Hunter Biden Drops Request for Gun Retrial

Facts

• Hunter Biden's legal team dropped a request for a new gun trial on Tuesday, conceding in court filings that they had misunderstood a procedural technicality in their motion last month.¹
• Attorneys for US Pres. Joe Biden's son had called for his conviction on three felony gun-related charges to be 'vacated' over claims that the trial started before a circuit court formally issued a mandate denying his pretrial appeals.²
• This withdrawal comes a day after prosecutors said that Hunter and his lawyers failed to realize that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals had already dismissed their appeals with certified orders 'in lieu of' mandates.³
• Last month, jurors in Delaware found Hunter guilty of lying about his illegal drug use to purchase a firearm. He is set to be sentenced this year, likely no later than a month before the November election.⁴
• Hunter has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers are still planning to appeal the ruling, which made him the first child of a sitting American president ever to be convicted of a felony.⁵
• He faces up to 25 years behind bars, but his sentence is expected to be far from the maximum punishment, given he has no criminal record. Hunter is scheduled to stand trial on nine federal tax charges in September.⁶

Sources: ¹CNN, ²ABC News, ³New York Post, ⁴Newsmax, ⁵Reuters and ⁶National Review.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by The Western Journal. Another day, another embarrassment for Hunter Biden. As if his historic felony conviction on gun-related crimes wasn't enough humiliation, now his legal team had to drop a call for a new trial because their motion was meritless and based on a laughable claim about missing mandates, exposing their misunderstanding of appellate practice as well as their failure to read court orders.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by New York Times. Hunter Biden fell down the dark hole of drug addiction, the consequences of which led to criminal actions that tainted both his life and the reputation of his very famous family. His dad also walked the fine line between supporting his son and upholding the rule of law, which is why a jury found him guilty. With Hunter now judged by both a jury and the court of public opinion, it's time for Americans to put partisanship aside and focus on the tragic human aspect of this story.
• Cynical narrative, as provided by wsj.com. While it may be difficult, anyone who believes in the constitutional right to bear arms, whether they like the president or not, should be upset about this case. When America was founded, both alcohol and opium were known substances, yet no laws prohibited users of those substances from possessing guns. If the justice system can violate the gun rights of the president's son, what do you think they'd be willing to do to an average citizen?

Predictions