One side of American citizens are furious and shocked that former president Donald Trump is facing 91 criminal charges at the federal and state level, which they believe are part of a conspiracy by the Biden administration and the deep state.
The other side thinks that the justice department has been unfairly targeting President Biden’s son, Hunter, for his tax issues and his past drug addiction.
Both citizen camps think that the department in charge of enforcing the law has been corrupted by the other side and is biased.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer reacted to the news that his client had been indicted on three federal gun charges by saying that the prosecutor had succumbed to “improper and partisan interference” from Republicans who support Trump.
On the other hand, Andy Biggs, one of those conservative lawmakers, claimed that the charges were just a way to make the justice department look impartial.
The first son’s legal troubles will obviously hurt his father and his family on a personal level. But they also have wider implications.
Republicans have long known that the president’s son is a weak spot. They can use that to not only anger Joe Biden, but also to divert attention from their own problems with Trump’s legal troubles.
Moreover, many Democrats are not happy that Biden is running for re-election in 2024. Hunter seems like another reason for some to push for the 80-year-old president to make way for the next generation.
All this means that the outcome of Hunter Biden’s case will have a big impact.
It will be a turbulent election year
But Republicans have a dilemma. It’s true that the three gun-related charges are serious crimes; and it’s true that more charges could follow related to Hunter Biden’s tax affairs and foreign dealings. But none of it matches the scale and number of Trump’s alleged crimes.
So any attempt to use Hunter’s problems as a weapon could backfire and invite the American people to compare them.
Also, as Democrats will surely keep reminding them, Hunter Biden is not running for any office, let alone for president.
One interesting aspect of Hunter Biden’s case is that his lawyers think that they can still negotiate a plea deal that collapsed in July – and that they can use the recent expansion of gun rights by some courts as part of his defense.
After all, the Constitution does not say anything about drug addicts being unable to own guns.
That would be a remarkable irony given where most Democrats stand on gun control. On Thursday, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, announced an impeachment inquiry into President Biden – a move that the White House dismissed as a political stunt.
Mr McCarthy said there were “serious and credible allegations” about the family’s business dealings and President Biden’s conduct. And Republicans hope this new inquiry will implicate the president in abuse of power and corruption.
However, so far, seven months of existing investigations into Hunter Biden have only produced bits of evidence from former business partners, an FBI informant, and some IRS agents, but nothing that proves any wrongdoing.
That may change when they start issuing subpoenas, but the Republican majority in the House is so thin, that it is not certain that they would win an impeachment vote on the House floor, if it ever got there.
What is undeniable is the growing erosion of the once-well-defined boundary between the realms of politics and the legal system.
