What to Make of Hunter Biden's Indictment on Gun Charges
Summary from AllSides News Team
Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday by Special Counsel David Weiss for allegedly lying about his drug addiction on a 2018 gun application. Are the charges lenient or harsh?
An 'Unusual Case': The Christian Science Monitor (Center bias) said "prosecutors could face difficulties in bringing those charges to trial and convicting Mr. Biden," and focused on voices who questioned "whether other defendants in similar situations are charged with felonies and taken to courtroom trial, rather than [striking] plea deals or diversion agreements."
A 'Sweetheart Deal': "The charges vindicate critics of the Justice Department’s earlier sweetheart plea deal," wrote The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board (Lean Right bias), suggesting Weiss is going easy on Biden and that his appointment as special counsel was to "suggest the appearance of independence." The editors added that "it isn’t clear why Hunter hasn’t been" charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for his previous role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
An Attempt to 'Muddy the Waters': Hunter's "true offense is being the son of a president whom Republicans are hell-bent on vilifying and defeating," a writer for Los Angeles Times (Lean Left bias) said. The writer argued that the plea deal represented "a fairly common means of disposing of less serious charges," while these charges against "a relatively harmless firearm applicant seems to be without precedent" and give "radical Republicans in Congress the talking point they need to muddy the waters with respect to Trump’s multiple criminal indictments."
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From the Right
Hunter Biden Gets Indicted
Five years after prosecutors began investigating his finances, three years after the laptop from hell was discovered, and two years after he published a memoir detailing his illegal drug use, Hunter Biden was charged Thursday for lying about his addiction when he bought a .38 revolver that ended up thrown in a trash can outside of a Delaware grocery store across the street from a high school.
The President’s son is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but the charges vindicate critics of an indulgent plea deal cut in June by U.S....
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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...
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Hunter Biden indicted: Why case may not be a slam dunk
A Justice Department special counsel indicted Hunter Biden on gun charges Thursday, deepening his legal jeopardy while raising the possibility of a politically fraught prosecution of the president’s son while his father runs for reelection in 2024.
The charges add another layer of complexity to a presidential campaign that was already likely to be intertwined with explosive legal proceedings, as GOP frontrunner former President Donald Trump faces federal charges and starts criminal trials next year.
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