National Review Online
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Unsurprisingly, a jury in Wilmington, Del., convicted Hunter Biden on all three counts in his
first indictment, which charged him with felony violations of the
federal gun laws.
The evidence against the president’s son was
overwhelming. In light of this, Biden’s lawyers geared his defense toward
pressing a Second Amendment claim on appeal. That is a legal defense, not an
evidence-based defense fit for a jury trial.
It is based on the theory that the original understanding
of the right to keep and bear arms does not abide robust prohibitions on gun
possession by drug users. It is unlikely that this theory will ultimately
rescue him. Far from a casual drug user, mountainous evidence established that
Hunter Biden was (and is) addicted to illegal narcotics. The courts are likely
to analogize addiction to mental illness, a condition that has long been
considered justification for denying firearms possession. Even if the law is
overbroad, the younger Biden’s case is a hard one to defend under the Second
Amendment. Moreover, if the government has any power to determine whether drug
use renders a person too dangerous to keep and bear arms, Biden is still stuck
with his conviction for lying about his drug use on the required federal
firearm-purchase form.
In any event, the Second Amendment was a non-factor at
the trial. Judge Maryellen Noreika ruled against the constitutional claim in
the pretrial motions. She further rejected Biden’s specious theory that he
couldn’t be found to be an illegal user of narcotics unless the jury concluded
that he was using cocaine at the very moment he purchased the gun and lied on
the form.
This is a case that should never have gone to trial. The
vast majority of similarly situated defendants would have pled guilty, accepted
responsibility (in the argot of the federal sentencing guidelines), and
reasonably expected a sentence of probation.
Not Hunter Biden. With the help of David Weiss, the
indulgent prosecutor (named a “special counsel” by Biden DOJ Attorney General
Merrick Garland after years of undermining the investigation of the president’s
son), Hunter avoided prosecution for almost five years — i.e., nearly until the
expiration of the statute of limitations. But Weiss’s sweetheart plea deal with
defense lawyers unraveled when Noreika asked a few basic questions about it and
discovered that the prosecutors had left key terms out of their submission.
With the implosion of this effort to make the gun charges disappear (and to
resolve the serious tax crimes as wrist-slapping misdemeanors with no prison
time), Weiss had no choice but to file indictments.
A jury has now convicted Biden of the gun charges. Trial
on the tax charges is slated to start on September 5 — just two months before
Election Day, with early voting getting underway — unless a more realistic plea
bargain is worked out.
The Biden camp’s claims that Hunter was unfairly singled
out for gun prosecution are absurd. This was not a so-called lie-and-try case,
in which an ineligible person (e.g., a drug addict, a prior felon, an illegal
alien) applies to purchase a gun, lies on the form, and the lie is quickly
discovered so the gun transaction is never consummated. Hunter Biden lied-and-succeeded:
He got the gun and handled it irresponsibly — such that his then-girlfriend
(and widow of his brother) took it from him and discarded it near a school, out
of fear Biden would hurt himself and others. This is exactly the sort of
situation for which these laws exist. To the extent Biden was singled out, it
was for favorable treatment — others would have been prosecuted within weeks of
the discovery of the crime.
Moreover, President Biden took a victory lap upon signing
into law an increase of the potential prison sentence for the possession crime
from ten years to 15 years. As for the lying-on-the-form offense, as Judiciary
Committee chairman, then-senator Joe Biden bragged about pushing through an
increase in the potential incarceration from five to ten years.
All that said, this is not an occasion for spiking the
political football. The president’s son is not on the ballot. This sordid
episode has nothing to do with how the Biden family has cashed in on Joe’s
political influence. Along with his share of heartbreak and loss, Hunter has
been given singular advantages and opportunities. He has squandered them — a
living, breathing wrecking ball of arrogance, substance abuse, betrayal of his
duties to his children, not to mention trading his father’s political influence
for big paydays from agents of corrupt and anti-American regimes. His crash is
a human tragedy.
Hunter Biden now faces not only sentencing later this
summer on the gun charges and a reckoning on the tax charges, but also a
referral to the Justice Department from the GOP-controlled House regarding what
appear to be strong allegations of perjury — allegations that would still be
ripe for prosecution if the DOJ is under new management come next January.
President Biden has publicly vowed that he will not
pardon his son. We’ll see whether that commitment is still operative after
November 5.
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