OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump chose not to mock or belittle Hunter Biden following his recent felony conviction on federal gun charges and instead sounded a note of empathy for the first son and his father, President Joe Biden.
After Fox News asked Trump about Hunter, who was found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm and lying on his application when he was addicted to crack cocaine, Trump said, “Well, I think it’s a very serious thing. I understand that whole subject. I understand it pretty well because I’ve had it with people who have it in their family.”
He added: “It’s a very tough thing. It’s a very tough situation for a father, it’s a very tough situation for a brother or sister, and it goes on, and it’s not stopping, whether it’s alcohol or drugs or whatever it may be. It’s a tough thing, and so that’s a tough moment for the family. It’s a tough moment for any family involved in that.”
Trump’s elder brother, Fred Trump Jr., died in 1981 at the age of 42 due to alcoholism, which influenced the former president’s decision to abstain from alcohol.
President Biden has previously stated that he would not pardon his son if he was found guilty, and on Thursday, he confirmed his decision.
“I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything,” said Biden. “I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.”
Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley commented on Hunter’s conviction Tuesday after jurors handed down their decision, predicting that the first son’s legal problems were only just beginning.
Hunter was convicted on three felony counts in connection with the 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber revolver on Tuesday after jurors deliberated for slightly over three hours. Turley said that a criminal referral by the House of Representatives for perjury, combined with the tax case faced by President Joe Biden’s son, were still pending.
“His counsel has got to refocus on that tax case. They are going into that case now with a convicted felon,” Turley told Fox News “Faulkner Focus” host Harris Faulkner. “Now, these are very different types of claims, but there is a third front developing. Congress just referred, what I consider to be a very strong case, for a perjury investigation of Hunter Biden after his testimony before Congress.”
“Now the expectation is that Garland is going to basically scuttle that referral, but the problem is that the House seems to have Hunter Biden dead [to] rights… on those perjury claims,” Turley added. “It is hard to see how what he said before Congress was true. It is a much more serious offense. It is currently sitting on the desk of Merrick Garland.”
‘The House Seems To Have Hunter Biden Dead To Rights’: Turley Says Hunter Biden’s Problems Are Only Beginning pic.twitter.com/w9kDyvYely
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 11, 2024
He went on to say that the tax case carried potentially “much more serious” charges, including ties to the Biden family’s business dealings.
Earlier, Turley commented that an effort by Hunter Biden’s attorneys to try for “nullification” of the felony charges was “overcome” by the jurors.
“This was a very fair judge in my view, uh, she ruled for the defense and for the prosecutors on different issues. She went right down the middle of the road, and I think in the end, justice was done here,” Turley said of U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware after Faulkner contrasted her handling of the Biden case with New York Judge Juan Merchan’s handling of Trump’s business documents case. “This jury was able to overcome a nullification strategy.”
