I really hope Joe Biden pardons Hunter after the election

Normally, being a high SES connected guy is a big advantage in the world, and in particular in regard to the criminal justice system. But every now and then, things break badly precisely because the system decides it needs to make an example of someone like that, and the person ends up being treated much more harshly than the ordinary anonymous defendant ever would be. This is clearly what’s going on in the Hunter Biden cases, and especially in regard to the tax evasion charges to which he pled guilty this afternoon, even as jury selection was about to begin:

The personal stakes have never been higher for [Joe Biden’s] son — a first-time offender who will likely make the case for the lightest permissible sentence, probation instead of prison time, after pleading guilty to evading a tax assessment, failing to file and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.

In doing so, Mr. Biden’s legal team will argue that he has been clean and sober for years, paid all of his back taxes and penalties and has expressed contrition to his family and associates for his drug-fueled behavior.

People close to Mr. Biden say he has been desperately seeking a way out of the tax trial for weeks in hopes of avoiding a reprise of the weeklong gun case, which included testimony from his ex-romantic partners, including the widow of his brother Beau.

Mr. Wise had signaled his intention to call many of the same witnesses in Los Angeles in court filings — and Mr. Biden was particularly concerned about the possibility that his daughters Naomi and Maisy would be called to testify, they added.

You’re going to have to search for a long long time to find another criminal trial of somebody for tax evasion in which that person has already paid all the taxes and penalties they owed, especially when the defendant is a former addict who has gotten clean.

This is just federal prosecutorial grandstanding, intended to show that Hunter Biden isn’t being treated any differently than anybody else, just because he’s the president’s son.

Of course the irony is that he is being treated radically differently than similarly situated defendants, precisely because he’s the president’s son.

It’s total bullshit, and Joe Biden should go into pure DGAF mode five seconds after Kamala Harris’s electoral college victory has been certified by Congress. Yes the Republican party will scream bloody murder, but they are going to do that all the time no matter what Democrats do or don’t do.

And the right thing to do here is to use the pardon power to short circuit a political prosecution.