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Investigations and Legal Battles Lead Americans Into Election Circuit

President Joe Biden & President Donald Trump .(Photo: Screenshot Youtube/Entertainment Tonight)

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By Akerele Christabel

February 5, 2024
5:03 pm
Los Angeles, CA

Biden and Trump at each other’s throats, allegations flying in both directions. Americans watch on. The days and weeks leading up to elections in the United States have never been as heated as they are right now. Tension hangs in the air as Americans get ready to choose who will lead the nation for the next four years. This choice is made even more complicated as both candidates are facing scandals in the public arena. The one who typically wins an election is the candidate who successfully convinces the people that they are worthy of holding such a position of the highest office. As campaigns go, most of the time these candidates use the time leading up to the election to point out the flaws of their opponent. Using

Biden and Trump at each other’s throats, allegations flying in both directions. Americans watch on.

The days and weeks leading up to elections in the United States have never been as heated as they are right now. Tension hangs in the air as Americans get ready to choose who will lead the nation for the next four years. This choice is made even more complicated as both candidates are facing scandals in the public arena.

The one who typically wins an election is the candidate who successfully convinces the people that they are worthy of holding such a position of the highest office. As campaigns go, most of the time these candidates use the time leading up to the election to point out the flaws of their opponent. Using the failures and shortcomings of one’s opponent as ammunition for their cause is an old and effective strategy, one that several politicians resort to.

The scenario is currently being played out in the United States of America. Former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, under the aegis of the Republican and the Democratic Party respectively, have had quite the field day launching allegations and accusations at one another. Each accusation rebutted simply opens up a Pandora’s box of many other issues.

On one front of the legal battles going on, President Joe Biden was said to have met the leader of a Chinese government-linked company in 2017. This company allegedly paid millions to the “Biden clan” for a deal whose nature has not yet come to light. A Biden family associate, Rob Walker in a deposition on Friday, January 26, 2024 testified about this meeting. However, he was also the person who prepared the opening statement for the Hunter Biden case, maintaining that the president was “never involved” in his son’s business dealings.

Although Walker upheld the President’s innocence as it concerns his son’s controversial business deals, the admission of an unofficial meeting between Biden, a sitting Vice President at the time, with a leader of a government-linked Chinese company is still fodder for the opposition party to bring into question and use against Biden as the election campaign continues.

Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, is another point of investigation for the Republican party or any other entity who is in opposition to the current President. Hunter Biden, the fifty-three year old businessman has attracted the ire of the United States legal establishment owing to his secret dealings with certain foreign elements, the foremost of which are Russia and China.

Hunter Biden is currently facing criminal charges in two states from the special counsel investigation. He is charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges last month, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million dollars in taxes over the course of three years. These are just two of the myriad charges leveled against Hunter Biden by the Republican party.

So far the investigations into Hunter’s business has not produced anything by which the President may be implicated, which was what the opposition party had hoped for.The impeachment inquiry into the president, which began in September, has focused heavily on Hunter Biden and his international business affairs, questioning whether the president profited from that work.

Hunter Biden has recently agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition in February 2024, ending months of defiance from the president’s son, who had insisted on testifying only publicly. In a statement he made to the press in December 2023, outside the US Capitol, he stated:

“There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen. There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing — they have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life — so much so that their lies have become the false facts believed by too many people.”

The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that the two parties have agreed for Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on February 28, 2024.

Again, President Biden is not the only party in the ensuing battle to have taken hits from the enemy. The Republican party’s Donald Trump has come under fire as well, the most prominent at the moment being a sexual assault scandal, among other allegations of business fraud.

On January 29, 2024, a New York jury ruled that Donald Trump pays 83.3 million dollars (£65.6m) to Jean Carroll, a writer he was found to have defamed by denying her allegation of sexual assault. This heavy financial punishment came after Trump was found guilty of sexually assaulting the writer where he paid out 5 million in damages.

However, the former president took to vehemently denying Ms. Carroll’s claims, even stating on Twitter that he had never met her. These actions are tantamount to defamation of character and this fine is supposed to be a deterrent to Mr. Trump.

Unsurprisingly, the Republican presidential candidate has found a way to make this work in his favor. Facing four criminal indictments and the possibility of paying millions of dollars in fines in a New York civil trial relating to business fraud, Mr. Trump has never stopped claiming that the cases against him are politically motivated, calling it a “Biden-directed witch hunt.”

In terms of his election campaign, his mounting legal woes have been both a blessing and a curse for him, according to Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University.

“It’s hurt the general population’s views of him, but it’s fuelled and strengthened his base, and even driven some Republicans on the fence to ‘stay loyal’ to the cause. Trump has been trying to wear these legal troubles as a badge of honor for his victimization, and of his commitment to his supporters.” Professor Reeher told the BBC.

Recent polling has shown Mr. Trump locked in a tight race with President Joe Biden, and even edging ahead in some cases, in what looks like a rematch of their 2020 race.

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