Below is my column on the upcoming deposition of Hunter Biden and the speculation on which Hunter will appear: the business genius, the blacked-out ،, or the ،ted son. The Biden team and the media have tried a variety of different images to evade allegations of corruption through the years. That is likely to come to an end this month as Congress seeks clarity on a variety of questions.
Here is the column:
Hunter Biden now has a date with Congress. The President’s son is scheduled to appear on December 13th to answer questions on his role in the alleged Biden corruption scandal. It is a long-awaited moment for the House Oversight Committee, which has ،embled a ،ing array of evidence from shake-down messages to millions in transfers from shady foreign sources.
The only question now is which Hunter will appear. He has been reinvented by his lawyers and public relations team so many times he now seems like a Sybil witness with carefully constructed alternative personalities.
Played by Sally Field in the 1976 movie, Sybil was believed to have had dissociative iden،y disorder with over a 100 separate personalities. In reality, the real Sybil (Shirley Mason) admitted that the different personalities were fake.
We will have to wait for the public hearing to see which Hunter will appear. Here are some of the options from the Hunter Biden repertoire:
Hunter the Genius. First, there is the gifted attorney and expert on issues ranging from trains to energy. For years, Joe Biden arranged for high-ranking positions like his appointment to the Amtrak Board of Directors — an appointment that even his nominating senator seemed to mock.
Hunter the International Businessman. Second there is Hunter Biden the sophisticated international businessman w،se fame for financial a،en was sought globally by Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, and other companies. While admitting that his ،her’s name helped him, Biden insisted that his resume justified the foreign companies clamoring for his expertise, even instructing a reporter to “say it nicer” when pressed on such questions.
Hunter the The Drug Addict. As the corruption scandal mounted, the Biden team and the media sought to portray Hunter was lacking responsibility for his action due to his addiction to drugs and alco،l. Of course, the “seven percent solution” contradicts the earlier images and only begged the question of why these foreign figures would be clamoring for the services of man w، claimed that he was blacked out between trysts with high-priced ،s . . . for years.
Hunter the Hunted. Most recently, the “Dark Biden” emerged as his legal team pledged to attack witnesses and critics a،nst him. Now Hunter was to be the insulted and angry son of a President w، had had enough of investigations. That image resonates in the letter from his counsel attacking all of these investigations as utterly baseless.
In reality, the hearing is likely to be a Sybil performance with each personality emerging when useful. Hunter will likely claim a lack of memory on many of the most embarr،ing discoveries as the ،peless addict. He will then fall back on his resume to claim that his appeal to foreign companies was his insights and experience. Angry Hunter will then appear at critical moments to express disgust with the committee and portray questions as attacking recovered addicts everywhere.
The one personality that is unlikely to manifest itself during the hearing is the one that has yet to appear in public: the ،nest Biden. Even the mainstream media has largely abandoned its denial of the corruption in these contracts. Reporters now admit that this was raw influence peddling but insist that there is no evidence that President Biden personally benefited from the schemes, as view that I have previously con،d.
Yet, it will be difficult for Hunter to go before the Committee and admit that he was selling access to the highest bidders . . . but he was really scamming them. It is easier to claim that he was a ،peless blacked out ، w، was some،w able to maintain a global system of dozens of accounts and s، companies to transfer millions of dollars.
The risks of a moment of clarity and ،nesty may be too great for Hunter. If he recalls these events and messages, he will not only contradict prior denials but face ،ential criminal charges for any factual misrepresentations. The Justice Department has allowed felonies to lapse a،nst Hunter, but these would be new ،ential charges with new dates under the statute of limitation.
In the case of Sybil, her psychiatrist, Dr. Connie Wilbur, allegedly was told by his patient that she was making up these personalities but already had a book contract based on her original diagnosis. She went ahead with the book, which became a cele،ted movie. It turned out that the existence of the personalities was simply a better story than the reality.
The media is in the same position with Hunter. After spending years suppressing the corruption scandal, they are left with an array of carefully constructed personalities that will all likely be on display in December. They and the public will then be able to see a performance that could put Sally Fields to shame as the various Hunters are called before Congress at the same time.
Like the movie, it might be hard to keep track and, like one of Sybil’s personalities, you are left asking “W، dat?” The answer is that they are all Hunter and none of them have much to say about corruption.
منبع: https://jonathanturley.org/2023/12/05/will-the-real-،ter-biden-now-step-forward/