President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was recently found guilty on three criminal charges.
- Making a false statement in the purchase of a gun,
- Making a false statement in information required to be kept by a gun dealer, and . . .
- Possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
After only three hours of deliberation, a Delaware jury convicted Hunter on all counts.
Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
Additionally, the first son could be sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison.
Almost immediately after the guilty verdict had been announced, Democrats and the complicit media began singing from the identical song sheet.
Phrases such as the tediously familiar "no one is above the law" echoed through the cybersphere.
Many supposed pundits made comparisons between Hunter’s trial and the unusual Manhattan proceedings, which claimed to convict current GOP presumptive nominee and former President Donald Trump.
First a little background on the current president’s son’s case.
Hunter ended up being tried on gun crimes.
But this came about after a federal judge put the brakes on a plea deal that a previous prosecutor had attempted to push through.
The plea deal had been announced in June of 2023.
Hunter had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses through which he would have essentially escaped with a slap on the wrist.
If the deal had been implemented, he would have received two years probation and a "diversion agreement," which would have enabled him to avoid prosecution on the felony gun charge.
However, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika seriously questioned the agreement.
Hunter’s lawyers tried to salvage it but were unsuccessful.
Everything culminated in Hunter’s recent Delaware courtroom trial and his swift conviction. Now for the main distinctions between the two high-profile trials:
—Trump was never offered any deal to avoid being criminally tried. Hunter was offered a very choice arrangement.
—In Trump’s case, the prosecution conflated a bookkeeping misdemeanor into 34 felony counts. In Hunter’s case, despite having possession of a now-authenticated laptop that was purportedly loaded with material indicating potentially serious crimes, the prosecution pared things down to a charge of lying on a gun application.
—Trump found himself in an extremely hostile venue, featuring conflicts of interest, star witnesses with credibility gaps, and evidence that was short on relevance and long on salaciousness.
On the other hand Hunter’s trial played out in a friendly venue, a place where people routinely viewed him and other family members as celebrities, and he wasn’t muzzled with a gag order.
—Lastly, Trump is running for president. Hunter isn’t.
The first son is set to return to the courthouse in late summer or fall 2024, this time in California. He will be facing charges of three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in taxes.
The prosecution has alleged that he didn’t pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020, and that he filed false tax reports to boot.
The back taxes have since been paid.
Under normal circumstances, a case such as this would pose greater potential legal jeopardy for Hunter than the case in Delaware.
But then again, there’s not much that can be considered “normal circumstances” these days, so it’s anyone’s guess what will ultimately happen.
Here’s one thing you can hang your hat on.
There is no equating the Trump and Biden trials.
- Not in procedure.
- Not in fairness.
- Not in guilt or innocence.
- Not in outcome.
And not when it comes to the dispiriting effect on our nation.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.
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