Hunter Biden rolls on

Miranda Devine zooms in on the story of Devon Archer in the New York Post column “Biden’s silent as son’s former friend and business partner faces jail, financial ruin.” Devine updates us on the story: “Archer has less than five weeks left before he has to go to jail to serve a one-year, one-month sentence over a fraud he says he had no knowledge his then-partners were committing, and which cost him his life’s savings.”

Devine’s February 7 column anticipated Archer’s sentencing. Her previous column seems somewhat more cynical about Archer than her column today. In any event, her column today contrasts with it. In the February column Devine exhumes interesting material from Hunter’s laptop. Both columns are worth reading.

It has been left to the reporters and columnists of the New York Post to tell the Hunter Biden story. Archer is a chapter in the story. Archer and several of his business colleagues have been convicted of fraud in the case brought by Southern District of New York prosecutors.

Devine reminds us that Archer testified last summer to the Delaware grand jury investigating Hunter Biden over tax evasion, money laundering and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, allegations unrelated to Archer’s fraud conviction. Prior to his arrest in the Native American tribal fraud case, Archer served with Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma.

Devine states that Judge Ronnie Abrams sentenced Archer to prison and Archer and ordered that he forfeit $15 million as well as pay his share of $43 million restitution (to be divided with his co-defendants?) despite the fact that she has said she thought Archer was “innocent,” “lacked the requisite intent” and lost money on the $60 million fraud cooked up by his co-defendants to cheat investors in a Native American tribal bond scheme.

Proof of the requisite intent is an element of the offenses of which Archer was convicted. Judge Abrams has the power to set aside Archer’s convictions upon a finding that that the evidence is insufficient to support them. Indeed, Judge Abrams did so. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Abrams’s finding in United States v. Archer and the Supreme Court denied certiorari this past November.

The Department of Justice’s press release regarding Archer’s February sentencing is posted here. The New York Post reported on it here.

The Delaware grand jury that is investigating Hunter Biden is still at work. Three Wall Street Journal reporters update the story today in “Prosecutors Advance Tax Probe of Hunter Biden.” Subhead: “Grand jury heard witness in February about past drug use, spending habits of president’s son.”

Hunter Biden appears to be the chief operating officer in the corrupt Biden family busines, yet it is hard to believe that he will ever have to face the music. The elevation of Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary into a federal case pursued by the FBI and the SDNY prosecutors appears illustrative of the double standards in play.

Is the Journal story to be taken at face value? Among other things, the Journal reports: “As the investigation has unfolded, Justice Department officials have discussed whether Hunter Biden’s well-documented problems with drug abuse and his efforts to treat it could serve as a defense for the potential criminal tax case, some of the people said.” Surely “some of the people” jest.

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