George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said on Tuesday that he did not expect Hunter Biden’s plea deal to “satisfy a lot of folks,” arguing that many critics were likely to feel he had walked away with little more than a slap on the wrist.
Turley shared an article he had written a year earlier, predicting that the embattled son of President Joe Biden was likely to strike such a deal — one that avoided prison time but admitted culpability to lesser charges that could not be tied to his father — and said that for many, that was not likely to be enough.
“The Post is reporting that Hunter sealed a deal similar to the one that I discussed last year as a way to defuse this scandal. It is a plea on tax and gun charges that could now close out the scandal without jail time,” Turley tweeted.
The Post is reporting that Hunter sealed a deal similar to the one that I discussed last year as a way to defuse this scandal. It is a plea on tax and gun charges that could now close out the scandal without jail time. https://t.co/WwoRzM2iHO
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 20, 2023
“Hunter will admit to illegal possession of the gun but enter a diversion program — usually an avenue to avoid jail and allow expungement,” Turley continued. “Years of investigation into Hunter appear to have evaded any serious inquiry into the influence peddling operation of the Biden family. For critics, it will be like ticketing the get-away driver after a bank hold up.”
Turley went on to explain that legacy media outlets — many of which had been content to ignore or even actively scuttle any stories related to Hunter Biden — now faced a far more difficult landscape to navigate.
“After years of burying the story, the media is now attempting an even more precarious exercise. It is called controlled demolition: the implosion of a scandal to limit any blast effect on nearby structures or individuals,” he said, suggesting that the goal of such an exercise would be to protect the president from any possible repercussions.