If, as expected, Hunter Biden's plea deal on tax and firearms charges keeps him out of prison, it would be a remarkable display of leniency. While nobody should go to prison for failing to give the government a cut of the take or for nonviolently owning a weapon in defiance of some rule, many people do go to jail when they're not politically connected. It's enough to make a suspicious person wonder if the deal was meant to give the appearance that justice was done to divert attention from more serious matters. It's also a hint of the restraint prosecutors exercise for the powerful, and which the rest of us would appreciate.
"The United States Attorney for the District of Delaware filed charges today against Robert Hunter Biden ('Hunter Biden') of Los Angeles," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware announced Tuesday. "Hunter Biden has been charged with two misdemeanor tax offenses and a felony firearm offense and has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to the tax offenses and enter into a pre-trial diversion agreement with regard to the firearm charge at a proceeding to be scheduled by the assigned United States District Court judge."
