On Tuesday, Hunter Biden was found guilty on all three federal gun charges he faced. A jury in Delaware convicted him after just under three hours of deliberation.
It marks the first time the child of a sitting U.S. president has been convicted of a felony.
After nearly six years and a sweetheart plea deal that offered him no jail time before ultimately falling through, it seems the most privileged man on the planet will finally have to pay a price.
But should he on this particular matter? Of all the things Hunter Biden could be tagged with in a long career of criminal behavior, this is what they got him on?
Former President Donald Trump should issue a statement today vowing to pardon the First Son if he wins the election in November.
First, there is no political victory here for Trump. You might think that Biden’s conviction would be welcome news for the presumptive GOP nominee. But to the contrary, it actually gives President Joe Biden an edge by allowing him to argue the justice system is fair, impartial, and it worked.
It serves little more than an effort by Democrats to suggest Trump’s own conviction was fair and impartial, which we all know it was not. And it shifts the focus onto this trial alone and off the years-long Biden crime family operation.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt indicated as much in a statement after the verdict.
“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine,” she said.
Two, Trump could frame the reasoning for this move as a defense of Second Amendment rights – yes, even for drug users.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans last August ruled that limiting the Second Amendment rights of drug users was prohibited under the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, an appointee of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote in an opinion: “In short, our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage.”
Hunter’s own legal team made that very argument when trying to get his charges dropped, saying that preventing a drug user from gun ownership is an “unconstitutional violation” of the right to bear arms.
Biden’s interlocutory appeal was rejected, though he may raise the issue again if he appeals the verdict.
Third, Trump announcing a pardon for Hunter would throw Team Biden into utter chaos. The president has, throughout this trial, appealed to emotions, repeatedly reminding the public that while he is the leader of the free world, he is, first and foremost, a caring dad who supports his son.
But that caring dad can be directly tied to his son possibly getting a stiffer prison sentence. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law in 2022, raised the maximum penalty for violations of Section 922(g)(3) to 15 years.
Not only might his father be responsible for an extended jail stay, but the president has insisted he will not pardon Hunter.
While the truth in that statement can be debated, he’ll have to at least stick to his guns (pardon the pun) on the matter for a brief period.
Now imagine Trump comes along, offers sympathy for a man clipped by bogus gun charges, and promises to set him free.
Biden has backed himself into a corner here, and his opponent should seize on the opening. The president must insist he will not hand out a pardon. It is the only way to avoid suggestions that he is meddling in the justice system. He must feign support for that justice system to make the case that Trump’s own convictions are legitimate.
He must sell out his own son. Can you imagine a debate in which Biden would be forced to argue why his own flesh and blood remains in prison while Trump comes off as the compassionate defender of the constitutional rights of his downtrodden kid?
Picture Hunter leaving prison and having to shake hands with the man who set him free. Trump has a chance to beat them at their own political games here. He should jump on it.