As the revelations of potential bribery, bank fraud and tax evasion swirl around Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, both men, who are increasingly appearing together, seem extraordinary calm and unconcerned in public as Joe flashes his signature supercilious and mocking smirk whenever he is asked about the various investigations into his and his son’s activities over the past 12 years.  Thanks to pre-emptive presidential pardons, Joe knows that he, Hunter, and the family will never have to answer for any of their alleged egregious criminality.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a president can issue a pardon before charges have been filed.  That pardon power:

...extends to every offense known before the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgement.

Apparently the strategy over the past two and a half years has been for Joe Biden to rely on his sycophants in the Justice Department to stonewall the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate him and to negotiate an absurdly lenient jail-free plea deal with Hunter while the legacy media continued to deliberately ignore or conceal any alleged criminality.

With a court-approved plea deal on the books, the Justice Department could then continue to obfuscate by blithely claiming that they criminally charged Hunter Biden.  Thereafter, they could ignore the calls for a full-scale investigation of bribery and bank fraud allegations until after the 2024 election, when Joe would be safely ensconced once again in the Oval Office and pre-emptive pardons could then be issued with no political fallout for Joe or the Democrat party.

However, on July 26th a federal judge in Delaware has to approve of Hunter’s recently announced absurdly lenient  plea deal on criminal gun and tax evasion charges, unless the Justice Department requests a delay for fear of an adverse ruling.  After the ongoing revelations by the whistleblowers from the IRS, there is certainly ample reason for the judge to reject the plea deal. 

If the deal is rejected, the well laid plans of Joe Biden and the Justice Department will require a major revision, as the federal prosecutors and Hunter Biden would have to discuss a possible jail sentence as part of a new plea deal knowing that Hunter would never opt for an open trial. 

Even if the judge does accept the plea deal as filed, the Republican House of Representatives is continuing its investigations.  Thanks to a phalanx of patriotic whistleblowers and dogged determination, it appears the House will be able to publicly reveal potentially irrefutable evidence of Joe and Hunter’s criminal activity.  Thus, the Justice Department is finding it difficult to continue burying their heads in the sand and refusing to pursue a criminal investigation of Hunter and possibly other Biden family members without implicating Joe.

This scenario is further complicated by 2024 political considerations as Joe Biden is ostensibly seeking re-election.  The endless disclosures coming out of the House are undermining Joe’s standing with the American citizenry and the Democrat party’s ability to retain the presidency.  So, what to do and when with Joe, Hunter, and the family, particularly if Hunter’s plea deal is rejected?  

Hunter Biden, as the bag man for his father, has the goods on Joe and he, Hunter, likely is not going to spend years in jail for bribery and fraud without threatening to take Joe down with him.  As their respective careers have underlined, both men are devoid of decency or scruples.   Hunter also knows, thanks to Joe being President, that pre-emptive pardons would be uniquely available for him and the other members of the Biden Crime Family.

At some point soon, Joe will be faced with having to issue pardons for Hunter, James Biden and others.  Does he do it now or wait, as planned, until after November 5, 2024 during the interregnum period between the election and inauguration to grant the pardons? 

If Joe issues the pardons anytime soon, or if the Republicans and conservative media can transform the issue of pre-emptive pardons into a major political controversy, his campaign for re-election will be over.   The Democrat party will have to move on to another presidential candidate waiting in the wings. Thus, exacerbating the timing of when the pardons will be issued.

After pardoning Hunter et al, the overarching dilemma for Joe Biden will then be how to pre-emptively pardon himself.

Much has been discussed and written about a president’s power to pardon himself.  Some constitutional scholars claim a president can issue a self-pardon, as the matter wasn’t directly addressed by the Constitutional Convention and as “there are no constraints defined in the Constitution itself that says he can’t do it,” he therefore could self-pardon.

However, a sizable majority of Constitutional scholars claim a president does not have the power of self-pardon and that the Supreme Court would very likely rule against it if the matter ever came before them.  Per prominent Constitutional law professor, Brian C. Kalt:  

The Framers either assumed that self-pardons were invalid or at most failed to consider the issue.  The text they wrote does not say anything specific about self-pardons, but their failure to explicitly ban self-pardons cannot be read as a decision to allow them.

Looking at the structure of the Constitution and the government it creates, we find a general distaste for self-dealing and a specific notion of a presidency that is limited in ways that are inconsistent with allowing self-pardons.  Finally, general principles about the rule of law and against self-judging militate strongly in favor of the notion that self-pardons are invalid.

Therefore, it would be risky for Joe Biden to go down the road of a self-pardon, particularly if the Democrats lose the White House in 2024.  However, at his age as well as his mental and physical health, he may consider it worth the risk.

There is, on the other hand, another option that avoids the high probability of a self-pardon being declared invalid.   Mary Lawton, an Assistant Attorney General, wrote the following in 1974 when Nixon was considering a self-pardon:

A different approach to the pardoning problem could be taken under Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.  If the President declared that he was temporarily unable to perform the duties of his office, the Vice-President would become acting President and as such he could pardon the President.  Thereafter the President could either resign or resume the duties of his office.

As Biden currently already cannot perform the duties of his office, the above scenario is highly plausible, presuming that the Vice President, Kamala Harris or any possible successor, would be willing to make such a commitment.  

In what will be one of the most egregious travesties of justice in American history, these pre-emptive pardons will inevitably be issued during the Biden presidency. 

The Democrats and their allies, the legacy media, will dutifully avoid any discussion of pre-emptive pardons.  Therefore, for the next 16 months, the Republican candidates for the presidency, Republican members of Congress, and conservative media must begin to openly, unabashedly, and consistently emphasize this issue of self-pardons and corrupt deals with a vice president.  The vast majority of the American public must be made aware that Joe Biden and his family want to not only escape accountability but that a duplicitous Democrat party will be abetting this travesty.