Unfortunately for Republicans, Hunter Biden’s conviction is not exactly an unmitigated win.
While congressional Republicans were busy Tuesday taking credit for blowing up the original deal made by a Trump-appointed attorney after an investigation that began at Donald Trump’s urging, Hunter’s conviction doesn’t seem to be any vindication for the GOP after two years of “Biden crime family” accusations.
As CNN reports, even one of the jurors who found Hunter guilty believes that the trial was “a waste of taxpayer dollars," while another said that he “did not believe Hunter belonged in jail.”
Republicans seem to realize that this verdict isn’t likely to sway indecisive voters, which is why they’re already grasping at claims that Hunter’s conviction was engineered by President Joe Biden. Because, as always, Biden is simultaneously an old man who doesn’t know what he is doing and a wily schemer running rings around the Republicans’ endless investigations.
As silly as GOP posturing looks now, there’s a good chance that it will get worse. Because if Hunter decides to appeal, Republicans could find themselves at war with some of their most reliable allies.
If Hunter appeals, the basis seems like a gimme. In August 2023, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law automatically banning drug users from owning firearms was unconstitutional.
“Our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage,” wrote the three-judge panel in its ruling.
But, as CNN legal commentator and former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore points out, Hunter’s potential appeal wouldn’t be covered by that ruling. Any appeal he makes would go to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which, in May, rejected an attempt to dismiss the case, making it possible for any decision regarding constitutionality of the law to end up at the Supreme Court.
There are also a variety of groups that could join Hunter in his appeal. That includes not just pro-gun groups that reliably support Republicans, but also groups that are against the law because it criminalizes gun owners who use cannabis, even in states where it is legal.
“There are a lot of veterans that I know that have to make a choice of do they want to get a medical marijuana card or do they want to keep their firearms?” Parlatore said. “Hunter Biden has the opportunity, potentially, to take this to the Supreme Court and say ‘you can do both.’”
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
