The CNN take on Hunter is laughable!

This is like the puzzle where you have to identify the mistakes in the picture...

Noreika said she had “concerns” about the parties seemingly linking the tax plea agreement to resolving a felony gun charge. During the proceedings, prosecutors confirmed that the investigation into Biden was ongoing.

After negotiations, the president’s son then agreed to plead guilty to the two tax charges in a deal that only includes conduct related to tax offenses, drug use and gun possession. The two sides agreed that this deal does not shield him from potential future charges. But the judge wasn’t satisfied.

Noreika – a Donald Trump appointee who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate – presided over Wednesday’s hearing and has the sole authority to decide Hunter Biden’s ultimate punishment.

While the investigation was ongoing, Hunter Biden fully paid his federal tax bill, along with interest and penalties, his lawyers have previously said.

Where to start?

• Well first, they didn't seemingly do anything. They literally linked the tax plea to resolving the gun charge. One should have nothing contingent to the other.

• Secondly, the parties came into this hearing basically hiding information from the Judge. Why should she be satisfied after a 10 minute discussion between two parties who are obviously working together (not against each other).

• Thirdly, the fact that the judge is a Trump appointee is relevant how?

• Lastly, the fact that Biden paid back the tax bills from two years does not change the fact the he avoided taxes for upwards of seven years.

Moving on...

The Trump-era Justice Department started investigating Hunter Biden in 2018, and the probe steadily expanded to examine whether he violated money laundering and foreign lobbying laws with his multimillion-dollar overseas business dealings. Federal investigators also looked into Hunter Biden’s unpaid taxes and lavish spending, which came amid a struggle with addiction.

US attorney David Weiss has led the investigation. He was appointed by Trump, and Joe Biden kept him at his post so he could continue handling the probe. There is no public indication that Joe Biden or the White House ever tried to intervene in the probe.

Actually it was not the Trump-era Justice department, but the IRS who started looking into Hunter Biden's tax problems and it was IRS whistleblowers who came forward to say that the IRS recommended felony charges. As for the Weiss probe, nobody knew (least of all Trump) that Hunter Biden was under investigation prior to the 2020 election, by design. We were told that the laptop was Russian disinformation, and that there was nothing going on in regards to Hunter Biden being investigated by anyone. Moreover, Weiss might be a Trump appointee to his position, but Trump certainly did not appoint him to probe Biden, which CNN is trying to imply.

Hanging over the plea hearing are recent claims from two IRS whistleblowers who helped lead the investigation that the Justice Department gave preferential treatment to Hunter Biden beginning when Trump was president in 2020. Their claims dovetail with the GOP-fueled narrative that Hunter Biden got a “sweetheart deal,” even though it’s fairly common for first-time offenders to avoid incarceration in a misdemeanor-only case.

So the implication is that two lifelong Democrats from the IRS (one a gay man who is married to another man) are in bed with the GOP-fueled narrative that Hunter Biden got a "sweetheart deal." In reality, the narrative that he got a sweetheart deal is actually fueled by these whistleblowers stepping forward. It was their sworn testimony that IRS/DOJ policy is that a person who has been recommended for felony charges is charged with a felony. There is nothing "usual" about the IRS recommending a felony and the DOJ reducing it to misdemeanor that involves no jail time. The first time offender rule would only be valid if the IRS had only recommended misdemeanor charges. This policy has been repeated and verified by others who have worked as Federal prosecutors (such as Andrew McCarthy).

The career IRS agents told Congress that Justice Department officials undercut their attempts to further scrutinize Biden family members, slow-walked requests for subpoenas and search warrants and blocked Weiss from filing the felony tax evasion charges that they had recommended.

The relevant parties – including Weiss, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other senior Justice Department officials – have publicly refuted the whistleblowers’ claims of politicization.

Well for starters, there are meeting notes and sworn testimony that Weiss told his employees that he was unable to charge Biden in other jurisdictions and that he had been rebuked by the prosecutors in question. His letter was a cryptically crafted non-denial denial. We will see how we weasels out of addressing the sworn testimony of people he works with. Garland is little more than a liar, and not a very good one. The "public refuting" means literally nothing.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers called the IRS whistleblowers “disgruntled agents” with “an axe to grind.” They’ve also said their client is pleading guilty because he believes “it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life.”

Sure, these lifelong Democrats in the IRS are disgruntled and certainly have some sort of axe to grind. They were not allowed to do their job and when they recommended felony charges against Hunter Biden, the DOJ went against their own policies and basically told these agents to go pound sand. This is not partisan politics, but honest Democrats willing to stick their necks out against a prominent Democrat because they have a sense of right and wrong.

The last point is probably the silliest point that could be made here.

Hunter Biden was facing felony tax charges and a completely unrelated felony gun charge. According to the DOJ today, Hunter is still being investigated and could (in theory) be charged with FARA violations. So to recap: he is caught dead to rights avoiding taxes, lying on the registration to purchase a gun, and not registering as someone who was working for foreign entities. These are all felonies that he committed and he has no actual criminal defense for any of them.

He was offered a deal that supposedly allowed him to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors, granted him plenary immunity from all other potential prosecution, not require him to cooperate with any relevant investigations, and at the end of the day all of these felonies would still not be enough for him to see a single day in jail. To suggest that he agreed to this to take responsibility is beyond silly. The deal let him off the hook almost completely.

Lastly, the bigger part of all of this is still the issues with the 30-40 million dollars that came from Ukraine, China and Russia that went through a dozen or so shell companies and ended up in the bank accounts of at least 9 different Bidens. This plea agreement would have likely put an end to any DOJ investigation of this, which is likely still the ultimate goal here.