The Big Reason Why Hunter's Pardon is Justified: Kash Patel

I've listened to hundreds of interviews of Trump's FBI Director nominee

I awoke this morning after a three day unplugged trip to Montreal to learn that in the previous 24 hours, two things had happened - Trump named Kash Patel as his FBI Director and then Joe Biden pardoned his only surviving son, Hunter. Neither one of these things were especially surprising since it is clear to me the two things are connected, but I was surprised by some of the reaction from those in the media, the Never Trump (former) Republicans, and a few Democratic elected officials.

Most of the criticism has taken the form of three primary arguments: 1. Trump will now have justification to make egregious pardons because of this; 2. Joe Biden lied and Dems who support the decision are hypocrites who claim to believe in the Rule of Law but really don’t; 3. Critics of the critics who cite Trump’s previous pardons are wrong because his awfulness doesn’t justify Joe’s awfulness.

None of these things address the REAL reason for the pardon - Trump’s appointment of Patel, who has ranted and raved for the past four years on every right-wing podcast in America that he was going to get Hunter Biden for things he has never been prosecuted for. Joe takes that threat seriously. Apparently, the critics either do not, or are ignorant and unaware of exactly who Patel is and what he has pledged to do specific to Hunter.

I have spent the last 4 years covering right-wing shows, channels, conferences and podcasts. Some very fringy, conspiratorial and obscure. I am aware from time to time a legacy media journalist will dip their toe into that world by spending a week watching Steve Bannon or Charlie Kirk, write an article, and give their expert analysis. That has not been me. I have been immersed in their world - day after day, week after week, year after year. One person I have watched hundreds of times at all of these places is Kash Patel.

Patel first caught the attention of Trump while serving as an aide to Devin Nunes’s staff during the 2017-18 RussiaGate investigation. That led to an appointment by Trump late in his Administration to a post that Patel has no business ever being in - interim Chief of Staff to interim DOD Secretary Chris Miller. An interim to an interim. I have also heard Patel lie about and exaggerate his resume and accomplishments on an almost daily basis to the point of absurdity.

In these hundreds of Patel interviews there was always a central theme: That Trump was going to win, Patel was likely going to be appointed CIA or FBI Director, then he was going to use that appointment to go after Trump’s enemies from the Russia investigation, members of the media who supposedly lied about Trump, eliminate thousands of career civil servants (the Deep State), and go after Hunter and Joe Biden with a new criminal investigation.

I have posted many clips over the years of some of Patel’s most outlandish threats and statements. Some of them have been resurfaced by legacy media outlets, but only the ones where Patel vows to go after them, or to clean out government agencies. They never play the clips I posted where he obsesses on Hunter Biden, and boy, was he obsessed with Hunter Biden.

This is what Patel said last year in just one of the clips I posted:

Steve Bannon to Kash: “Do you feel confident when you go back as a senior member of this Administration starting in 2025 that you will be able to deliver the goods? That we can have serious prosecutions? That the people who did evil deeds will be held accountable and prosecuted? Can you deliver this in the first couple of months so we can get rolling on criminal prosecutions?”

Kash Patel: “Yes. We will find the conspirators not just in government but in the media. We are going to come after the people in the media who helped Biden rig the presidential election - we’re putting you all on notice.”

I should also emphasize that when he is talking about media “rigging” the election, he is talking about their refusal to cover the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop - Rudy Giuliani’s October Surprise in 2020.

Patel claimed in one interview after another that Hunter had gotten away with numerous felonies in connection with his business dealings in Ukraine and China, and that Joe Biden was also guilty and complicit in those crimes. James Comer spent two years investigating those allegations. He took dozens of depositions. Held numerous hearings. It was a disaster with one touted claim after another getting debunked when people actually had to present evidence under oath rather than on the internet.

Patel also said this in a separate interview specifically about Hunter:

“Hunter Biden is guilty of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Hunter Biden was shown to have been in bed with criminals from Ukraine and China to lobby the US government through the laundering of money that Hunter Biden received and leveraging his relationship with his dad. This DOJ should charge him, but they won’t. So I think that is where we need to focus (when we get in).”

The congressional investigation was so bad that Comer refused to even bring an impeachment case to a vote in his own committee, knowing that he didn’t have the votes from members of his own party. Democrat Jared Moskowitz repeatedly taunted him to call for a vote in committee on impeachment. Comer refused. That’s because Kevin McCarthy told him not to do it. Then Mike Johnson told him the same. They knew it was nonsense, they had no case, and many Republicans would vote against it.

But Patel claimed that Comer was simply weak and incompetent, and when Trump returned to power they would take over the investigation. That means a whole new round of subpoenas, grand juries, potential indictments, where many of Joe Biden’s family members and himself - not just Hunter - would likely be prosecuted.

When Trump nominated Patel as his FBI Director, Joe Biden already knew it was coming because it had been rumored for weeks. JD Vance let the cat out of the bag in a quickly deleted tweet two weeks ago where he disclosed that they were going to fire current Director Chris Wray despite the fact that he still had three years left in his term.

So it is important to emphasize, as nobody in the media seems willing to do, that this pardon is much more about protecting the Biden family from a deranged, vindictive Kash Patel than it is about Hunter’s BS gun charge that he was already convicted of.

I will give the critics in the media and some Dems who have chimed in some benefit of the doubt on the grounds that I don’t think they are aware at all of the things Patel has been saying about Hunter on the right-wing podcast circuit over the past four years. But I’m not sure even if they were aware it would’ve prevented them from clutching their pearls on their moral high ground. It’s far too important to them to feel like everyone is dirty, hypocritical and corrupt except them.

I have read the summary of every single pardon Trump granted during his term. Hundreds of them. It is a horror show. It is a litany of convicted Republican politicians, Trump donors, millionaires, drug traffickers, violent criminals, fraudsters, con artists, and just generally repulsive people. Trump also refused to use DOJ’s pardon office for any input - requests for pardons were screened by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in an obvious pay-for-play scheme. To suggest that there is any equivalency or justification for these things, or Trump’s future promise to pardon J6ers or commute the sentence of drug trafficker Ross Ulbricht, because of the Hunter Pardon is utterly absurd.

Joe Biden said many months ago in response to a question that he would not pardon Hunter. But the election was still months away. The circumstances have changed dramatically since that interview. Trump was elected. He first attempted to appoint Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General. Then replaced him with Pam Bondi, who isn’t much better on substance or future intent. Then he appointed a psycho obsessed with prosecuting Hunter as his FBI Director. That would change anyone’s minds about the landscape - especially a father who has already lost a wife, son and a daughter.

But the critics don’t seem to want to take any of that into account while calling Joe Biden a “liar.”

Joe Biden doesn’t want to spend his remaining few years after five decades in public service being hauled into courtrooms by Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. That is why he did this. So many of the critics still don’t fully understand what is about to happen with these unstable, vengeful lunatics being appointed to the most senior positions of the US government. I do because I have listened to them for the past four years, and I believe them when they promise revenge and retribution.

Or maybe the critics do have a pretty good idea about what is coming, but they just don’t really care as long as what they are criticizing doesn’t directly impact them.

Either way, I’m tired of their sanctimony, false piety, and weakness. Many of them have made millions from their roles as Trump critics and become prominent on cable news shows. Now maybe they’ve decided to flip the script.

Count me out.