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It’s a little joke of the universe that the first American trial of a child of a current president began four days after the first conviction of a former president. Hunter Biden is not being prosecuted. The president’s surviving son is not a victim of a rigged judiciary either. If Biden Jr. is convicted, there will be no fuss about arming American courts. If, on the other hand, he is acquitted, all conspiratorial hell will break loose.
It’s easy to forget that America’s rule of law is still intact. Both Donald Trump and Hunter Biden are tried by a jury with the right to appeal. No judicial system is without reproach. But in America, the accused remain innocent until proven guilty. It is a sign of a corrupt political culture when one of the two main parties treats the rule of law as a party issue.
Let’s recall that last week Trump was unanimously convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business documents to conceal election payments. Trump then called the presiding judge “devil” and said he was the victim of a show trial. Almost to the person, his party repeated that sentence. A notable exception, Larry Hogan — the Republican candidate for Senate in Maryland — was targeted for his brashness.
Hogan’s insult was asking Americans to “respect the verdict and the legal process.” In response to that, Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who chairs the Republican National Committee, said, “(Hogan) deserves no respect from anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly, from anyone in America.” In short, Republicans who reject the claim of a rigged judiciary are liable to be fired.
I have no idea if Hunter Biden he will be condemned. “First Son” allegedly lied on a 2018 federal form to illegally obtain firearms. His gun was turned over to police 11 days later after Biden Jr.’s then-girlfriend — the widow of his late older brother, Beau Biden — threw it away. Hallie Biden was worried that Biden Jr.’s crack habit wouldn’t mix well with owning a revolver.
Prosecutors must prove that Biden Jr. knowingly lied when he said he was not on drugs when he bought the gun. It’s the sad story of a political scion who, in his own words, hit “rock bottom.” That Biden Jr has also cashed in on his father’s name is a poor reflection of the way Washington works. He made much of his money while his father was vice president by joining the board of a Ukrainian energy company. With no particular qualifications for the role, he was apparently hired because of his last name.
Money will always try to buy influence. There is no safe guard against such abuse except integrity. Likewise, Jared Kushner would not have received $2 billion in Saudi investment for his private equity firm in 2021 if he were not the former president’s son-in-law. Americans can agree that their capital city lacks ethics. But disapproving of that is radically different from believing the outlandish nonsense about Moscow-style face-off trials.
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The Trump and Biden cases are a tale of two sides. Biden could have spared his son his legal ordeal by pardoning him — a tool Trump has used for jailed political associates. Biden could also preemptively pardon his son ahead of his separate tax fraud trial in California. The second trial of Biden Jr. formally begins in early September US general election is in progress. If his father is rigging the system, he has a funny way of showing it.
Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s former strategists (also a convicted felon), once admitted that the real enemy of the Trump movement is the media. “The way we deal with them is to flood the zone with crap,” he said. The more nonsense that is pumped out, the easier it will be for the cynical public to condemn everyone equally.
Amidst the rivers of leaks about Trump’s victimization, it’s easy to forget that he almost certainly escaped trial for trying to overturn the election. Later this month, the US Supreme Court will rule on Trump’s claim for immunity for anything he did while president. After deliberating for months on what should be an open-and-shut decision, the conservative-dominated court all but ensured that Trump would avoid accountability.
Hunter Biden may or may not deserve prison time. So does Trump in his hush money case. But those are just secondary things. One of the potential US presidents respects the rule of law. Others don’t. Everything else pales in comparison.
