Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden (D), was recently charged with illegal possession of a firearm by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), according to a letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
So now what for Hunter Biden?
The letter indicates the younger Biden and his legal counsel have apparently negotiated with the DOJ to avoid an admission of guilt to the violation of federal gun laws, and Hunter has “agreed to enter a Pretrial Diversion Agreement”; a deal that will likely keep him out of jail. It will also remove the felony charge from his record if he successfully meets the to-be-determined conditions of the agreement, according to anonymous sources who spoke to the Washington Post.
In 2018, Hunter Biden appears to have purchased a handgun from a licensed dealer and filled out Form 4473 as is required by law. In doing so, he apparently answered “no” to the question of whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.”
By his own admission in his 2021 book, Beautiful Things, it is all but certain that he was an addict at the time. It is a violation of federal law for a person “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” to possess a firearm. Possession of a firearm by a prohibited person is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment under federal statute.
To make matters worse, Hunter Biden’s then-girlfriend—also his brother’s widow—reportedly found the firearm and allegedly threw it in a trash can across the street from a school.
Last year, the elder Biden made some rather puzzling remarks about the questions surrounding his son and the firearm incident. “He came along and said, by the way, this thing about a gun—I didn’t know anything about it,” said President Biden. “But turns out that when he made [an] application to purchase a gun, what happened was he say—I guess you get asked, I don’t guess, you get asked a question, are you on drugs or do you use drugs? He said no. And he wrote about saying no in his book. … And I’m just so proud of him.”
At the heart of this controversy lies a paradox that Charles C.W. Cooke summed up best in a piece for America’s 1st Freedom: “That while anti-Second Amendment activists wish to make it as difficult as possible for Americans to keep and bear arms, those same activists seem increasingly to believe that the enforcement of the laws they seek ought to be resisted when it is inconvenient for them.”
And, as the NRA Institute for Legislative Action put it, “[t]he message from these elites could not be clearer: Gun laws are for only the little people.”
Indeed, Joe Biden has led a crusade against the Second Amendment throughout his nearly half a century in federal office and continues to do so from the Oval Office, but in stark contrast from his earlier comments on this situation, the White House took a new tone following this breaking news.
“The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” said the White House in a statement.
Speaking on this development, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R) said, “It continues to show the two-tiered system in America. … If you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
In addition to the felony firearms charge, Hunter Biden will also plead guilty to multiple misdemeanor tax offenses as part of this same agreement. We will keep you updated as this story continues to unfold.
