by Poor Hunter Biden. He thought he was going to get off with a plea deal for lying on the ATF Form 4473. The original agreement called for him to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and accept a pre-trial diversion agreement. That was until the judge asked prosecutors about the sweetheart deal and to protect themselves they threw poor old Hunter under the bus. The Biden legal team then said they wouldn’t accept the agreement. That deal had been brokered by the US Attorney for Delaware David Weiss and Biden’s legal team.
Judge Maryellen Noreika told the parties to go back to the drawing board and come back when they were ready to be serious. Or something like that.
In the meantime, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as Special Counsel for the case on August 11th. Congressional Republicans cried foul as they saw this appointment as an attempt to obstruct their own investigation into the activities of Hunter Biden. Whether this was the intention by Garland and the Biden Administration remains to be seen.
Fast forward to today.
Special Counsel David Weiss obtained a three-count felony indictment against Hunter Biden on firearms charges from a grand jury. The first count accuses Biden of lying on the Form 4473 that the sale of firearm was lawful despite his addiction to crack cocaine. It should be noted he admitted his use of the drug in his own book. The second count accuses him of lying about being a user of a controlled substance (crack cocaine). Finally, the third count accuses him of being in possession of a firearm when he knew he was addicted to crack cocaine.
Nothing has been said yet about the tax evasion charges or if Biden will be indicted for acting as a foreign agent without registering under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. As the media has been quick to point out, it is rather rare to see these kind of charges as stand-alone charges.
Most those cases are brought against people accused of some other crime as well, said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor and expert in gun policy at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. “It’s relatively rare to prosecute someone for being a substance abuser in possession of firearms, absent other criminal activity, or unusual circumstances,” he said.
It will be interesting to see if Biden and his legal team will try to use the Bruen decision to get around these charges. A 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in August threw out firearms charges against a Mississippi man who had admitted to marijuana use. I could see that being of use against the third count but it doesn’t absolve him of lying on the Form 4473.
It would be incredibly ironic to see the case against Hunter Biden leading to an expansion of Second Amendment rights given his father’s jihad against gun rights and gun owners.
Here were my thoughts back in July:
I see two ways this can go.
Hunter is convicted on the gun charge. In due time, The Big Guy pardons him. End of story.
Hunter beats the rap using the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision of 2022.
Hunter could be the poster boy for the Bruen decision.
I read an interesting analysis of this earlier this afternoon. I wish I could remember where!
If the SCOTUS rules using Bruen that a drug user is not a prohibited person, then Count 3 is invalid. However, since he then was not a prohibited person, lying on the 4473 in Counts 1 and 2 would stand.
Conversely, if the SCOTUS disagrees with the 5th Circuit on drug use and prohibited persons, Count 3 is still valid. However, then as a prohibited person, if they apply US v Haynes, he could not be prosecuted for lying on the 4473 in Counts 1 and 2 as it would violate his 5th Amendment right to not self-incriminate.
Regardless, I see Joe pardoning him especially if he does not run or if he loses in 2024.
If Hunter uses the Bruen defense, what are the chances his father throws him under the bus. If so, I assume that Hunter retaliates given what he knows. Guessing that the way out is a private pardon deal. Tricky though since it needs to be after the election and Biden may not live that long. Given her track record, I doubt that Harris would do a pardon. The really fun scenario would be if Trump does a pardon on 2A grounds.