Hunter Biden was found guilty of three federal felony charges for falsely denying drug use while possessing a firearm. He is set to be sentenced on December 12th. The three counts carry the potential for up to 25 years in prison, though the punishment for a first-time offender is expected to be less.
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The First Son also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax-related charges in Los Angeles in September. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 16th. He faces 17 years in that case.
READ MORE: Why Would Hunter Biden Enter a Straight-Up Guilty Plea With No Deal? His Explanation, and More
All of this gives President Biden plenty of time to issue a pardon before he leaves office. He has repeatedly insisted he will not take such action but is almost sure to reconsider.
If he does not, however, former President Donald Trump says he’ll consider the case, noting that efforts to jail political opponents create chaos and divide the nation.
He revealed a willingness to consider a pardon for Hunter Biden should he return to the White House for a second term, to syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview Thursday
“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” he said.
“See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously, despite what — and Hunter’s a bad boy. There’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy. All you had to do is see the laptop from hell,” added Trump.
“But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country.”
There is so much irony involved in those comments, that it’s difficult to determine where to begin. How about we start with this? The man Democrats are hammering home as someone who wants to jail his political opponents is considering literally letting one of them out of prison.
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Then there’s the family values angle. Hunter Biden would potentially be pardoned by the man they’re currently comparing to Hitler while his own father – his own father! – has said he wouldn’t do it.
I mean, it’s not exactly a Hallmark Christmas movie, but it’s close.
It has long been my contention that if President Biden had an ounce of sense, he would have promised a pardon for Trump to show a true willingness to heal the nation. But then, he never had an ounce of sense.
Now, Trump is voicing the potential to bridge that divide. He even pointed out that, while the Biden-Harris administration actually pursued their political opponents – relentlessly – he never did, Hunter or otherwise.
Trump told Hewitt, “I could have gone after Hillary. I could have gotten Hillary Clinton very easily,” referencing the ‘lock her up’ chants that arose during his 2016 campaign.
“I could have had her put in jail. And I decided I didn’t want to do that. I thought it would look terrible. You had the wife of the president of the United States going to jail. I thought it would be very bad if we did that,” he added. “And I made sure that didn’t happen, OK? I thought it would be bad.”
In retrospect, it may have been a naive move. Democrats do not hesitate to take down their opponents. Two sham impeachment efforts, four indictments, and dozens of felony counts can attest to that. Not to mention two assassination attempts.
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Trump though … He gets the bigger picture.
In an op-ed column I wrote this past June, I argued that Trump should absolutely promise to pardon Hunter Biden on the gun charge, if not from a politically shrewd angle, from a defense of the Second Amendment perspective.
It would, of course, disarm the narrative that he will wantonly jail Biden, Harris, and Clinton family members, but it would also allow an argument for gun rights – even for drug users.
What Hunter went down for is absurd considering the things he could have been prosecuted for. Yes, lying on the background form is a felony but prosecutions for it are exceedingly rare.
There’s a reason for that. The Second Amendment does not have a drug addiction exception. Additionally, how many drug users actually answer yes to that question on the form knowing it will tank their chances of approval? I’d wager the number is low.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans last August ruled that limiting the Second Amendment rights of drug users was prohibited under the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, an appointee of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote in an opinion: “In short, our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage.”
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Hunter’s legal team made that very argument when trying to get his charges dropped, saying that preventing a drug user from gun ownership is an “unconstitutional violation” of the right to bear arms.
Whether you agree or disagree, all of this may be a moot point. President Biden will almost certainly change his mind on a pardon or, at the very least, a commutation of Hunter’s sentence before he departs in January.
