Hunter Biden, the not-so-prodigal son of US President Joe Biden, is currently facing criminal charges for illegal handgun possession in Delaware. Prosecutors allege that he failed to disclose his drug addictions when applying for a license.This is just the latest episode for the scandal-prone scion of the Biden family. As always, pundits and clickbait writers love extreme accusations. Commentators on my side of the aisle have called Hunter everything from a child molester to a traitor. They like to cast him as a larger-than-life Machiavellian evildoer.

I’m unconvinced that he fits the profile. Here’s why. Joe’s favorite son was Beau, who died at the age of 46. Hunter is the classic wayward second son, the playboy prince, whose education was neglected for another. Joe’s favor fell to the darling elder son, whom he believed was destined for greatness. When that golden boy was tragically laid low before his time, the second son, who was never meant for much, had to fill his massive shoes. In a good fairy tale, the younger son rises to the occasion. Hunter, however, has failed to live up to Beau’s intended legacy.

Make no mistake, Hunter is no saint. Hunter’s sexual dalliances are legendary. He raised money for his own ends using an art scheme. He had an affair with his brother’s widow and fathered a child with a stripper — something that Joe denied for years. Hunter is not a good person. But these misdeeds do not make him a supervillain; just an indolent, degenerate rake like any other.

Hunter attracts legal issues like rotten meat attracts flies, but to me, those only prove that he’s guilty of the same corruption that is endemic in our leadership caste. Still, to stay abreast of the headlines, you should understand some of the notable cases.

Hunter’s suspicious business with foreign organizations

Like any apparatchik, Hunter has served on the boards of numerous profitable companies and influential organizations. The two most famous are BHR Partners, a Chinese private equity firm that Hunter co-founded in 2013, and Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that Hunter administered from 2014 to 2019. BHR has fingers in all sorts of troubling operations, from heavy mining that devastates Australia’s environment to continually stripping the US automotive industry.

If you find it interesting that the son of the current president, who was then the son of a former vice president, had transnational business interests in these two dubious organizations… Well, if you know what’s good for your professional reputation, you should probably stop finding it interesting.

But if you’re willing to risk looking further into it, you might wonder: What did Hunter bring to these board memberships? His academic achievements are a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Georgetown University, a law degree from Yale University and a Curriculum Vitae of “consulting” and “lobbying” at various banks and government-adjacent think tanks. Clearly, he did not provide BHR or Burisma with intricate knowledge of coal drilling or assembly line operation. No; Hunter brought his particular skill of “access” to the table. What is access? His dad, that’s what.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has proven that Joe interacted with almost every foreign business partner Hunter collaborated with. To quote the report: “President Biden spoke by phone, attended dinners and meetings, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates. These individuals include Russian and Kazakhstani oligarchs, a Burisma executive, and Chinese nationals who collectively funneled millions to his son.” It’s shocking how, officially, claims of corruption are “unsubstantiated.” With evidence like this, what more could you possibly need?

The dystopian response to Hunter’s laptop story

You may recall a tiny, little story from 2020 about Hunter’s laptop. In October 2020, Hunter left his laptop at a repair shop and never retrieved it. One can only guess if such shoddy operational security is standard practice in the ruling class, or if this was a special case. Since he failed to reclaim his property, the shop’s owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, had a right to do as he pleased with it. So he did what any American would: He made money off it. After contacting the FBI, he copied the hard drive and attempted to share the disturbing information found within.

As is usually the case, the scandal here isn’t so much the event itself, but the reaction to it. When The New York Post ran an article detailing what the laptop appeared to reveal of shady dealings with Burisma, drug use and sexual escapades, the intelligentsia’s response was swift and terrible. A collection of esteemed intelligence operatives said outright that the laptop was fake, Russian propaganda. Every social media platform agreed to censor and suppress the story.

The regime surely believed the laptop story to be massively damaging. And they would have been right, had the story been allowed to circulate. Everyone involved knew that the laptop was legitimate from the beginning. Hunter recently threatened to sue Fox News over a miniseries involving the laptop story; quite interesting, since one of the elements of defamation is that things said about a person must be false to be defamatory, and it’s now very clear the laptop story was all true from the beginning.

One might conclude that, based on the intensity of the response, the worst may be true. But, so what? That was four years ago. It’s ancient history now — might as well be about the Pharaohs as far as our news cycle and political system are concerned. Who cares that the entire government works together to pressure social media companies into suppressing its unflattering truths? And that these moguls fall in line with little persuasion? Certainly not me. I love the overlords who filter our information for their own ends.

Still, someone who doesn’t love them might ask: What else could get this treatment? What other signals could get the reverse and be boosted for no reason beyond political power?

Hunter’s tax and gun charges

The final legal issue to discuss is the ongoing tax and gun cases that have been plaguing Hunter on and off since 2018. The thing about being a rich idiot is that you waste your money on stupid things while keeping poor track of your spending. Doing this while obtaining your funds from vague sources will inevitably draw the government’s attention, even when Daddy Joe is nominally in charge. If you hide your taxes, the IRS will consign you and your whole family to a pauper’s grave. Last April, Hunter was hit with a few tax-related charges: two misdemeanor counts for failure to file his taxes and one felony count of tax evasion.

Hunter has also caught a gun charge for purchasing a firearm when he was blitzed on cocaine. To buy a gun in the US, one must fill out a federal background check, and the forms require an attestation that the customer is clean of substances. So, sweeping that intoxication under the rug is a federal crime.

Hunter is currently facing trial before a federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. I doubt we will see a conviction come out of it, though. As always, some slippery trick will bail him out. We’ll soon see if I’m right.

[Lee Thompson-Kolar edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.