The Associated Press is reporting that the White House “is not ruling out a potential commutation” for Hunter Biden in the wake of his conviction on three federal firearms law violations earlier this week.
Sentencing has not been scheduled by Judge Maryellen Noreika. The younger Biden could be imprisoned for up to 25 years and fined up to $750,000, and there is already talk of an appeal. President Joe Biden has stated he will not pardon his son, but skeptics have observed Biden’s history of making things up.
The report came while Biden and his staff are enroute to the G7 summit in Italy. The president departed amid much talk about his son’s future, including the fact that Hunter Biden still faces other legal troubles next month.
Commuting Hunter Biden’s sentence—whatever it eventually happens to be—would not erase his conviction, bult it would reduce the punishment, including no prison time and lower fine amount. The conviction, however, would remain on his record.
Hunter Biden was convicted for lying on a Federal Form 4473 about his illegal drug use, and for being in possession of a firearm while using drugs. As noted by CNN, this is the first time a member of a sitting president’s immediate family has been found guilty of a crime.
One outcome of his trial in Wilmington, Delaware last week was the confirmation that the laptop originally declared a Russian hoax did, indeed belong to Hunter Biden. The media refused to report on the laptop in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election, and has yet to acknowledge the truth.
There is much at stake politically if the president commutes whatever sentence is handed to his son. It could infuriate even more conservatives and independent voters to not only deny Joe Biden a second term in November, but also throw more Democrats out of Congress.
The Guardian is spinning Hunter Biden’s conviction to suggest it might boost his father’s chances against presumptive Republican nominee former President Donald Trump. The newspaper is claiming the conviction might give the elder Biden a boost “because it undermines the image of a president weaponizing the US justice system to pursue Donald Trump.”
The former president was convicted on 34 felony counts involving so-called “hush money” payments to a woman in a New York trial late last month. Trump’s legal team is already working on an appeal.
