Will presidential race be influenced by convictions? | GARY COSBY JR.

Hunter Biden, son of president Joe Biden, has finally been convicted by a jury of three charges related to his illegal purchase of a gun. The charges were lying on a federal screening form about his drug use, lying to a gun dealer and possessing the gun illegally.

While the younger Biden is not running for president, his father, Joe Biden will no doubt rail hard against former President Donald Trump’s recent conviction in New York on 34 counts related to paying hush money to a porn actress with whom he had a sexual encounter. Having a son convicted on the gun charges in Delaware will undercut Biden’s attack.

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Even though President Biden does not figure into the case in Delaware against his son, Republicans have been investigating the Biden family for years in an attempt to connect the elder Biden to his son’s shady business affairs and there can be little doubt that Hunter has done shady things. To this point, the Republican-led House of Representatives has not found evidence sufficient to bring impeachment charges against President Biden.

This conviction of Hunter Biden will likely be played up by Trump on the campaign trail, and it could lead to a lengthy prison term for the younger Biden, though that isn’t likely. It remains to be seen if the son’s conviction hurts his father’s reelection bid.

This case, like so many others on both sides of this election, won’t likely have much impact on the results of the presidential race. People who support Trump will continue to do so and people who support President Biden won’t turn away from him due to a conviction of his son on charges not related to the father. In short, there will be a lot of sound and fury, but in the end it won’t have a great deal of impact.

This is but the beginning of woes for Hunter Biden. He now faces charges of tax evasion in California. That trial could produce more fireworks as prosecutors divulge financial information that could prove detrimental to Joe Biden. That, of course, remains to be seen, but if evidence is uncovered in the California case that indicates the president had any shady financial ties to Hunter, the election could swing on such a revelation.

My opinion of Joe Biden hasn’t changed because of his son’s conviction. It is hard to hold a father liable for what his 54-year-old son does. I have never thought Joe Biden was a desirable candidate for president, so this changes nothing in my mind. The only way Biden became president was because of Trump’s disastrous handling of the COVID crisis in 2020 and his lies about the election that dated back to the early summer before the election.

Republican investigators have sifted the Biden family finances for years and have not been able to tie Joe to Hunter in a way that stands legal scrutiny. That serving members of the U.S. government manage to generate preposterous amounts of money, especially given what their actual salaries are, is all the proof one needs that these people are not clean and above-board with their finances. That charge could be leveled at many in Washington. It is a nasty by-product of the system we have in place.

When lawmakers investigate other lawmakers on charges of financial corruption, I imagine it has to be pretty egregious in order for charges to be brought, since all of them are doing much the same thing. Money flows into campaigns in torrents. Somehow, maybe its magic that substantial amounts of money end up in the lawmakers pockets. Shocking, I know, but no one seems to leave office poorer than he or she went in.

But to prove criminal culpability is both difficult and risky. This was true of the first impeachment by Democrats of Donald Trump. The use of money as an incentive to get others to do what the lawmakers want is about the oldest trick in the book. I thought at the time that Trump certainly did wrong, but I also thought that a bunch of the people bringing the charges should probably check to see if they were the pot or the kettle.

The same goes with the Republican investigation of the Biden family. How deep do you really want to dig around that tree? Or the better question might be how much do you want investigators to dig around your tree?

When one party has some dirt on the other, they will add water and sling mud. That does not excuse illegal behavior, but it does make one cringe at the self-righteous indignation so many affect in these situations.

The question voters will answer in this case is how much weight to attach to Hunter Biden’s crimes versus how much weight to attach to Trump’s crimes. So far, Trump’s criminal cases ― except in New York ― have been pushed back so they will not likely happen until after the election. Voters will have to weigh which is more egregious, the sins of the Biden family or the sins of the Trump family. What a ridiculous way to have to choose a president.

Gary Cosby Jr. can be reached at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Biden vs. Trump may come down to convictions | GARY COSBY JR.