I can’t tell you how unsatisfying it is to have the gift of seeing realities that others miss, ignore, or try to hide.  I’m reminded of the R.F.K., Sr. quote, “Some men see things as they are, and say why.  I dream of things that never were, and say why not.”  Except, because our current state of chaos, bordering on insanity, brings on nightmares rather than dreams, my quote would be, “Some men fail to see things as they are, and say ‘That’s nice.’  I’m haunted by the way things really are, and say, ‘Snap out of it!”  And so, once again, we shall revisit the prediction I made some time ago, and put into print on these pages in the column, What to do with Joe (12/1/2023).   Here are some excepts from that one.  “Old Joe served that purpose [getting rid of Trump], but it now looks like he’s outlived his usefulness to the Democrat Party, and it may be time for him to go.”  “The problem for Democrats isn’t that Biden is inept, senile and corrupt.  They’re willing to put up with that for another four years, the country be damned.  The problem is that they may not be able to get Old Joe reelected.” “If Biden can’t control the Justice Department, he and other family members could be indicted.  Old Joe could do a convincing Vinny the Chin impression and escape prosecution, but not the others.”  This was a reference to mobster Vinny the Chin Gigante, who when the Feds were closing in on him, wandered around the streets of New York in his bathrobe to perfect an incompetency defense.  It worked for Vinny, and I thought it also might work for Joe.

Only it looks like Joe may not need to bother, since the Delaware Special Counsel has decided that he won’t be charged for possessing and disclosing classified documents, primarily because, he is “an elderly man with a poor memory.”  The report was remarkable, and as a lawyer very insulting, because, in order to clear Biden of doing things with classified documents much worse than the things President Trump has been accused of, the Special Counsel proved himself to be a double-talking bullshit artist, with the flexibility of a world-class contortionist.  He starts out by saying, Joe Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.”  Stop right there!  This satisfies the elements of two federal crimes, removing materials with the intent to retain them, and willfully disclosing them to an unauthorized person.  But the Counsel didn’t stop right there.  What Biden did was illegally take classified documents in 2007 as a Senator, and in 2015 and 2017 as VP.  The 2015 papers related to Ukraine, from which Biden had just returned, after forcing that nation to fire the prosecutor who was about to uncover Hunter Biden’s misconduct.  The 2017 papers included top secret Presidential Daily Briefs, and other documents relating to Afghanistan, marked Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmental.  And unlike Donald Trump, Biden didn’t keep them in a locked room, guarded by the Secret Service.  Instead, Biden put them in a broken box in his garage.  He also had handwritten journals containing classified information in an unlocked drawer in his basement, and he disclosed classified information to the ghostwriter of his autobiographies.  The Special Counsel found that the documents taken and held as VP were not criminal because, “As vice-president and president, Biden had the authority to keep classified documents in his home,” which raises the question, why has Trump been indicted for doing precisely that?  But the Counsel went even further.  Totally abandoning his proper role as a prosecutor, he found that Biden could raise as a defense his age and poor memory, making it difficult to prove he acted willfully.  This after telling us that he found Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.”  In essence, the Counsel is saying Biden would have been indicted, but for the fact he’s incompetent to stand trial.  This is a bombshell.  The standard for incompetence to stand trial is very high.  For example,right now I have a client who killed his father.  When arrested, he told police he had just spoken with his dead father, who told him he was hiring a lawyer to represent him.  He was found competent to stand trial.  A defense of “I must have just forgotten” doesn’t cut it.  In any event, if Biden’s condition even raises the remote possibility that he’s incompetent to stand trial, he has no business serving in any elected office, much less as President of the United States.  Unsurprisingly, the Biden Administration has dug in.  They celebrated the decision not to charge, and bashed the portion of the report questioning his competence.  They’re right about one thing.  If Biden indeed is incompetent, the prosecutor has no business raising such an issue.  It’s what’s known as an affirmative defense that must be raised, if at all, by a criminal defendant.  What’s more, if raised, it requires psychological examinations by doctors for the defendant and the government, and a court hearing.  The Special Counsel had none of that.  He just threw it out as an excuse not to charge Sleepy Joe, who indignantly swears he’s in full possession of his faculties.  In this case, Biden kept the materials after being told by his staff it was wrong.  He told the ghostwriter, “I didn’t want to turn them in.”  That is an admission of wilfulness.  As to the handwritten notebooks, Biden said, “The notebooks are my property.  Every president before me has done the exact same thing.”  So once again, why has Trump been charged with having documents he arguably could retain under the Presidential Records Act, while Biden will not be charged for having and disclosing materials he took before he was president?  Good question.  The Special Counsel’s explanation was that he may have thought he could legally retain them, and may have forgotten about them.  Neither circumstance is a defense.  To this Biden protests, “My memory is fine.”  Whether it is or isn’t, the rationale used to avoid prosecution stinks.  One thing is clear, at least to me.  This Special Counsel report did not come when it did by coincidence.  The report is just the next chapter in the plan to engineer the eventual replacement of Biden on the 2024 ticket.  The Special Counsel is a cog in the Obama machine.  At this writing, 86% of Americans have concluded that Biden lacks the mental acuity to be president, and 86% of Americans agree on little else.  As I said in December, Joey the Chin has to go.  Here’s hoping Joe remains stubborn and that his inevitable removal sparks a political bloodbath that tears the Democrat Party to pieces.