As a rule, it’s not a very good factor in your son to be convicted of a criminal offense, and significantly not if you end up the sitting president within the warmth of a brutal re-election marketing campaign.
However Hunter Biden’s conviction in federal courtroom on Tuesday, on expenses of mendacity on a firearms software six years in the past, is a web constructive — not for himself, in fact, or his long-suffering household, however in the end for his father, the American justice system and the rule of legislation.
In spite of everything, isn’t this the way it’s speculated to work? You break the legislation, you face the implications. Even in the event you’re the president’s son. Even in the event you’re the previous president.
It was it solely two weeks in the past that Republicans had been thundering concerning the outrageous injustice of a special responsible verdict. Humorous, I haven’t heard a lot complaining about this one, though it includes a “paperwork” offense (boo!) that pertains to gun rules (further boo!). The one complaints I recall had been that Hunter was getting off too straightforward with a plea deal … till that fell by on the final minute.
On Tuesday, the right-wing naysayers bought an precise responsible verdict, and nonetheless they tied themselves in knots making an attempt 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 respectable 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 expenses.)
Certain, the system is way from excellent. Wealthy and highly effective individuals get off on a regular basis; poor individuals extra typically don’t. And but the previous two weeks have supplied an object lesson within the truthful administration of justice, and the seriousness that characterizes prison trials and jury deliberations. We speak quite a bit concerning the presumption of innocence, however that foundational precept derives its which means solely throughout the context of a society that really 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?
In fact you possibly can’t, and that’s as necessary a distinction as exists between the 2 candidates for president in 2024.
