Hunter Biden found guilty. Hey Trump, is the system still ‘rigged’?

Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges is the needle that pops former president and convicted felon Donald Trump’s inflated and ludicrous claims of a rigged American justice system.
The evidence against President Joe Biden’s son, like the evidence against Trump in his hush money case, was strong. And as in Trump’s case in New York City, the prosecutors, the defense attorneys and, most important, the jurors did their jobs in Wilmington, Delaware.
They found the younger Biden guilty of buying a gun he knew he wasn’t supposed to posses while knowingly lying on a federal form, saying he wasn’t addicted to drugs. He’s guilty, he can appeal and the justice system worked as it’s supposed to work.
The system worked in Trump’s case as well, but the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee and his minions have done everything possible to obscure that fact with lies and utter nonsense. Trump continues to rail against the judge in his case, to claim a state prosecution was somehow directed by President Biden – which isn’t how anything works – and to whine endlessly about how he’s being persecuted.
Throughout Trump’s trial, shameless Republicans showed up to gripe and grouse and run cover for their new-felonious leader. They stood in clusters outside the Manhattan courthouse, all dressed the same to mirror Trump’s suit-clad look, and babbled conspiratorial garbage while casting aspersions on the jurors who were their doing their civic duty.
Hunter Biden has been found guilty.But his drug addiction reflects America’s problem.
None of that happened in Hunter Biden’s trial. The president has expressed support and love for his son, whose struggles with drug addiction are well documented, but he hasn’t protested the case, called the prosecution unjust or done a thing to get in the way of the process.
Democrats didn’t rally to Biden’s son’s side or stand like dimwitted lemmings outside the federal courthouse to rail against some make-believe injustice.
Look at the juxtaposition between Trump’s response to his conviction and President Biden’s response to his son’s conviction.
Trump again called his trial “rigged” and “a hoax,” said the judge is a “devil” and said: “These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people.”
Following Hunter Biden’s conviction, the president said in a statement: “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support.”
In Trump’s desperate, spider-filled mind, President Biden has weaponized the Department of Justice against him. Again, Trump’s conviction came in a New York state court, not in federal court, so that assertion lies somewhere between dumb and ignorant.
But now, are Trump and his MAGA Republican toadies actually going to argue that this “weaponized” Justice Department – this supposedly devious arm of the Democratic Party – hauled off and convicted the son of the sitting Democratic president?
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Hunter Biden’s conviction is no joke. He could be sentenced up to 25 years in prison.
And, further eviscerating Trump’s the-justice-system-is-rigged fantasies, Biden faces another trial on federal tax charges in September.
Our justice system isn’t rigged. It’s working as it should, holding people accountable regardless of who they happened to be.
Trump will undoubtedly keep saying otherwise, doing untold damage to Americans’ faith in one of the central parts of our democracy.
His farcical claims will undoubtedly continue, and the embarrassing chorus of Republicans behind him will keep echoing the same pathetic bull.
But any person with brains enough to rattle can look at the jury’s verdict in Hunter Biden’s case and see that justice, while it can be imperfect, remained blind in these two high-profile cases.
The difference is one accepts it while the other whines and dissembles like witless fools.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.