https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/06/22/hunter-biden-got-special-treatment-especially-harsh-00103184

 

Tuesday's announcement that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, agreed to plead guilty to federal tax and firearm crimes drew widespread criticism from Republicans, who slammed it as a “sweetheart deal.” Actually, Biden was treated harshly and — based on what we know publicly — received more severe treatment than a typical defendant.

The announcement of the charges by United States Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, a Trump appointee, should have been cause for celebration for anyone who believes in the rule of law. After all, although our system is imperfect, the fact that the son of the sitting president was investigated, prosecuted and convicted by the Justice Department demonstrates that no one is above the law.

Yet Republicans recoiled at the announcement, perhaps because Hunter Biden was accused in right-wing publications of everything from corruption to human trafficking, yet was only charged with two misdemeanor tax counts of failure to pay income tax and one count of possessing a firearm while a user of and addicted to a controlled substance.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to figure out that these are hardly the crimes of the century. Many critics have pointed out that Biden will almost certainly not receive prison time as a result of these charges, which is true. But while we don’t know what else he might have done — and as Weiss noted, the “investigation is ongoing” — if this is the extent of Biden’s wrongdoing, he has been treated much more harshly than the typical defendant.

 

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