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Comment on What is the typical sentence for Hunter Biden's Tax Evasion?

bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I don’t disagree with you, the tax charges are serious, but it did start as a political witch hunt. He was investigated because of his last name, not by impartial checks in the system. In all fairness, it is similar to the investigations into Trump’s falsified business records in NY, and that may have likely gone unnoticed had it been anyone but Trump.

It’s an important distinction that the Weiss special counsel was clearly started by Trump to go after a political rival who he was running against in an election, and when they couldn’t get anything on Joe Biden, they pivoted to Hunter. It is a witch hunt on a higher level in my opinion. Maybe the ends don’t justify the means?

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the_wise_wolf@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Sounds like the investigation was politically motivated. But not a witch hunt. Same as with Trump.

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- bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Sincere question, is it a witch hunt when the punishment is unsubstantiated and unjust (like innocents being burned alive)? My understanding was that politically motivated prosecution was a type of witch hunt and that witch hunt described the act of searching of for the witch, not the burning of the witch.
  
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  - the_wise_wolf@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Hm. Interestingly Wikipedia defines the term differently than I expected:
    
    In current language, “witch-hunt” metaphorically means an investigation that is usually conducted with much publicity, supposedly to uncover subversive activity, disloyalty, and so on, but with the real purpose of harming opponents. It can also involve elements of moral panic, as well as mass hysteria.
    
    By that definition you can indeed call it a witch hunt. But somehow it still feels wrong to call an investigation a witch hunt, if the person being investigated really did commit a crime.
    
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    SolOrion@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I feel like the distinction is that when they started the investigation they had no idea about the crimes. They were just looking for literally anything. It was a fishing expedition, basically.
    
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