Hunter Biden was indicted on gun charges. Here’s the real reason he’s in trouble

Hunter Biden was charged Thursday with three felonies related to lying on a 2018 application to buy a gun. But it’s hard not to conclude that his true offense is being the son of a president whom Republicans are hell-bent on vilifying and defeating.

The indictment largely relies on Biden’s false claim that he was not using illegal drugs when he applied to purchase the firearm. In fact, he was then in the depths of the cocaine addiction that drove a series of travails that Republicans continue to weaponize against his father.

The Justice Department had previously negotiated a plea agreement with Biden that included a gun charge following some five years of investigation by David Weiss, Trump’s U.S. attorney for Delaware, whom President Biden allowed to remain in office in a departure from standard procedure. Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses and enter a pretrial diversion under which the felony gun charge would be dropped if he stays on the straight and narrow for two years. Such agreements are a fairly common means of disposing of less serious charges.