Evidence is abundant that Hunter Biden got off easy in his plea deal with federal prosecutors in his father’s administration this week. As it stands, he will be convicted only of two misdemeanor tax crimes when whistleblower testimony indicates he could have faced felonies for failing to report millions of dollars in income.
On the issue of Biden buying a handgun as a cocaine addict, the Department of Justice not only dropped the charge of illegally possessing the weapon but never charged him for lying to obtain it in the first place.
LAB LEAK INTELLIGENCE EXPOSES MISINFORMATION POLICE
The government tells us the background check form that one is required to fill out when purchasing from a federally licensed gun dealer is vital to public safety because it keeps guns out of the hands of the wrong people. Submitting false information on it can land you up to 10 years behind bars. President Joe Biden himself has called for more prosecutions for the offense.
One of the Justice Department’s offices in Oklahoma, a conservative state with loose gun laws, boasted in January that its attorneys were “aggressively pursuing” people who lie while purchasing a gun, citing recent successful prosecutions. In recent years, the department has gone after citizens for failing to mention marijuana use or a visit to a mental institution on the form, trying to buy the firearm for someone else, and intentionally writing the wrong home address. This year, a man in Hunter Biden’s own district was sentenced to 15 months in prison for falsely writing that he was a Delaware resident while buying multiple guns.
Liberal media have been suggesting for months that if Hunter Biden gets away with the crime, it’s because prosecutors rarely pursue the charge anyway. While data have long supported that claim, a large reason for the trend is that it’s difficult to catch the perpetrators, especially if they lie about something as private as drug habits. The Justice Department knew Hunter Biden did this and simply didn’t pursue it.
The president demands “universal background checks” for gun buyers and sends federal agents to conduct surprise records inspections at gun stores. His administration is on the lookout for wrongdoing, and if you’re an ordinary American who breaks our laws, watch out. But if you share his powerful last name, then prosecutors worry about “the optics” of holding you accountable, according to the whistleblower testimony released this week.
In short, when Attorney General Merrick Garland waxes eloquent about how "no person is above the law in this country," the only sensible reaction is to laugh.
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Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.