Media Criticism

Robby Soave | 6.13.2024 4:00 PM

Hunter Biden, the troubled son of President Joe Biden, was convicted this week of three charges related to illegally purchasing a gun while suffering from drug addiction. It is fair to ask whether prosecutors should have brought these charges in the first place; Reason's Jacob Sullum described the violated law in question as "widely flouted, haphazardly enforced, and constitutionally dubious."

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) wrote on X: "Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it. There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws."

One interesting feature of the trial was the delivery mechanism for the evidence used by the state to prove that Hunter Biden was indeed addicted to drugs at the time of the gun purchase. That evidence came from photos and messages that were obtained from his laptop, which he abandoned at a Delaware repair store in April 2019.

The contents of the laptop, readers may recall, fell into the hands of government investigators, Republican operatives, and eventually, the media. On October 14, 2020—just weeks before the presidential election—the New York Post published a........

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