# The Hunter Biden Investigation {thread started in 2019}, Hunter Pardoned on December 1, 2024 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 28, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964 "2019-09-28T19:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/241 "2023-06-20T18:21:55Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > So far there’s no evidence Hunter did anything wrong aside from the two tax things and the gun thing. Sure, it’s possible he has a treasure trove of info for the Feds for a million other crimes, but if we’re making things up out of thin air then maybe he’s a space alien too. Who cares? If that’s the case, we’ll find out eventually. It’s probably not the case. But……maybe he had a drug fueled orgy with Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle on top of a pile of classified documents. Who knows, anything is possible, I’m just asking questions. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/242 "2023-06-20T18:22:41Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > that checkbox on the gun application is a joke, and when you go into the gun store you will get explicit instructions ( sometimes there is a poster on the wall) as to how to fill out the application if you want a gun and NO ONE ever checks that box It’s ambiguous too. Are they asking about _today_, or _recently_, or _ever_? > Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? > Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized > for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside. I lied on my form if remote use of marijuana requires a “yes” answer. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/243 "2023-06-20T18:25:33Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > A strong defense - if you’ve a mind to do it - is to show all of the people in Hunter’s circle over the last decade who have been hauled in and arrested. If those people weren’t imaginary. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/244 "2023-06-20T18:26:31Z")
I recommend to use non-imaginary people, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/245 "2023-06-20T18:27:29Z")
Quick question… then why did you use imaginary people to spin your tale? You were NOT explicitly asked to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/246 "2023-06-20T18:28:38Z")
You’re free to demonstrate that Karim Massimov is not a real person. I grant that I just trusted, from his Wikipedia page, that he’s a real person but I have no particular reason to discount it? > **[Karim Massimov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karim_Massimov)** > > Karim Qazhymqanuly Massimov (Kazakh: Кәрім Қажымқанұлы Мәсімов, \[kæɾɘm qɑʑəmqɑˈnʊlɯ mæsɘməf\]; born 15 June 1965) is a politician who served as a Prime Minister of Kazakhstan from 10 January 2007 to 24 September 2012 and again from 2 April 2014 to 8 September 2016. > Massimov served as Deputy Prime Minister from 19 January 2006 to 9 January 2007 and as Minister of Economy and Budget Planning, Minister of Transport and Communications in 2001. President Nursultan Nazarbayev nominated Massimov to su... If he is, as you contend, imaginary then I do apologize. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/247 "2023-06-20T18:28:54Z")
I read that to say that any user user of weed cannot possess (or cannot buy?) a gun. Is that right? Must be a lot of unconvicted felons (oxymoron alert!) out there… ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/248 "2023-06-20T18:34:07Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > remote use of marijuana Wait, what? How can you use marijuana remotely? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/249 "2023-06-20T18:36:59Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > Wait, what? How can you use marijuana remotely? [A really, really big bong.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4f02f7e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1255x2048+0+0/resize/1200x1958!/quality/80/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd7%2F31%2F0c9a174d5e7cb11026988b473371%2Fla-1535661305-jpwnr8wurm-snap-image) ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/250 "2023-06-20T18:38:22Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > You’re free to demonstrate that Karim Massimov is not a real person. Ok, so when a right wing conspiracy theorist says Hunter Biden got off easy I can point to this guy who has never been charged with a crime in the US and say that Hunter probably got off easy for flipping on this guy? That’s a “strong defense”? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/251 "2023-06-20T18:59:38Z")
1. Curveball was an Iraqi in Germany. Hunter’s business activities spanned China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and possibly other locations. If the information he had to offer would prove more useful to the State Department or CIA, rather than to the FBI and DOJ, that’s still just proffering information to the government and getting some answer back. We’d like Kazakhstan to move our direction more than we’d like it to move in Russia’s direction, and information that helps Tokayev police the elites might be useful to the interests of the USA. (No, I’m not claiming that this is what happened. I’m saying **only and specifically** that US national interests aren’t limited to the DOJ. Nothing more. Nothing less.) 2. I was discussing the strategy in general, not that specific example. 3. Specifically to that example, I was asked to give a real world example for a hypothetical by someone who had clearly not read what they were responding to. It’s like if I said “Imagine that a man is arrested for the crime of moping” and someone asks for an example. If I find a country that has invented an actual crime of moping, and post that as my example, the asker can’t complain that it’s not in the US where there is no such crime. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/252 "2023-06-20T19:11:40Z")
Got it. To you a “strong defense” of a right wing conspiracy theorist saying that Hunter Biden got off too easy is to conjecture that he may have engineered a deal between DOJ and the the State Department to get let of lightly for flipping on the former prime minister of Kazakhstan who was recently convicted of undisclosed charges in a secret trial in Kazakhstan. This is, of course, a specific example of a more general class of defenses you feel is roughly equal to something like he got off lightly because he committed non-violent crimes and has already paid the back taxes with penalties and interest on top that. I don’t doubt that you could produce a better example, but that’s only because I can’t imagine one that is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/253 "2023-06-20T19:16:16Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > If we assume that conspiracy theorists will say that Hunter got a slap on the wrist - which seems like a safe assumption - then they’re immediately going to use that as evidence of corruption in the White House. If Hunter got a more serious sentence, they’d use that as evidence of corruption in the White House. If he was never charged, they’d use that as evidence of corruption in the White House. If he crossed the street, they’d use that as evidence of corruption in the White House. It’s what they do. It’s pointless to even think about how to counter the charges of corruption in the White House, because there is nothing anyone can do to change the broken record narrative going on in their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/254 "2023-06-20T19:21:26Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > To you a “strong defense” of a right wing conspiracy theorist saying that Hunter Biden got off too easy is to conjecture that he may have engineered a deal Yes. Deals are a relatively common artifact of the criminal justice system. > [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > engineered a deal between DOJ and the the State Department to get let of lightly for flipping on the former prime minister of Kazakhstan who was recently convicted of undisclosed charges in a secret trial in Kazakhstan. Not in particular. I do my best to write clearly and concisely, and to correct any obvious misunderstandings. But there’s a level where it’s not my duty to divorce someone of every flawed assumption and TLDR that they pull out of their ass against all reason and evidence. If you read this: > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Specifically to that example, I was asked to give a real world example for a hypothetical by someone who had clearly not read what they were responding to. It’s like if I said “Imagine that a man is arrested for the crime of moping” and someone asks for an example. If I find a country that has invented an actual crime of moping, and post that as my example, the asker can’t complain that it’s not in the US where there is no such crime. And your understanding of it is, “Hunter Biden is in with the Deep State. Shit be real, yo.” Then I feel like I’ve done my reasonable duty. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/255 "2023-06-20T19:42:08Z")
Why did you use that as your one and only example when it is so ridiculous on its face? If the only thing you’re trying to get across is that Hunter could have a made a deal to flip on bigger criminals, just say that. And when asked if there’s any reason to believe that Hunter made such a deal, come up with a “real world” example that doesn’t involve the former PM of Kazakhstan. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Not in particular. When asked for a particular example this is what you provided. I didn’t bring this ridiculous shit up. You did. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/256 "2023-06-20T20:02:26Z")
> [@MulderMuffin](#): > > Is a plea deal common with these types of tax charges? Yes. And it’s worth noting that he’s already repaid the unpaid taxes. > [@MulderMuffin](#): > > The gun charge, in my opinion, deserves more consequences. I don’t think so. This is in fact a charge that is rarely brought. Hunter’s violation consists of owning a gun while being an addict – not that he ever did anything illegal with the gun itself. That could be a lot of people on a bad day. In my opinion, this was the overreach. But hey, ok. It was technically a violation. I’m fine with the outcome of all these charges. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/257 "2023-06-20T20:37:34Z")
Moderating: @Sage_Rat and @Lance_Turbo, drop this ridiculous hijack speculating about Hunter Biden flipping on bigger criminals now. The outcome of these charges is now a known result and no further speculation need occur. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/258 "2023-06-20T20:38:42Z")
Or an alcoholic. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/259 "2023-06-20T20:50:30Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > But the stronger reason is that prosecuting that charge is horrible public policy that would lead to felony convictions for thousand of drug addicts are seeking or have completed rehabilitation, and the prospect of facing a felony for seeking rehabilitation would discourage people for doing so. If the Republicans make a big deal about this, I think the Democrats should call their bluff and start proposing legislation that would investigate the applications of all gun owners and come down hard on those who lied. That would probably shut them up right quick. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964/260 "2023-06-20T21:04:54Z")
I might have missed it, but just so I’m clear, the “plea deal” between Hunter/prosecutors that keeps him out of jail is what the prosecutors will recommend to the Judge. The Judge will sentence Hunter, and can accept the recommended plea deal or not (ie, Judge could, in theory, put him in jail for 6months; or something easier than the deal). Is this accurate? Or is this deal _what is going to happen_? I saw the prosecutor in a press release today mention jail time (ie, this tax charge can carry this sentence) and that the investigation is still ongoing. I didn’t take it to mean there wasn’t a deal or anything, but it was also kind of odd in way I don’t understand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hunter-biden-investigation-thread-started-in-2019-hunter-pardoned-on-december-1-2024/840964.md?page=14)