Dear editor:
Late Friday my son emailed me to solicit my opinion of the U.S. Attorney General's appointment of David Weiss, the Delaware U.S. Attorney who had been investigating Hunter Biden, to the position of "Special Council."
Since then I have had several other friends ask the same question. Here is what I told them:
The answer to the question you posed is found in the ethics of the man appointed - Weiss. That's not reassuring, based on available evidence. David Weiss supervised the negotiation for Hunter's plea deal and signed off on the final agreement(s). That was, as has been said, a "sweetheart deal."
But more importantly, Weiss' office purposely secreted the most important part of the plea deal - immunity for Hunter - in a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (not required to be approved by the judge) - so as to go unnoticed. The secreted part on immunity gave Hunter Biden complete immunity from any and all criminal prosecution now or in the future, regardless of how egregious the unearthed evidence of criminality might have been.
The attempt to hide the immunity provision from the Judge was deceptive and unethical. In the Wyoming Bar, at least when I chaired Wyoming's Grievance Committee, and I assume since, the prosecutor's effort to deceive a judge, would have been grounds for suspension or disbarment. The Delaware Judge reviewing the plea deal happened to read the Deferred Prosecution Agreement containing the immunity provision, and torpedoed the plea deal with a few apt questions.
That being said, the appointment of a special counsel will delay the House investigation and sets up a situation where the relevant Congressional Committees (Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means) will likely have to litigate every disagreement with Special Council on the production of subpoenaed evidence and witnesses. It could be years before Special Council finishes his "work", which may have been the purpose for his appointment in the first place. The delay will lesson the pressure and tamp down public concern, a benefit to those wishing to "move on".
My guess is that Biden will resign from office in the next few months but, even if not, will announce his declination to run for re-election. Before he leaves office, he will issue a pardon for every member of his family, himself included. The details of his transgressions will eventually become known to the public, but that will likely be the extent of any accountability.
In my opinion, the Democrat Party should pay a price at the ballot box for foisting, under false pretenses, a geriatric, mendacious, unethical, politician off on the American people. Hopefully, that will happen in November of 2024.
In the court of public opinion, the political parties, Democrats as well as Republicans, should be accountable for the candidates they endorse and present to the American people.
Ray Hunkins
Cheyenne