Comparing Corruption: Donald Trump vs the Bidens

By David Starr

 

There’s been a long back-and-forth between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party regarding accusations of corruption and criminal behavior targeting Donald Trump and the Bidens, specifically Joe and his son, Hunter. 

 

Hunter Biden is a tragic figure with a history of drug abuse. And allegedly committing illegal acts. The Republicans have made shrill accusations against him for both situations. Hunter is accused of tax evasion (he did pay up, but not on time), and illegally possessing a gun while being a drug addict. The first accusation is a misdemeanor while the second is a felony offense. 

 

Hunter did agree to accept a guilty plea in return for receiving probation. But U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika didn’t allow this arrangement, and Hunter switched to pleading not guilty. Regarding the arrangement, Donald Trump was quoted by Sam Cabral of the BBC, asserting that it was comparable to a “mere traffic ticket.”

 

Also responding to those arrangements, quoting FactCheck, “Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican conference chair, [declared] ‘This is the epitome of the politicization and weaponization of Joe Biden’s Department of Justice as they gave a slap on the wrist to President Biden’s son – a tax fraud and a pay-to-play criminal.’” 

 

She added “‘that we have a two-tiered system of justice when you have the son of a sitting president of the United States selling out our country to the highest bidder, laundering money, committing tax fraud, accepting bribes, illegally obtaining a firearm,  and shamefully avoiding child support.’”  Shrill accusations. Nothing about Trump’s criminal activities, though, which smells of blatant hypocrisy.  

 

Cabral wrote, “[Hunter’s] well-documented personal travails, including a public marital break-up and drug addiction – have spilled over into politics since his father entered the White House.”

 

Hunter admitted to abusing alcohol and cocaine and has tried to overcome this, but has been in and out of rehab. In 2015, with the death of his brother Beau, who had brain cancer, Hunter drank to excess. His first wife, Kathleen Buhle, accused Hunter of spending money recklessly on drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, among other things. Cabral quoted Buhle as saying, “He was struggling under a massive drug addiction, and it’s heart-breaking and painful  and that wasn’t who I was married to.”

 

 

 

In his business dealings, Hunter collaborated with his father in allegedly shady acts. Hunter worked at MBNA America, which eventually merged with Bank of America. After becoming executive vice-president, and earning consulting fees, Hunter at the same time established a Washington lobby and took on clients who had overlapping interests with his father’s committee assignments and legislative priorities. Joe Biden asserted that both of them never talked to each other about lobbying. He further stated that all this was not true.

 

Regarding money laundering, Stefanik’s accusation is not a valid conclusion because, as of this writing, quoting FactCheck, the “charge has not been substantiated.” The Republicans say they have potential evidence of money laundering, because of Hunter and James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, were connected to U.S. banks generating 150 SARs (suspicious activity reports.) But potential evidence that’s not conclusive, as of yet.

 

With SARs, under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks and financial institutions in general are required to report suspicious activity in case it leads to a criminal offense. This is sent to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). House Republicans, quoted by FactCheck, said it has “Several SARs that implicate Hunter in criminal activity.” JPMorgan has on file transactions that revealed  Hunter “may be associated to prostitution or adult entertainment services.” Millions of such reports are filed every year by banks. And with so many being filed, it is still inconclusive that Hunter committed a crime.

 

It is alleged that Hunter and his father accepted bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch, but this is not verified as of yet. Republicans Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Paul Comer asserted in writing that the FBI and the Department of Justice possess an unclassified FD-1023 form which allegedly reveals then-Vice President Biden colluding with a foreign national with money exchanged to manipulate policy decisions. But according to the FBI, “the FD-1023 is the form our special agents use to record raw, unverified reporting from confidential human sources (CHSs). FD-1023s merely document that information; they do not reflect the conclusions of the investigators based on a fuller context or understanding.”

 

The allegation stems from information by a trusted FBI informant who passed along the assertion that an executive working for the Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil and gas company, paid bribes of $5 million to Joe Biden and his son. Hunter at the time was working for Burisma from 2014 to 2019. A part of this was Joe Biden’s attempt to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, from his position allegedly for not doing his job properly.  Biden made efforts to persuade then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to do this. In early 2018, Biden was boasting how he got Poroshenko to dismiss Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. In response to the allegation, Joe Biden, replied, quoted by FactCheck, “Where’s the money?” Biden added, “I’m joking. It’s – it’s a bunch of malarkey.”

 

Another matter Republicans brought up was Hunter’s failure to pay child support. But an Arkansas court has been handling the situation. Quoting Fact Check: “Hunter Biden fathered a child with Lunden Roberts, who filed a petition for child support on May 28, 2019, nine months after their daughter was born. Hunter Biden agreed to pay $20,000 a month in 2020, and to make payments retroactive to November 2018.”

 

But in December 2019, Hunter denied that he had a relationship or child with Roberts. This was contradicted by the following circumstances, quoting FactCheck: “In 2020, the court ordered Hunter Biden to start making monthly payments on Feb. 1, 2020, and to pay a lump sum for retroactive payments as well as Lunden’s attorneys fees and costs. The final court order, dated March 12, 2020, said Hunter Biden will also pay for the child’s health insurance.” On June 20, there was a private settlement agreed to, but Roberts’ lawyer said the details have not yet been worked out.

 

If Hunter Biden’s offenses (or alleged offenses) are true, at least regarding money laundering and bribes, then justice must prevail, and he has to pay some sort of price. He’s in a sticky situation, where possessing a gun while being a drug addict is concerned, and that is one of the most damning of offenses.

 

Donald Trump has had a load of accusations against him, being indicted on 37 counts. First, there are conflicts of interest. According to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), after finishing his only term, “[Trump] will leave behind a legacy of profound corruption and egregious conflicts of interest.” “…Trump has flouted all kinds of norms: his decision not to divest from his business interests while in office; an administration marked by placing self-interest and profiteering at the highest levels above the public interest and culminated in a deadly insurrection that was rooted in self-serving ethos.” Because Trump urged his followers to start a riot in January 2021at the U.S. capitol, he doesn’t deserve to be a nominee in the 2024 presidential elections. 

 

CREW asserted that Trump has had 3,737 conflicts of interest as of 2021. He ran as someone who would emphasize “law and order” and “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. But CREW notes that he used “his power as the President to boost his own profits through frequent visits to his hotels and golf courses, relentless promotion of his properties, and countless other interactions between the Trump organization and the government. There are likely hundreds, perhaps even thousands more conflicts that we have no way of knowing about.”

 

Trump once said that he’ll have no time to leave the Oval Office, but he made 33 visits to his D.C. hotels and 145 Mar-a-Largo visits. Over the next four years of his term, there would be many visits from “foreign officials, special interest groups, and others [who] would gain access to the president through payments to businesses he still profited from in office.” In all, Trump visited his properties 547 times while in office. Trump also visited his own golf courses 328 times. 

 

Trump acted like his term was practically a four-year vacation. Instead of handling the responsibilities of government, Trump favored doing business in the Oval Office.

 

According to CREW, “Trump administration officials often mingled with special interests and foreign officials at Trump properties. Special interest groups likely spent more than $13 million at Trump properties, giving businesses access to power while enriching the president.” Further, Trump properties connected to the Republican Party “fundraising apparatus.” There were 69 members of Congress who attended “a political event at a Trump property over the last four years.”

 

So, there were a significant number of visits by special interests, and officials (foreign and domestic) to the Trump empire resulting tens of millions of dollars spent to enrich Trump; and all to gain favor with him.

 

As of this writing, there are 37 indictments against Trump for the alleged stealing of sensitive documents and taking them to Mar-a-Largo, storing them in his bathroom. According to Elie Mystal, the justice correspondent for The Nation magazine, Special council Jack Smith brought the charges against the former president, “breaking the string of federal prosecutors without the courage or commitment to prosecute Trump for the many crimes he’s committed in plain sight.” Trump’s been charged under the Espionage Act for taking documents, conspired to obstruct justice and lying in criminal investigations.

 

Trump had an arraignment on criminal charges and this was presided over by Aileen Cannon, Florida district court judge…and a Trumpite. There are two potential problems with this case. If Trump is put on trial in Florida, that may be an advantage for him since Florida has gone mad with the policies of right-wing Governor Ron DeSantis, and that Cannon, because of supporting Trump, could be biased in her judgements, thus having a conflict of interest. Mystal had it right when writing that Cannon “already exposed herself as a hack.” She was appointed by Trump himself. And in Florida, there may be a biased jury, with Trumpites in it.

 

And according to Mystal, a “trial judge has a lot of power, including the tactical nuke of ‘Rule 29,’ which allows a trial judge to ignore a jury verdict as a matter of law.” So, on some absurd technicality, Cannon may go against a jury verdict of guilty and have Trump set free. But Mystal thinks it’s unlikely that Cannon would resort to this because not only is she a hack, she also maybe a coward.

 

Cannon may resort to delaying the trial, perhaps into 2024 after the presidential election. And Trump already has been “crowned” as the Republican candidate. This may be difficult, however, because Trump committed a major crime, that is, stealing classified documents, etc., taking them to Mar-a-Largo, and showing them off to others.

 

Trump always puts the blame on others and not himself. He made a fascistic rant to his followers on July 16. Among other things, Trump told them, using Jennifer Van Bergen’s quote of Trump in CounterPunch:  

 

“With you at my side, we will demolish the Deep State, we will expel the war mongers from our gov’t, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists Marxist fascists, we will rout the fake news media, we will defeat crooked Joe Biden and will drain the swamp once and for all…” 

 

Trump, as president, actually deepened the Deep State with his corruption. He has plenty of war mongers in the GOP. And he misused the label “communists Marxists fascists; fascism is the mortal enemy of communism/Marxism. But Trump is mindlessly bellowing.

 

Yes, there is corruption in both parties, but the Republicans are more corrupt…and more hypocritical.