As a rule, it’s not a very good factor to your son to be convicted of a criminal offense, and significantly not when you’re the sitting president within the warmth of a brutal re-election marketing campaign.
However Hunter Biden’s conviction in federal court on Tuesday, on costs of mendacity on a firearms utility six years in the past, is a internet optimistic — not for himself, after all, or his long-suffering household, however finally for his father, the American justice system and the rule of legislation.
In spite of everything, isn’t this the way it’s purported to work? You break the legislation, you face the implications. Even should you’re the president’s son. Even should you’re the previous president.
It was it solely two weeks in the past that Republicans had been thundering in regards to the outrageous injustice of a special responsible verdict. Humorous, I haven’t heard a lot complaining about this one, although it includes a “paperwork” offense (boo!) that pertains to gun laws (further boo!). The one complaints I recall had been that Hunter was getting off too simple with a plea deal … till that fell by on the final minute.
On Tuesday, the right-wing naysayers obtained an precise responsible verdict, and nonetheless they tied themselves in knots attempting to dismiss its significance. (I’ll prevent the difficulty: To them, Hunter’s conviction is a coverup for his and his dad’s actual crimes. Additionally, any Biden conviction is de facto professional whereas any Trump conviction is de facto fraudulent.) What the hacks couldn’t erase had been the unanimous verdicts of two juries in two jurisdictions. (To not point out the Justice Division’s upcoming and extra critical prosecution of Hunter on tax costs.)
Certain, the system is much from good. Wealthy and highly effective folks get off on a regular basis; poor folks extra usually don’t. And but the previous two weeks have supplied an object lesson within the truthful administration of justice, and the seriousness that characterizes legal trials and jury deliberations. We speak lots in regards to the presumption of innocence, however that foundational precept derives its which means solely throughout the context of a society that truly holds its wrongdoers to account.
If the Hunter Biden prosecutions illustrate something, it’s that his father’s administration respects equal justice and the rule of legislation, a lot in order that the president stood down at the same time as his personal flesh and blood was dealing with a possible jail time period. Are you able to think about, for even a fraction of a second, Donald Trump permitting the Justice Division — his Justice Division — to prosecute any of his youngsters? Or that he wouldn’t pre-emptively pardon them, simply to be doubly protected?
After all you’ll be able to’t, and that’s as necessary a distinction as exists between the 2 candidates for president in 2024.