Well, here’s a refreshing change: Hunter Biden is being treated like any other citizen alleged to have committed a crime, for once.
According to CNN, federal Magistrate Judge Christopher J. Burke denied a defense request for the president’s son to appear virtually to enter a plea in his federal firearms violation case when he’s arraigned on Oct. 3.
The initial date for arraignment in the case was supposed to be Sept. 26, according to United Press International. However, it was pushed back at the request of his attorneys.
Abbe Lowell, one of Biden’s many members of counsel, urged the court to let him appear via video link in a Tuesday filing.
“No matter whether in person or virtual, he will waive reading of the indictment, which is merely a few pages and could easily be read at a video conference,” the filing read.
However, special counsel David Weiss pushed back on the move, saying it was unprecedented.
“Hunter Biden does not contend he is injured or indigent,” wrote the special counsel, initially a Delaware U.S. attorney investigating the Hunter case, in a court filing.
“If ‘convenience’ was a legitimate basis to warrant virtual proceedings, every defendant would ask for them in every case.”
Weiss also said the in-person court appearance would “promote the public’s confidence” that the fix wasn’t in for the president’s son.
“An in-person hearing is important to promote the public’s confidence that the defendant is being treated consistently with other defendants in this District and in other Districts,” Weiss’ team said in its court filing.
“Moreover, the previous arraignment held in connection with this matter was anything but routine because the defendant and his previous attorney were not prepared to answer the Court’s questions.”
The Delaware judge sided with the special counsel.
“In the end, the Court agrees with both Defendant … and the Government … that Defendant should not receive special treatment in this matter – absent some unusual circumstance, he should be treated just as would any other defendant in our Court,” Judge Burke wrote in his ruling on Wednesday.
“Any other defendant would be required to attend his or her initial appearance in person. So too here.
“Therefore, Defendant’s Motion is DENIED,” the ruling concluded.
The gun charge could be just the beginning of Hunter’s legal woes, depending on how serious the special counsel is regarding the tax and gun allegations the president’s son faces.
Mind you, this was all supposed to be settled quietly via a plea agreement arranged by the Department of Justice in which Hunter would plead guilty to the tax and gun violations so long as he completed a diversionary program designed for offenders who had drug issues.
However, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika found the agreement dubious, particularly since 1) it offered Hunter wide immunity for crimes not even covered under the plea agreement and 2) the prosecution and defense argued in court over how wide the immunity being offered was. She called the plea “confusing,” “not straightforward,” “unprecedented” and “atypical,” refused to accept the deal, and ordered attorneys to go back to the bargaining table to hash out something more conventional.
It failed, and Weiss was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland. While there has been some skepticism from Republicans about Weiss’ appointment — he had handled the case previously, after all, including the botched plea agreement — Weiss has taken on arguably the easiest case to convict Hunter on, the gun charges.
In 2018, Hunter bought a Colt Cobra .38 Special through a gun dealer. As part of a federal background check form, he asserted he was drug-free, a precondition to legally purchasing a firearm. According to Hunter’s own memoir, however, he was on a wild drug bender at roughly the same time he purchased the weapon.
While these cases — lying on federal background check forms — often aren’t prosecuted, that’s because they’re called “lying and trying”: i.e., the individual in question got caught lying and was unable to purchase the gun. Hunter succeeded in purchasing the firearm — and, lo and behold, the gun ended up in a Delaware dumpster thanks to Hunter’s girlfriend and widow of his dead brother Beau, Hallie Biden.
Suffice it to say, it’s a bit complicated, but the point is that anyone who came across the gun in the dumpster could have used it in nefarious ways — or Hunter could have, considering his mental state at the time.
Apparently, the White House — and specifically, the president — is in a tizzy over the fact the first son is finally being treated like any other person.
“The emotional toll continues to weigh heavily on the president and first lady, who approach the most sensitive family matters as a father and mother above all else, according to a source familiar with their thinking,” NBC News reported Saturday. “But the recent shift in their outlook has been dramatic, the source said.”
Michael LaRosa, Jill Biden’s former press secretary, told the network, “Every day, this president wakes up and thinks about his deceased son and probably cries every day. And the weight of [Hunter’s legal troubles] is equally emotionally taxing.” He added that the Bidens are “incredibly protective of Hunter.”
Yes, and that’s how we got here. Now, the most enabled prodigal son in recent Washington history will have to eat the same carob pods the rest of the ordinary swine that go through the legal system are forced to swallow.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
