Uncanny parallels between the sentences of Hunter Biden and Donald Trump

Donald Trump and Joe Biden may not have much in common. But when it comes to the links and persecution of high-profile figures, they have echoed the same sentiments – even as they lash out at opponents and others in their own parties.

In announcing “full and unconditional” pardon on Hunter Biden Sunday night, Joe Biden condemned what he described as an unfair prosecution of his son.

“No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s charges would come to any other conclusion than that Hunter was nominated because he’s my son — and that’s wrong,” Biden said.

The president’s criticism of a politicized justice system is similar to what Trump often invokes — perhaps even more prominently. a New York City case involving bush money payments to aging movie star Stormy Daniels. That case eventually led to the former president’s conviction on multiple counts of falsifying business records to conceal campaign finance violations.

“What happened in New York is outrageous,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump confidant, said of the former president’s impeachment trial. “I think it’s a special prosecution for political purposes.”

The Hunter Biden cases and the Trump hush-money case have striking similarities — they fueled attacks on the judicial process.

Both were brought to court in 2024, years after the events in question. Trump’s payments to Daniels occurred in 2016. The gun plea in which Hunter Biden denied his drug use was from 2018, and his fraudulent tax returns were from 2016 to 2019.

Both cases took a sharp turn after it appeared they would never go to trial. It looks like the New York Trump investigation will be dropped when Alvin Bragg is chosen to replace Cyrus Vance as Manhattan attorney. A plea deal that would have resulted in Hunter Biden pleading guilty but not serving prison time collapsed at the last minute amid questions from the presiding judge.

Both also involve the application of existing law to novel or unusual situations.

The underlying campaign finance crime in Trump’s case was an organization, not a state, a violation that US federal prosecutors have already chosen not to pursue. It’s rare for gun cases like the Biden prosecution to happen without some connection to other, more serious crimes. And his tax evasion violations were dealt with back pay and fines – a decision that usually avoids criminal charges.

In fact, Trump’s legal team drew stark comparisons between the two cases in an official filing Tuesday that cited Hunter Biden’s pardon as a reason to overturn Trump’s conviction in New York.

“President Biden said ‘immature politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,'” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “These comments were a stunning criticism of President Biden himself. [Department of Justice].”

“This case should never have been brought,” they concluded.

There are significant differences between these two situations, of course. Hunter Biden has never held public office. And the New York money case was just one of many cases against the former president, several of which involved high-profile cases and recent allegations. Trump did not distinguish between them, however, saying that all of his investigations were politically motivated “witch hunts” designed to harm his election chances.

Despite the differences, both Trump and Biden have raised similar questions about whether politics has unduly influenced their cases, as Democrats insist that Trump’s trial was fair, while Republicans view Hunter’s gun trial and tax evasion trial as fair.

According to Kevin McMunigal, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and a former assistant US attorney, the claim that politics affects prosecutors’ decisions is grossly inaccurate. He notes, however, that the public may not realize that there is a complex calculation process behind when someone is charged with a crime.

“Congress and state legislatures like to pass criminal laws, and they rarely overturn them because of the politics involved,” he said. “Everyone wants to be tough on crime. You end up with legal documents full of crimes, most of which cannot be prosecuted.”

He added that it is rare that these laws are often ignored by prosecutors. “It’s hard for people to get their heads around it,” he said.

This lack of understanding may provide reason enough for those on both sides of the sharp American political divide to see a double standard when it comes to the American justice system – especially when it involves high-profile cases involving government officials or their families, and especially. where it is the politicians themselves who are stoking the fire.

Whether or not the impeachment was the right move to judge the prosecutors, both Trump and Hunter Biden were convicted of their crimes.

Because of his pardon, Hunter Biden will not face the consequences. And as Trump prepares to return to the White House, it seems likely that the status of his high office will protect him from prosecution for his conviction. It has already led to the federal charges against him being dismissed.

Society’s perception of a double standard for the rich and powerful may not be so well-founded.

America’s faith in the criminal justice system is being undermined, said John Geer, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and head of the Project on Unity and American Democracy. He adds, however, that claims of special prosecutions amount to “a pebble in a very large pond”, compared to the wider issues at play.

“Justice is never blind,” he said. “There have been periods of time when it was more equal than others, though.”

Recent events, he says, reflect a growing public distrust of political institutions across the board — including Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court.

Trump has tapped into this distrust of institutions, decrying the “swamp” of government and promising the kind of radical reforms his supporters believe most established politicians are unable or unwilling to deliver.

Taken in context, Trump’s ongoing complaints of political persecution, and Biden’s recent acceptance of similar claims, are indicative of America’s larger religious crisis in government — one that both politicians have taken advantage of when circumstances put them in an uncomfortable legal position.

Biden’s use of Trumpian rhetoric to explain his use of presidential power to protect his son could help the incoming president garner more support to wreak havoc on the institutions Biden has long served and pledged to defend.