The Week: Hunter Biden Convicted on Gun Charges

• That journalist with three hostages in his apartment sure missed the scoop of a lifetime.

• President Biden’s son Hunter was convicted on three felony gun charges. The federal jury in Delaware deliberated only briefly. There was overwhelming evidence that the younger Biden, as a habitual user of crack cocaine, unlawfully possessed a firearm he’d purchased after denying on a required federal form that he was a drug-user and addict. With no plausible defense against that charge, the Biden family, led by the first lady, showed up at the trial in numbers, hoping their presence would sway the Wilmington jury. But sympathy for loved ones rarely moves a jury to nullify strong criminal charges. On appeal, the president’s son will push a Second Amendment claim that the criminal charges on which he was convicted, and that his father has championed for decades, are unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms (which some of them may be). Hunter Biden is expected to be sentenced in late summer—around the time that his second criminal trial, on tax charges supported by similarly daunting evidence, is scheduled to commence, just two months before Election Day. The president has vowed not to pardon his son. We’ll see if this promise applies after the election.

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• That journalist with three hostages in his apartment sure missed the scoop of a lifetime.

• President Biden’s son Hunter was convicted on three felony gun charges. The federal jury in Delaware deliberated only briefly. There was overwhelming evidence that the younger Biden, as a habitual user of crack cocaine, unlawfully possessed a firearm he’d purchased after denying on a required federal form that he was a drug-user and addict. With no plausible defense against that charge, the Biden family, led by the first lady, showed up at the trial in numbers, hoping their presence would sway the Wilmington jury. But sympathy for loved ones rarely moves a jury to nullify strong criminal charges. On appeal, the president’s son will push a Second Amendment claim that the criminal charges on which he was convicted, and that his father has championed for decades, are unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms (which some of them may be). Hunter Biden is expected to be sentenced in late summer—around the time that his second criminal trial, on tax charges supported by similarly daunting evidence, is scheduled to commence, just two months before Election Day. The president has vowed not to pardon his son. We’ll see if this promise applies after the election.