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Diversion Agreement & DOJ Stonewalling: Hunter Biden’s defense claims a “diversion agreement” shields him from gun charge prosecution, while the DOJ is stonewalling a Freedom of Information Act request.
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Questionable NICS Self-Submission Form: Despite claims that signing a government form shouldn’t relinquish one’s 2A rights, questions arise about the Executive branch’s authority to create new rules, particularly with FBI disavowing the NICS Indices Self-Submission form.
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Secret Service Involvement & FOIA: Reports suggested the Secret Service was on-scene when authorities investigated Halley Biden discarding Hunter’s gun. The agency denies involvement. ATF refused to answer FOIA requests related to the gun charge, citing “privacy interests.”
“Hunter Biden has been ordered to supply a court update by Sept. 6 on a felony gun charges against him,” Washington Examiner reports. “Defense attorneys have claimed a ‘diversion agreement’ shielding President Joe Biden’s son from prosecution on the gun charge is still in place.
With the Department of Justice stonewalling on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request necessitating the filing of a complaint to try and obtain compliance, don’t look for the update to answer where the U.S. attorneys get their authority from to require Biden to “consent to a permanent entry in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System such that he will be denied via NICS if he attempts to legally purchase another firearm.”
“[A] person does not lose his Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms simply because he signed a government form purporting to relinquish them,” Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, informed Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a September 2022 letter addressing the NICS Indices Self-Submission form, which the FBI has since disavowed using.
Whether that’s true or not, the same principle would apply that unless a citizen falls into one of the “prohibited persons” categories established by Congressionally-enacted law, no one in the Executive branch has the delegated authority to create new conditions and classifications.
Not that that stops them from trying.
“Indeed, if such persons had met the Congressional test for ‘prohibited persons’ under any other federal prohibitor, there would have been no need to coerce them into signing the form,” Pratt observed.
Not that logical consistency is a requirement for Biden administration functionaries, either.
Unlawfully usurping authority isn’t the only thing the government is trying to hide in this case, and by that, I mean in relation to guns.
The rest of the mess dealing with finances and bribery, the Big Guy with his hidden email aliases, and the appointment of slow-walking cleanup specialist David Weiss as “special counsel” will need to be unraveled with an end run around the DSM by others with the resources to investigate adequately, and it ultimately depends on whether House Oversight is serious about playing hardball and compelling answers under oath.
So far, it doesn’t look like the Committee has any appetite for following up on the permanent entry question. Republicans had to be dragged kicking and screaming into Fast and Furious, too.
The other thing it looks like Oversight has no interest in is questions raised when authorities first investigated Halley Biden throwing Hunter’s gun into a market dumpster. Credible reports placed the Secret Service at the scene, but the agency has signed an affidavit swearing under penalty of perjury that it has no records of involvement, leading to the following questions:
Were the reports wrong? If not, was anyone from the Secret Service working “off books”? And if not, who were those guys?
Finding answers would require subpoenaing federal and local law enforcement personnel who were on-scene and requiring their testimony under oath. Assuming they’re more scared of Republicans than they are of their bosses…
As things stand, repeated refusals by ATF to answer another FOIA request and a defeat of a resulting complaint in court due to Hunter Bidens’ “privacy interests” mean a new FOIA can’t be filed until the current gun charge against him is resolved. That’s because, without an end to the investigation and affected litigation in sight, ATF will stall on answering indefinitely.
So much for “bringing truth and transparency [and]respect for free press … back to government.” And so much for Joe Biden believing in “universal background checks” for safety, as opposed to as a weapon intended to facilitate citizen disarmament while his son gets special treatment from the president’s lackeys.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.