Hunter Biden’s conviction has propelled Trumpland conspiracies into a new realm

The conviction of Joe Biden’s son has been weaponised by the Trump campaign just weeks after a jury found the ex-president guilty over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, writes Jon Sopel. But could the endless swirl of conspiracy theories acutally prove helpful to Biden in the presidential battle?

Joe Biden with his son, Hunter (AP)

In the space of three weeks, two unprecedented, extraordinary court cases. In the first, a former president of the United States is found guilty on 34 counts of committing felony offences over the payment of ‘hush money’ to a former porn star. And in the most recent case, the serving president’s son has been convicted of buying a revolver when he was still a crack addict – and therefore lying on the form he had to fill in to say he was drug-free.

In the former case, when Donald Trump was found guilty, there were howls and shrieks of outrage from him and his supporters that this was unfair; the case should never have been brought; Trump is innocent; this was a weaponised justice system presided over by “crooked Joe Biden” on a mission to nobble his opponent in November. It was a corrupt justice system. It was a bent judge. A “Soros-backed” district attorney brought the case – and obviously no good conspiracy worth its name can thrive without the mention of the Jewish financier, George Soros, somewhere.

In the latter case, there was a brief statement from the president about the conviction of his troubled son, Hunter. President Biden, while at the G7 summit, said, “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction, he’s one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” before adding: “I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything – I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him.”

It really is a study in contrasts, isn’t it?

So does this mean that Trump will now drop his litany of grievances? That he will accept that the case against him was duly brought, followed the law resulting in conviction by a jury of 12 of his peers? Will he now grudgingly accept that everyone is equal before the law – and that no one is above it – whether you are a former president or a president’s son? Will he, in short, stop the trash-talking and dangerous undermining of one of the three co-equal branches of American democracy, the judiciary?

I know, I know – you’d got to the answer before I had finished the above paragraph. Of course he won’t. Instead, his base is refashioning the conspiracy theories for a new reality.

They are now saying the Hunter Biden trial was a distraction; a doozy. Hunter is guilty of far worse – and crimes that tie in his dad as a co-conspirator. The fact that the crooked Justice Department has charged him with this minor gun offence is a distraction. It’s a sleight of hand, they say. Don’t be gulled. It really is the Hunter and the hunted.

Donald Trump speaks during his campaign rally at Sunset Park, Las Vegas (Getty Images)

Never mind that the case brought against Trump had nothing to do with the Justice Department in Washington DC; the case was brought in the state of New York. It was not a federal case, so therefore it was not a Justice Department matter, it did not involve the attorney general, Merrick Garland; and certainly had nothing to do with Joe Biden.

The case against Hunter Biden on the other hand was a federal case. It was one in which Joe Biden’s AG could have intervened. But did not. If you were being logical, you would say this shows the wheels of justice turning exactly the way they should: whether you are the son of a hobo or the son of the president, the law will apply equally to you.

Yet here’s the wrinkle. You could very easily argue that far from it being Trump who was the one mistreated by the justice system, it was actually Hunter Biden. Sure, he’d been dishonest in filling out the background check form to buy the revolver. But that is normally treated as a misdemeanour – a minor crime that would be a slap on the wrist. Instead, he was charged with imprisonable felony offences. A felony charge would have normally only applied if the gun that had been bought illegally had been used in a subsequent crime. It hadn’t. So it’s arguable that Hunter has been treated harshly.

And this is why the Maga crowd is getting exercised. Firstly, they instinctively hate anything that restricts a person’s right to bear arms; and that leads them to the belief that the Justice Department is covering up even greater sins by the president’s son. And sins that could compromise the president.

The allegations that Joe Biden was a beneficiary of his son’s business activities are plentiful, lurid – and without a scintilla of evidence. Yes, it is undoubtedly true that Hunter Biden traded on his father’s name. It is hard to see why otherwise Hunter Biden would have been made a director of a Ukrainian energy firm, but for the fact that his father was vice-president to Barack Obama at the time. But kickbacks for Joe? Payments from anonymous Chinese interlocutors that have so excited the right-wing firmament? You can go All the President’s Men and follow the money, but this time it doesn’t lead to the doors of the current occupant of the White House.

Hunter Biden has had a problematic life. His mother and baby sister were killed in a car crash. And to some extent, he lived in the shadow of his twin brother, Beau – an Iraq war veteran and successful attorney with a big political career ahead of him before his untimely death from brain cancer. Beau Biden was the golden boy; Hunter the troubled twin. The tawdry evidence heard in court about Hunter’s behaviour would have been excruciating and painful for the Biden family.

That said – and let’s be a bit basic and ugly about this – could Hunter’s conviction be politically useful to the president? The conviction of Hunter, and Biden senior’s acceptance of his son’s guilt while stressing the love that he and Jill feel towards him reflect well on Joe Biden. It is a stark counterpoint to the way Trump has reacted to his own conviction. It shows that Joe Biden is a respecter of the institutions that underpin the US, while Trump turns on anyone and anything that turns on him.

Logically, it should help Biden a lot. But when was the last time logic played a role?