(New York Post) There was never a serious question of convicting Hunter of these crimes, just a will of the Justice Department to secure them.
Special Counsel David Weiss inexplicably allowed serious felonies to expire, refused to bring obvious crimes as an unregistered foreign agent, and sought to cut an embarrassing sweetheart deal with Hunter to avoid any jail time on a couple of minor crimes.
The deal then collapsed in open court when a judge balked at a provision that would give Hunter sweeping immunity for any crime.
When she asked the federal prosecutor if he had ever seen such a plea bargain offered a defendant other than the President’s son, he admitted that he had not.
That is when the chest pounding began. Unwilling to accept anything but the sweetheart deal, Hunter’s defense counsel told the prosecutors in court to “just rip it up.” They did and Weiss was forced to actually prosecute Hunter.
According to the Justice Department, Weiss continued to try to cut a plea bargain with Hunter but was rebuffed by the defense.
They then went to Delaware, the home of the Bidens, and tried to convince a sympathetic jury that Hunter was a drug addict who was not responsible for his action as well as other unsupported claims.
It failed in spectacular fashion with a conviction on all counts.
Hunter then floored it for the California cliff on the tax charges as the Justice Department and most of us watched confused about how he was trying to intimidate. He hit the brakes as the trial was beginning.
Hunter has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position for a plea. He waited until he had little to trade and reportedly did not even inform the prosecutors of his decision.
But it gets worse. If he had agreed to a less generous plea deal last year, he could have secured a recommended sentence on both the gun and tax charges.
Instead, he will go into this sentencing with a past criminal record, an aggravating factor that could reduce the benefit of the belated plea.
