Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday of three felony charges in connection with lying on a federal gun-permit application. He swore he wasn’t addicted to drugs, but he was. For that, he was convicted. He’s facing up to 25 years, though he might not see any prison time.

The key thing to understand about the conviction of the president’s son is that it’s proof that Donald Trump and the Republicans have been lying. Caught in the lie, they’re now lying about what they lied about, hoping that the new lie covers up the old one. It’s also proof that they don’t mean what they say, and when it’s discovered that they don’t mean it, they move on to other things, which they also don’t mean.

The first lie is that Biden is weaponizing the rule of law against his political adversaries. According to the lie, Trump was not convicted of 34 state felonies on account of committing 34 state felonies. He was convicted, because Biden applies a two-tiered system of justice. Republicans like Trump are prosecuted while Democrats get off.

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It’s also proof that they don’t mean what they say, and when it’s discovered that they don’t mean it, they move on to other things, which they also don’t mean.

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The second lie is that Trump, as the victim of the president’s weaponization of the rule of law against his political adversaries, is justified in weaponizing it against his own. After all he’s been through, Trump now says he deserves some payback – if he wins the election. (He’s going to say he won even if he loses. You know it, so expect it.)

Presidents do not have anything to do with state law enforcement. Presidents are the chief executive of the federal government, not state governments. (They don’t really have anything to do with federal law enforcement, either, though they do appoint the person who does, the US attorney general.) Trump’s trial was a state case in a state court presided over by a state judge according to state law. Trump wants us to believe the president rigged his New York trial. That’s a total lie. 

But even if there’s doubt about whether Biden had anything to do with Trump’s New York trial, Hunter Biden’s conviction should dispel that doubt. Trump says he’s a victim of one set of rules being applied to Biden’s friends while another is applied to his enemies. The president’s own administration, however, prosecuted the president’s own son. Indeed, the prosecutor, David Weiss, was appointed by none other than Donald Trump when he was president. This is not a two-tiered system. It’s one-tiered. Under this president, the rule of law is applied equally. 

No one is above the law, not even the president’s son.

Perhaps a better way of understanding all this is that Trump blames Biden for his criminal conviction. It’s not his fault. It’s Biden’s. So he’s entitled to getting even once he returns to the White House. No one has ever been treated like this, Trump often says, so it’s only “fair” that he gets a chance to treat badly those people who treated him badly.

Biden, however, does not blame Trump (or the prosecutor whom Trump appointed) or anyone. Biden accepts, as presidents should, the outcome of the neutral administration of justice. To make the distinction between him and Trump starker, Biden said last week he would not pardon his son if he were found guilty of federal crimes. 

Trump blames Biden for a crime Trump committed. 

Biden blames no one for a crime his son committed.

That’s the difference. 

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Just as Trump won’t accept the consequences of his trial, he won’t accept the consequences of lying. He and the Republicans are simply moving on to other lies. Hunter Biden’s conviction doesn’t prove that they’ve been lying about Biden’s two-tiered system of justice. No, no, no. All it does is distract us from “the real crimes of the corrupt Biden crime family,” according to a Trump campaign spokeswoman.

They didn’t mean what they said when they said that the president applies a two-tiered system of justice, one for his friends and one for his enemies. But now they want us to believe that they mean what they say when they say that “the real crimes of the corrupt Biden crime family” are yet to be revealed. You can call that a conspiracy theory.

Or you can call it lies.

Lies that go all the way to the Kremlin.

“The real crimes of the corrupt Biden crime family” is the tell. It’s a reference to the now-familiar allegation that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, pressured Ukraine into firing its top prosecutor for investigating an energy company that Hunter Biden worked for. 

Vice President Biden did pressure Ukraine into firing Viktor Shokin, and he succeeded. His effort was not, however, because Shokin was investigating Burisma, the gas firm in question. It was because Shokin wasn’t investigating Burisma enough. Biden’s actions as vice president were in keeping with US policy toward global corruption, which was in turn part of its policy toward Russia. Shokin was a Kremlin stooge.

The allegation that Biden bent US policy for his own, and his son’s own, personal gain originated in the Kremlin. It was later adopted by Trump when he was president. It was central to that moment in 2019 when he demanded that Ukraine announce an investigation into Biden. Trump wanted to smear his most likely and dangerous rival by bending US policy (dirt in exchange for the release of military funding). For these high crimes and misdemeanors, Trump was impeached the first time.

Hunter Biden’s conviction proves that Trump and the Republicans are lying. There is no two-tiered system of justice. There is no justification for revenge. No one is above the law, not even the president’s son. Caught in the lie, they’re now lying about what they lied about, hoping that the new lie covers up the old one. But what no one is saying yet is that the new lie isn’t new. It’s not even their lie. It’s the Kremlin’s. 

Stealing someone else’s lie might be the only thing they mean.