As expected, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he lied on a federal form to buy a gun. Biden claimed he wasn’t an addict when he purchased the piece.
But unless the jury or judge ignores what Biden said in his own book, he can’t win the case. When Biden bought the gun in 2018, he was stoned or drunk most of the time, he confessed in his memoir.
In other words, the pistol-packin’ son of Sleepy Joe might be in bigger trouble than he thinks, despite having Abbe Lowell, a .90-caliber lawyer and old pro in defending corrupt politicians, as his attorney.
The Charges
Despite being the “smartest guy” his dad knows, on October 12, 2018 Biden lied when he filled out Form 4473 to purchase a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, a grand jury’s indictment alleges.
The form requires that the “prospective purchaser certify truthfully that he or she is not an unlawful user of, or addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance,” as the indictment says. As well, the form requires the “actual buyer” to certify that his answers are “true, correct, and complete.”
Importantly, the buyer must acknowledge that he knows lying on the form is a felony.
Well, Biden lied, the indictment alleges:
[He] knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive [the gun store] with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm … in that he provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.
Biden faces two counts of lying on the form and third a felony count for possession.
The possible but highly unlikely punishment could be 25 years in prison and $75,000 in fines.
Not Guilty Plea
Lowell argues that the charges are bogus not only because of a previous plea deal that a judge rejected, but also because Biden didn’t lie. He wasn’t an addict when he filled out the form.
And that, top law professor Jonathan Turley says, is bunk.
Recall what Lowell said on CNN on September 24:
At the time that he purchased this gun, I don’t think there’s evidence that that’s when he was suffering.… He had just come out of rehabilitation.
Yet Biden’s addiction, Turley wrote, “was used as a final line of defense” when myriad scandals became public.
Recall how the story goes.
The pro-Biden Mainstream Media defended Biden’s planetary business empire as the work of a high-powered lawyer “who brought his skills and expertise to foreign businesses.” Of course Biden had no such skills. Foreigners paid him millions for one reason: His name. That’s why the Chinese wanted to do business with him, why Burisma Holdings put him on its board, and why a Russian billionaire invested in his real estate company.
But then, Turley observed, as details of the influence-peddling became public, the media “turned to the addiction defense” and Hunter published Beautiful Things: A Memoir:
I called it the “the 7% solution“: Suddenly, Hunter’s addiction to cocaine and other drugs was the conversation stopper for anyone who did not want to seem insensitive to the struggles of an addict. Gone was the president’s past mantra that “my son did nothing wrong” and, instead, in [a] 2022 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, the president declared that Hunter “fought an addiction problem. He overcame it. He wrote about it.” It was all about addiction … until now, apparently, it isn’t any longer.
Biden’s “addiction defense” raised the obvious questions about his wheeling and dealing across the globe while he was “drinking a quart of vodka” every day and “smoking crack around the clock.” No responsible executive would hire such a person. The addiction would be obvious.
Still, “the media embraced the troubled-son-of-the-president narrative. The prostitutes, the tax evasion, the gun violations, and other alleged crimes were just the face of the addiction.”
Hunter suddenly became sober when he bought the gun, a claim that is somewhat befuddling considering what he wrote in his book:
Hunter’s book discusses how his addiction continued into his father’s presidential campaign and required an intervention by his family. He said that, despite attacks from the Trump campaign and the liability to his father’s campaign, he remained an addict in 2019. (The gun form, remember, was signed in late 2018.)
And, as Turley wrote, if Hunter was rehabbed and in fine fettle, then he can’t claim his addiction explains his other problems:
For example, in the summer of 2019, Hunter allegedly continued to receive huge transfers of money from Chinese sources. Notably, House Republicans say, he received two wire transfers totaling $260,000 that listed President Biden’s Delaware home as the beneficiary address for the funds.
Yet, in October 2019, a few months later, Hunter denied the receipt of any such money from China — echoing the repeated denials of his father. When ABC News asked if he received any money from the Chinese deals, Hunter said “no, no.” He was then asked, “Not one cent?” and replied “Not one cent.”
That was a dead-cold sober lie.
So both Bidens are in a fix. Either Hunter’s nefarious activities were the result of addiction or they weren’t. And if he was sober in October 2018, then he can’t explain his behavior afterward by claiming he was an out-of-control addict. One example: His nude romp with a prostitute while he brandished a pistol.
Nor can his father make such a claim.
Not that it matters. Nothing will happen to Biden for committing three felonies. Just as nothing will happen to Joe Biden for forcing Ukraine to fire the prosecutor that was investigating Burisma, a case not only of extortion, but also, we now know, of outright bribery.
