I wasn't expecting the jury to find Hunter Biden guilty. Between the likely pro-Biden jury and efforts by the Biden family to sway their verdict — including First Lady Jill Biden's regular attendance at jury selection and the trial — it wasn't a stretch to believe that Hunter would avoid conviction.
On Tuesday, when the jury quickly returned with a verdict, there was little reason to believe that it wouldn't be guilty. And it was the right verdict. There's no doubt that many on the left will claim that the verdict disproves Republican claims that there's a two-tiered justice system, but I assure you, it does not.
"Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is nothing more than the Left’s attempt to create the illusion of equal justice," Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said in a post on X/Twitter. "Don’t fall for it."
Legal experts on both sides of the aisle panned the so-called "hush money" case against Trump. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg campaigned on targeting Trump, and the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, is a Biden donor. The jury pool hailed from a jurisdiction overwhelmingly opposed to Trump. Even CNN's Fareed Zakaria said, "I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump.”
Related: The Weaponization of the Justice System Isn’t About Trump
The Hunter Biden jury pool, predominantly from the Wilmington, Del., area, was likely biased, this time in favor of the defendant due to his connection to Joe Biden. But why didn't the jury acquit him? The answer is simple.
What set the two cases apart was that the evidence against Hunter Biden was substantial and incontrovertible. Hunter's defense struggled to counter the evidence presented, particularly focusing on his false response on a federal background check form regarding drug use when purchasing a firearm. Damning testimony, including from his ex-girlfriend Hallie Biden and evidence from his "laptop from hell" were key elements that had many calling this an open-and-shut case. Even Hunter's daughter's testimony backfired, leading to the defense withdrawing a planned witness.
The Trump case, however, lacked a crime and evidence. At various points in the trial, even left-wing experts were predicting an acquittal. That's how bad it was going for the prosecution. The key witness, Michael Cohen, was a convicted liar whose accusations crumbled under cross-examination.
But there are a lot of other reasons why the Hunter Biden trial verdict doesn't disprove that we have a two-tiered justice system. The nonprofit group Marco Polo points out that based on the evidence from Hunter Biden's laptop — which the Department of Justice now admits is his and wasn't tampered with — there are 170 other crimes that Hunter Biden is guilty of that he hasn't been charged for.
Hunter Biden was convicted of all 3 gun charges. Here's about 170 more possible crimes to investigate. Thanks to @MarcoPolo501c3 for digging through Hunter's laptop to document all this. pic.twitter.com/8e9fSt6oG6
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) June 11, 2024
Indeed, the trial — which almost didn't happen — merely gives the illusion of a fair justice system. However, Hunter Biden is guilty of so much more, and it still seems unlikely that he'll ever do any time.
