Well, has anyone ever been tried solely for lying about drug use on the form? The whole thing seems to me to be a huge waste of resources. But then again, that’s what governments/politicians are known for.
Probably. But Hunter is also charged with illegal gun possession.
These are examples the prosecution might cite:
Looking at these capsule descriptions, they sound like special situations. But Hunter’s situation was also special because of all the time police spent trying to find the dumpster diver and the gun. Once the grocery manager called the police about a missing gun, and said he had video, I think we were on an unusual road.
If he is found guilty, I will not think the fact that other cocaine users got away with handgun possession as a reason to question the justice of the verdict (although I would question a first offense sentence of jail time). The other users, getting away with it, shouldn’t be messing with guns either.
Not unless he was a known offender for other crimes, and that was either all they could get them on, or it was an add on charge.
Umm, could you show us the law that states anything like that?
Ya know, an actual US law and not something from a THX1138esq dystopia.
Huh?
Possession of drugs is regularly charged as a crime.
Are you drawing a distinction between being charged and going to trial? Few cases go to trial, but drug possession cases certainly do qualify amongst the exceptions.
Now, it is true that possession is rarely charged at the federal level, but that’s because mere possession is usually a state level offense (whereas dealing drugs across state lines could get the feds involved).
Hunter is a known alleged offender for another crime — illegal gun possession. Isn’t that commonly charged, as here?
Consider this plausible explanation for the relative lack of 4473 prosecutions:
Well, guess what? They did not need rehab records. That’s because Hunter Biden wrote a well-reviewed New York Times best-seller list memoir where his addiction is a major theme of the book.
Yes!!!
If there was a guilty plea, the originally charged crime was likely bargained down. The fact that small quantity possession was the one and only agreed to offense is irrelevant other than being an example of why plea bargaining is wrong.
The Biden case is the exception that goes to trial. Middle class defendants cannot afford to go to trial in a case like this.
the jury is back to deliberate this morning. they had about an hour yesterday.
Verdict in. Stay tuned.
there is a verdict.
about 3 hours of deliberation.
That was fast. Usually not a good sign for the defendant, but who knows with this case.
If he’s exonerated, it’ll be because the prosecution screwed it up, not because the defense was particularly strong.
Guilty on all three counts.
guilty on all counts.
I look forward to his rant about how unfair this witchhunt against him was and how biased the judge was against him. That’s how this works, right?
his next trial is in sept. in california.
i’m sure an appeal will be filed.
Just an FYI…
If our choices are, again, Trump and Biden (I won’t be thrilled), I’ll choose the guy who’s hoping that his troubled son doesn’t end up in prison over the guy who’s trying to keep himself out of prison.
Every single time.
YMMV 
I wish this case had never come up, but I can’t say I disagree with the verdict. I can believe that Hunter didn’t consider himself an addict, but I don’t believe he didn’t consider himself a user of drugs. And I think it’s good to not allow drug users to buy guns, so I wouldn’t want to set a precedent where every drug user could just check no to that question if they weren’t using drugs at that moment.
Perhaps they could require a drug test before buying a gun. Take all the subjectiveness out of the question. The test results would be attached to the form to make sure the purchaser was not using any illegal drugs.
I agree with what you wrote, but I’ll point out that every user is checking no to that question. I doubt anyone who wants a gun has ever said “no, I’m not allowed to own a gun because I use illegal drugs.”
Former Trump attorney, Tim Parlatore, just did the sentencing math. He says the guidelines point to a sentence of 0 to 6 months.
Parlatore predicts not only zero jail time, but he also predicts a lot of strange bedfellows will present Amicus briefs for either a light sentence or overturning the verdict on appeal.
There’s also the Bruen case, as mentioned upthread.
I didn’t see a (conviction) coming, here. I doubt it will withstand the inevitable appeals.