Hunter Biden, the troubled son of America’s President Joe Biden was recently convicted in a Delaware court on a gun charge. He was convicted for lying on the form he filled out to purchase the gun by saying that he was not addicted to drugs at the time that he purchased the firearm.
This case is a part of the new era of American political legal warfare that we have witnessed over the last few years. Hunter Biden has fallen victim to this new tactic of political legal warfare that has taken place in America. As the son of the current President, he has become collateral damage in this fight and it has had devastating effects on his reputation.
This case brought to light many dark aspects of Hunter Biden’s battle with addiction. Highly embarrassing aspects of his addiction have been revealed to the public through this case, and no person would ever want to be published for everyone to see.
We learned from Katherine Bugle (Hunter Biden’s ex-wife) about how his addiction eventually resulted in their relationship falling apart. She described how she had to constantly keep searching for his drugs in order to avoid their children coming across them by chance.
There had been testimony of Hunter Biden visiting a gentleman’s club and using drugs there. There had been various witnesses who testified about the large amounts of money, he would withdraw constantly to pay for his drug expenses. Testimony from members of his family, including his daughter, described how Hunter Biden would go missing for many days at times due to his drug addiction.
Moreover, we learned through this trial more about his romantic relationship with his brother’s widow Hallie Biden. We about how the two of them had fallen into addiction together during their relationship. It was during this relationship that Hunter Biden purchased the firearm. It had been Hallie Biden who had found the gun and some drugs while cleaning up Biden’s truck.
Upon finding the firearm in his truck Hallie Biden testified that she panicked and threw it away into a rubbish bin near a grocery shop. The gun was later found by another person and given to law enforcement officials.
Now, it is important to acknowledge that what Hunter Biden did was indeed wrong. While of course, I could never be completely certain that he hadn’t used any drugs during the time he was in possession of the firearm, it likely may be the case that he was. He claims that he didn’t acknowledge using illegal substances on the form because he was in the recovery process at the time, but as the jury had found, that reasoning doesn’t hold up.
Likewise, the way in which the firearm was disposed of by Hallie Biden was incredibly reckless. Just throwing a firearm into a rubbish bin, where anyone can pick it up is not acceptable. The gun could easily have ended up in the arms of a bad actor who used it to commit a crime or potentially even commit murder. That reckless act put the lives of many innocent people in harm’s way.
It is also the case that this sort of case is rarely prosecuted. If Hunter hadn’t had the last name, Biden, it is very likely that this case would never have been brought. Hunter has simply been used as a pawn by Republicans to smear Joe Biden and his family as corrupt.
Republicans have for years at this point been seeking to attack Hunter at any chance they can get. Some may forget that the first impeachment case brought against Donald Trump had to do with the fact that he attempted to have Ukrainian prosecutors bring up a corruption case against Hunter Biden for his business dealings with the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
In 2018, it was Republicans that had pushed for the special prosecutor, David Weiss, to look into Hunter Biden for anything that could be found to prosecute him. This gun charge came about as a result of this investigation. It has been widely agreed upon by various legal experts that this sort of case is rarely brought against defendants. It is not hyperbole to state that politics has played a major role in this case against Hunter Biden.
The same can be said about the bevvy of cases former President Trump has faced, especially his recent conviction in a New York court over misclassifying documents of a hush money payment. That case which in normal circumstances would be considered a misdemeanour has been elevated to a felony conviction by a Democrat district attorney looking to prosecute Trump. Similar arguments have been made that this sort of case is never brought if it is not Trump’s name as the defendant.
America has entered a new era where the country’s legal system is being used to go after political opponents. This Hunter Biden case shows that it is not only relegated to the campaigning politicians themselves but members of their families as well.
As America is the leading democratic nation in the world, this is something that is an area of concern. If potential candidates (and even their families) have to face off against the American justice system as part of their campaign for office, that is contrary to the values and principles of democracy.