Hunter Biden is set to begin his trial next week as he faces gun charges. As Townhall has been covering, Hunter's "laptop from hell" could come back to haunt him, and there's also been concerns about President Joe Biden having recently met with Hallie Biden. She's not just the widow of the president's son, Beau Biden, she also was romantically involved with Hunter after her husband's death and is expected to be called as a witness by the prosecution in the case. During his Wednesday episode of "The Verdict," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed such a meeting, referring to it as "the rather astonishing fact that right before the Hunter Biden trial, Joe Biden decided a little witness tampering is a good way to start that trial."
As Cruz reminded, Hallie was dating Hunter at the time of the alleged crimes. "The prosecutors allege that Hunter lied about his drug use on the gun purchase forums, and then that he illegally possessed at least one gun, which Hallie is alleged to have thrown in a public dumpster in 2018. So, she's the one who allegedly got rid of the evidence. And so, she's not just a witness, she is a central witness in the case," he said.
The senator also pointed to how the White House's response has been to try to reframe the issue as being about the president visiting Hallie close to the anniversary of Beau's death and Memorial Day.
Doocy: Why did President Biden have a private meeting with a witness who plans to testify against his son?
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 28, 2024
KJP: Can you say more?
Doocy: Hallie Biden is a key government witness who allegedly disposed of a gun Hunter is accused of buying illegally. President Biden was at her… pic.twitter.com/xIF8dVAhQu
"Now, I gotta say that strikes me as a highly dubious explanation," Cruz offered. "It naturally raises the question, gosh, does he did he visit Hallie before the eighth anniversary? Before the seventh anniversary? The sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second first? And if he did, I'm unaware of it. And you certainly would think the White House, if that was their line, and he had visited or at any time previously, you sure do think the White House would have pointed it out. But they didn't."
The senator also spoke to how big of a deal it is when the president travels. "Listen, when the president travels, the president never travels quietly. It's not subtle. You come in with a motorcade, with Secret Service," he reminded, as he called out the Biden family's sense of entitlement for being "brazen."
"And so, for him to go, it's brazen. Joe Biden and the Biden family feels that they are not bound, they behave as if they feel that they're not bound by criminal law, by any restrictions, that that he's entitled to go. And the natural presumption is that he had a conversation with her about what she was going to say when she testifies," Cruz continued.
Co-host Ben Ferguson concurred that there was likely witness tampering going on, as he also wondered what would happen if anyone else, including former and potentially future President Donald Trump, engaged in such actions.
As Cruz explained, one could expect the judge and prosecutor "to make an inquiry" asking what was discussed. "So, witness tampering is attempting to improperly influence or change the testimony of a witness within criminal proceedings. We don't know that that happened, but the United States a federal crime of witness tampering, it's to cite this defined by statute. It's 18 USC § 1512, which is entitled, quote, 'tampering with a witness victim or an informant. And, it describes witness tampering as a crime even if the proceedings not pending. And it is a criminal offense, even if you're unsuccessful in your attempt to tamper,'" Cruz added.
"In other words, if you try to convince the witness, 'hey, you know, it really help if you testify to x, even though x is in the case,' the witness might not do what you said. But it is still witness tampering. And that's a natural question," the senator put it, though he also reminded the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) is unlikely to do anything.
"Now, I'm quite confident the Department of Justice is not going to inquire of Joe Biden, 'what conversation did you have with a witness?'" They might ask Hallie Biden, Cruz offered, "but I think there's no indication that the DOJ or the trial court is good even ask what Joe Biden said to her."
As Cruz and Ferguson returned to the issue to the idea of the president being able to make such a visit, they discussed the context as well.
"So, I don't know, the frequency with which Joe Biden visits other members of the family and many presidents do that. What they don't do with great frequency, is do it right before you do it when you're meeting with a key witness who is about to testify in the trial against your son," Cruz pointed out. "That is a dramatically different context. And it raises obvious questions, questions that the media seems completely uninterested in asking, and that I expect the Biden Department of Justice is completely uninterested in asking."
The co-hosts also discussed how they don't think that any of the trials will affect the November election. That being said, Cruz reminded, as he's said before, is that "what this has always been about is protecting Joe."
Look, Hunter Biden is not someone of public interest, separate and apart from his father. You know, he is a troubled soul who seems to have struggled his whole life, which is the entire White House defense, that he has substance abuse problems, and he's just had a hard time," Cruz continued. "And I don't have no reason to doubt that, that surely seems to be the case. But, the reason it is a public import is, is that the evidence at this point keeps piling up that his entire business model was selling favors from his father was corruption. The reason this matters is Joe Biden, not Hunter Biden. And these two trials are designed to insulate and protect Joe Biden, not to bring him in at all," the senator delved into further, also speaking about Hunter's tax trial, which has been postponed until September.
"And as long as Joe Biden is not directly implicated, I don't think Hunter being convicted will have any material effect on the election. Listen, if his son goes to jail, that may be a very difficult thing, personally, for Joe Biden. And emotionally for Joe Biden. But at the end of the day, the Biden DOJ succeeded in what I think its principal goal was, which is protecting the big guy and ensuring that there's no investigation into corruption by the sitting president," Cruz also said, bringing it back to how the politicized and weaponized DOJ has protected the Biden crime family. This comes as the DOJ goes after Biden's political opponents, from Trump to everyday Americans.
On a final note, Cruz thinks that if Hunter is convicted, there's "zero" chance that Biden will pardon his son, though he'll likely do so if after the election, possibly even if he wins in November.
"If he's leaving, it would be it would be a Bill Clinton midnight pardon special, and I think particularly if he loses it's almost a no brainer that Joe Biden would do it. He might even do it if he wins, but it's a more costly decision, because he'd pay a political price for it even if he as he was starting a second term," as Cruz memorably concluded.
The Hunter Biden gun trial is about to begin, and right before, Joe Biden decided to do a little witness tampering to kick things off. Hear about this astonishing action on today's #Verdict.https://t.co/0eLaI7gZlu
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 29, 2024