The Truth About Hunter Biden’s Indictment

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was indicted today on three counts of gun-related crimes. Federal prosecutors in Delaware allege that Hunter Biden lied on paperwork when he bought a revolver, saying he did not use illegal substances, and then possessed the pistol while on narcotics.

This is one of two major stories about the younger Biden in the headlines this week. The other relates to his business dealings overseas, which are the focus of an impeachment inquiry against his father launched by House Republicans on Tuesday. Hunter Biden’s legal troubles in Delaware are unrelated to his business, except in one key way: His career would not have been so successful without his surname, and he might not be facing these charges without it, either.

Hunter Biden has not lived a simple, charmed life. In fact, he has encountered a great deal of tragedy. At 2, he survived a car crash that killed his mother and sister. His brother died at just 46, of an aggressive cancer. He has experienced addiction and divorce.

But he has benefited greatly from proximity to his father. He worked for a bank headquartered in Delaware, with close political ties to his senator father. He served in the administration of Bill Clinton, a Democrat like his father. He then worked as a lobbyist in Washington, where his father was an institution. Later, he joined the board of Burisma, a gas company in Ukraine—a country where his father was involved as a statesman—and was paid handsomely despite having no experience in the gas business or the country. Later still, he sold his novice paintings for six-figure prices.

The impeachment inquiry launched into Joe Biden this week seeks to prove that the president himself profited from Hunter’s business dealings, or used the government’s power to aid them. No evidence proving this has yet emerged, though not for lack of trying. What is clear, and has been for some time, is that even without Joe Biden’s involvement, Hunter was trading on his prominent name to enrich himself. As Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told a House committee in July, the business was based on “an illusion of access to his father.” (Archer said the elder Biden was not involved in the business.)

It’s nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if your father is vice president. As Sarah Chayes has written in The Atlantic, this behavior is not inherently illegal (though one could break laws in the course of it). Nothing prevents relatives of prominent politicians from cashing in, even if it’s clearly unethical and repellent, as it was here.

Now that Hunter Biden is facing criminal charges, his defenders and allies have cried foul, saying that prosecutors are dealing unfairly with his case. Legal experts have said that the charges against him, both here and in an earlier plea deal that fell apart, seem unusual—the kinds of charges that are seldom brought against individuals, or seldom brought except as part of a larger case. Regardless, his behavior wouldn’t have attracted nearly the scrutiny it has—from the press and perhaps from prosecutors—if he’d been Hunter Johnson.

Assertions that charges like these are unusual are not a denial or a defense. And if you live by the sword, you die by the sword; if you profit from nepotism, you may suffer from it, too.

Ironies abound in this story. As former President Donald Trump complains that he is a victim of selective prosecution for his brazen attempts to defy a federal subpoena, Hunter Biden may actually be experiencing it. Republicans who are usually quick to criticize gun laws for abridging a constitutional right are clamoring to see Hunter Biden punished, while some Democrats who prefer stricter gun laws are dismissing the prosecution as a distraction.

It’s tempting to think that the charges mark the moment when Hunter Biden’s good luck ran out, but the indictment is really a manifestation of the same luck that he’s always had: He’s a Biden and son of one of the country’s most prominent politicians. That has brought him wealth and connections, but the bill is coming due now.