Why Hunter Biden had to be Charged
Imagine you are filling out Form 4473, the Federal form required for a gun purchase, and you encounter this “warning” at the signature line:
Under 18 U.S. Code §§ 922(a)(6) and 924(a)(2), providing a knowingly false answer to any question on this form is a felony punishable by a fine and up to ten years in jail; but fear not: the U.S. has never prosecuted anyone under those sections except in conjunction with some other crime, so, if you don’t have a criminal record and don’t expect to commit a crime with this gun, you can lie on this form with impunity.
Once it becomes widely known that a statute is not being enforced, people stop obeying it. Thanks to Hunter Biden, the media have spread the word that the crime of lying on Form 4473 has never been charged as a standalone crime. Hunter’s apologists and supporters, including his lawyers, seem not to have realized that only the obscurity of the DOJ’s policy on Form 4473 has enabled the government not to charge lying on it as a standalone crime. By drawing attention to the DOJ’s policy on the matter, Hunter’s defenders have forced the government to indict him.
The government cannot afford to say about any statutory felony “No, we don’t charge that crime as a standalone case.” The government can quietly never charge the…