OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
Among Hunter Biden’s various alleged crimes, including an international bribery scheme with his father, his most serious crime is a gun felony that carries a 10-year maximum sentence.
While other Americans are regularly dragged through the mud for committing the same crime, the rules have not applied to the president’s son. Even for first-time offenders, the average prison sentence may fall between one and three years.
In contrast, Hunter was expected to avoid prison time as part of a special plea deal that was allegedly orchestrated with influence from his father, President Joe Biden.
In order to purchase a gun, Hunter lied on a federal firearm form that he was not addicted to crack cocaine. Hunter was kicked out of the U.S. Navy for abusing cocaine.
In the face of mounting public pressure and backlash, Hunter’s plea deal fortunately fell apart in court. Special Counsel David Weiss’s team has informed U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika that Hunter Biden is expected to face federal gun charges by the end of September.
This development follows the collapse of an initial plea agreement in July, where Hunter Biden was slated to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts while avoiding jail time for a felony gun charge related to a false statement on a federal firearm form from 2018.
Judge Noreika had set a deadline for both parties to provide input on how to proceed with the diversion agreement that had been in the works. In response to the initial plea and diversion agreements, Judge Noreika rejected them during Hunter Biden’s first court appearance, deeming them unconstitutional and atypical.
As a result, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and one felony gun charge. Attorney General Merrick Garland subsequently appointed Weiss as special counsel with authority over the Hunter Biden investigation and related matters.
The original incident involving Hunter Biden’s gun occurred in October 2018, when police responded to a report that the gun, owned by Hunter Biden, had been discarded in a trash can near a Delaware market.
According to a source familiar with the police report, Hallie Biden, the widow of President Biden’s late son Beau and Hunter’s partner at the time, disposed of the firearm in a dumpster near a school.
A firearm transaction report revealed that Hunter Biden had purchased the gun earlier that month. When questioned on the report about being an “unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance,” Hunter Biden answered in the negative. He had been discharged from the Navy in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.
Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, has been leading the investigation into Hunter Biden for an extended period. His appointment as special counsel comes amid allegations of political influence affecting prosecutorial decisions in the ongoing inquiry into the president’s son.
Hunter’s lawyer, Chris Clark, reportedly came up with the perfect defense strategy: Threaten to put Joe Biden on the stand.
In a letter obtained by Politico, Clark vowed that the sitting president would “unquestionably would be a fact witness for the defense in any criminal trial.”
Clark said the DOJ must avoid the “spectacle of a sitting President testifying at a criminal trial.” The criminal trial has the “potential” to result in a “Constitutional crisis” as Clark promised to call Joe to testify on Hunter’s behalf.
Using this strategy, Hunter’s defense team was able to secure a “sweetheart” plea deal with federal prosecutors. More than 300 pages of emails and documents exchanged between Hunter Biden’s legal team and prosecutors detailed how they arrived to this agreement. Many Americans remain concerned that the U.S. justice system has been compromised under the influence of the Biden administration.