纽约州民主党众议员丹·戈德曼周日表示，总统乔·拜登永远不会考虑赦免他的儿子亨特·拜登在小拜登同意税收和枪支指控的认罪协议后上周崩溃了.
“我不认为拜登总统会这样做，不像他的前任那样，赦免了他所有的朋友和任何可以接触到他的人，”高盛告诉美国广播公司“本周”的联合主播乔纳森·卡尔，他指的是前总统唐纳德·特朗普。(特朗普为他的赦免进行了辩护，声称一些人受到了虐待。)
白宫新闻秘书郭佳欣·让-皮埃尔上周说，总统不会考虑赦免，但总统本人没有就此事发表任何言论。
在“本周”节目中，高盛为白宫如何处理正在进行的对亨特·拜登的联邦调查进行了辩护，后者上周对税务指控不认罪。
“拜登总统已经恢复了司法部的诚信，”戈德曼说。“我认为你可以看到，在这个案件中，他坚持不懈，而(司法部长)梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)坚持不懈，他是特朗普任命的美国检察官，负责调查总统的儿子——如果除此之外没有司法部独立性的迹象，我不知道我们还能寻找什么。”
亨特·拜登此前同意与检察官达成协议，他将承认两项轻罪税收指控，并进入审前分流计划，以帮助他避免因另一项重罪枪支指控而被起诉。
然而，这一安排在周三特拉华州的一次听证会上破裂了，当时美国地方法院法官Maryellen Noreika就他们协议的一些方面向检察官和亨特·拜登的律师施压，包括将预期的税务抗辩与枪支指控联系起来，以及交易中的一项条款是否会给予亨特·拜登更广泛的豁免权，尽管检察官承认他仍在接受调查。
诺瑞卡最终推迟了认罪协议，她称之为“非典型”和“不直截了当”。
双方现在正在谈判。
在特朗普第一次被弹劾期间担任众议院民主党多数党法律顾问的高盛在“本周”节目中辩称，保护亨特·拜登免受未来起诉的协议语言受到了他的律师对特朗普重返白宫并以他为目标的前景的担忧的推动。
“事实是，这是特朗普任命的美国检察官和特朗普任命的法官，这是一次非常独立和彻底的调查，”他说。“我认为，无论在亨特·拜登案件中发生什么，我们都可以放心，这完全是基于事实和证据，除此之外别无其他。”
2023年7月18日，众议员丹·戈德曼在华盛顿特区美国国会大厦外投票后对媒体发表讲话。
Bonnie Cash/UPI via Shutterstock
当卡尔追问他是否认为交易中的豁免条款“过于宽泛”时，高盛表示不同意。
“这是相当典型的，检察官和辩护律师经常会在被告将获得何种程度的豁免权上争论不休，”他说。
尽管共和党人提出了严厉的批评，声称亨特·拜登因为他的身份而获得了有利的交易——众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡上周表示，“美国不应该有两个司法系统”——高盛表示，“这是一个相当典型的过程。”
另外，高盛还在上周的替代起诉书中抨击特朗普，在这位前总统之前的联邦起诉书中增加了对他在卸任后处理政府机密的指控。
新的指控包括一项索赔他要求删除Mar-a-Lago的监控录像在那段录像被传唤后。
“这表明唐纳德·特朗普知道他的行为是什么，有多错误，他试图阻挠他知道正在进行的调查，”高盛说。"这是典型的内疚意识。"
特朗普否认有任何不当行为，并称对他的指控是出于政治动机。
他对最初的联邦起诉书不认罪，但尚未对替代起诉书提出抗辩。
“我认为最重要的是，唐纳德·特朗普不认为法律适用于他，”高盛周日表示。"他只是认为自己凌驾于法律之上，可以为所欲为。"
Biden would never consider pardoning son Hunter, who is under federal investigation: Dem lawmaker
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said Sunday that President Joe Bidenwould never consider a pardon for his son Hunter Bidenafter a plea deal that the younger Biden agreed to on tax and gun chargesfell apart last week.
"I don't think there's any chance that President Biden is going to do that, unlike his predecessor, who pardoned all of his friends and anyone who had any access to him," Goldman told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, referring to former President Donald Trump. (Trump has defended his grants of clemency, claiming some people were mistreated.)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week the president would not consider a pardon, but the president himself has not said anything on the matter.
On "This Week," Goldman defended how the White House has handled the ongoing federal investigation into Hunter Biden, who last week pleaded not guilty to tax charges.
"President Biden has restored the integrity of the Department of Justice," Goldman said. "And I think you see that in this case, where he kept on, and [Attorney General] Merrick Garland kept on, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney to investigate the president's son -- if there is not an indication of the independence of the Department of Justice beyond that, I don't know what we could look for."
Hunter Biden previously agreed to a deal with prosecutors in which he would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter into a pretrial diversion program to help him avoid prosecution on a separate felony gun charge.
However, the arrangement fell apart -- for now -- during a hearing in Delaware on Wednesday when U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika pressed prosecutors and Hunter Biden's attorneys over some aspects of their agreement, including linking the prospective tax plea to the gun charge and whether or not a provision in the deal would grant Hunter Biden broader immunity going forward even as prosecutors acknowledged he is still under investigation.
Noreika ultimately deferred the plea deal, which she called "atypical" and "not straightforward."
The two sides are now negotiating.
Goldman, who served as House Democrats' majority counsel during Trump's first impeachment, contended on "This Week" that the language in the deal protecting Hunter Biden from future prosecution was fueled by concerns from his attorneys at the prospect of Trump returning to the White House and targeting him.
"The fact of the matter is that this is a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney and Trump-appointed judge, this is a very independent and thorough investigation," he said. "And I think that whatever happens in the Hunter Biden case, we can rest assured that it was done based solely on the facts and the evidence, and that there was nothing else to it."
Pressed by Karl on if he thought the immunity provision in the deal was "too broad," Goldman insisted otherwise.
"That's fairly typical and, oftentimes, prosecutors and defense lawyers go back and forth about what degree of immunity a defendant will get," he said.
And despite withering criticism from Republicans who claim Hunter Biden received a favorable deal because of who he is -- with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying last week that "there shouldn't be two justice systems in America" -- Goldman said that "this is a fairly typical process."
Separately, Goldman also hammered Trump over last week's superseding indictment adding charges onto the former president's previous federal indictment over his handling of government secrets while out of office.
The new allegations include a claimthat he pushed for security footage from Mar-a-Lago to be deletedafter that footage was subpoenaed.
"It demonstrates Donald Trump's knowledge of what his conduct was and how wrong it was, and that he was trying to obstruct the investigation that he knew was ongoing," Goldman said. "That is quintessential consciousness of guilt."
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and cast the charges against him as politically motivated.
He pleaded not guilty to the original federal indictment but has not yet pleaded to the superseding indictment.
"I think the most important thing to take away is that Donald Trump does not believe that the law applies to him," Goldman argued on Sunday. "He simply believes he's above the law and that he can do whatever he wants."
