to an actual trial. And very few, even if convicted, go to jail. Hunter's already paid the taxes, which is unusual, hence the light sentence. Now Trump will NEVER pay anything.
"August 14 falls right in the middle of the Iowa state fair, a major attraction for presidential candidates, and the first Republican primary debate will take place just nine days later. Trump has signaled that he might not participate in the latter, but his trial will certainly give other candidates quite a lot to talk about."
-----
First, I doubt TFG will go to Iowa for the state fair or the debates. He has apparently decided that he doesn't need to show his face and risk being put on the defensive (if that's possible, the man is shameless and couldn't care less what non-MAGA think of him). He wrote off the Iowa debate in 2016 and I doubt that this year will be any different.
Second, while the Tangerine Tyrant "will certainly give other candidates quite a lot to talk about[,]" the odds are stacked against anyone besides Christie and Hutchinson (if they make the debate stage) actually taking *any* shots at the current frontrunner. They are all sooooo very afraid that the Mango Menace, his sycophants, minions, toadies and turd polishers will come after them. Words, both their own and those coming from Team Trump**, seem to scare the bejesus out of them. Their fear is palpable, and irrational. The declared candidates all seemed to have forgotten the old schoolground adage: "sticks and stones...."
fnord
He's not campaigning at all; a rally here or there -- but he's spending his time with lawyers or on the golf course. It's the others that have to hob nob with the pheasants and beg for money.