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As Joe Biden prepared for his first debate against Donald Trump during the summer of 2020, largely remaining isolated at his home in Delaware while he and the country marathon during the Covid-19 pandemic, he looked down and saw his son, Hunter, calling.
Hunter told the man he called “Pop” that he knew the younger Biden’s struggle with drugs and alcohol would certainly come up when he faced then-President Trump. Hunter Biden was blunt: He knew what he was looking at, appreciated the challenges of staying sober, and understood that remaining silent about his demons wouldn’t make them any less lethal. At the same time, the junior Biden reminded the elder what often goes unsaid: Tens of millions of families across the country have faced the same struggles as the Bidens, filled with periods of rehabilitation, going through blackouts and periods of total isolation. of loved ones. . After all, addiction is a tormentor who cares little about adjacent credentials.
Joe Biden, the patient father, had little to say in those pre-debate days. Much of this had already been said over Hunter Biden’s years of troubles, which left him kicked out of the Navy and his home, kicked to the lowest ebb and beyond, and made a pariah or joke by his father’s enemies. But the former vice president understood the task, nodded and made it clear that this part of his family briefing was not for focus groups or workshops.
“My son, like many people you know at home, had a drug problem,” Joe Biden said in measured tones when he met with Trump, then the current White House resident with a job Biden had coveted since he was eight years old. age. tracks. “He overcame it. He fixed it. He worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son.”
It was as solid a defense as possible, disarming Trump when his planned attack on the Biden family’s suitability for continued public life failed. It fit the Biden family’s model of stance regarding the Hunter saga in recent years: honesty, responsibility, recovery.
On Tuesday, a federal court in Delaware found that hunter Biden is getting ready honesty and efforts to take responsibility for his recovery were not sufficient reasons to exonerate him of a serious crime. Based largely on Hunter Biden’s own admissions made in his shockingly honest memoir, Beautiful things, a jury ruled that the younger Biden was guilty of all three criminal charges brought in this, the first of at least two criminal cases against him. The fact that Hunter Biden recorded an audiobook of the confessional made it even easier for prosecutors to leave it up to the jury to judge through the voice of the son of privilege himself.
The development was a surprising turn of events for a Georgetown and Yale Law graduate who had put his life on hold as he battled addictions. The crux of the case against Hunter Biden was that Biden lied on a federal form in 2018 when asked whether he was using drugs or addicted to them when he legally purchased a Colt .38 revolver. Prosecutors said Hunter Biden knowingly lied on the form, citing a text message to a lover — and then some.
“I may be sober, but I will always be an addict,” Hunter Biden wrote to a sexual partner. Defense attorneys said it was common rhetoric in recovery programs, not an admission that he was addicted to drugs and therefore was not truthful in his federal gun application. That 12-step milestone didn’t work for the judges.
Other embarrassing details emerged in open court, including an account of Hunter Biden’s drug-buying patterns, sex life and chaotic existence as he made one bad choice after another. Unlike his memoirs, which were honest but based on his recovery, the unraveling of the courtroom tape regarding his private life left a much less sympathetic silhouette.
The entire trial made public the very messy lives of the Biden family in the years between Joe Biden’s two terms as vice president and his tenure in the White House in 2020. For example, prosecutors called the widow of Hunter Biden’s late brother and then his lover Hallie Biden, who testified that she found the gun in her unlocked truck, threw it in a trash can and was unable to retrieve it. Security cameras in the mall’s parking lot confirm part of the story, including a food collector who found the gun and took it. Oh, and the bag she used to throw that gun in? This It appeared have cocaine in it.
For their part, defense lawyers were left to argue with a narrow rejoinder: as Biden was not actively using drugs at the time he presented documentation about gun ownership, he was technically telling the truth. As evidence, no one testified that they witnessed Hunter Biden using cocaine, crack or similar substances in the weeks leading up to purchasing the gun. Even so, defense lawyers decided not to offer Biden as a witness, realizing he was far from a sympathetic figure after his dead brother’s widow – turned lover – and his daughter told unflattering moments from his experiences, not to mention the various characters who corroborated that Biden’s unyielding addiction was his own shadow of hell.
The verdict came quickly. The jury began deliberations on Monday, after lunch, and took three hours to decide the younger Biden’s fate before noon Tuesday. The judge did not set a sentencing date, but it usually takes place within about four months. Nobody missed it: Election Day is just under five months away, and the family patriarch will exercise the power of federal pardon. (President Biden it says he will not take advantage of that privilege, although much can be made of this debate as it approaches Election Day or beyond.)
Still, this has to be said: Hunter Biden, in his memoirs and limited public interviews and later in his silent rebuke in court, took responsibility for his actions as he struggled with his addictions, often at the expense of his very public family and often at the expense of expenses for their close circle of loved ones. He worked through the steps of personal recovery in a way that most addicts face privately. He took responsibility for his choices – and had them returned to him in federal court.
None of this absolves him, but if the public health and consequences of such reconstruction efforts are judged by what comes next, rejecting such attempts at self-awareness through public recriminations may be worth a second look at whether they serve the community, the victims or the defendant in the best possible way. This will undoubtedly be a factor to be considered in Hunter Biden’s sentencing, as it should be.
Biden’s younger allies might argue that this should also give Joe Biden and his White House team ample justification to consider a pardon or commutation, to give an example of what might best be modeled for other addicts. The president’s political acumen will likely keep him away from such action, but his sudden jump to Delaware after the verdict suggests he is listening to his gut and his family’s.
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