Regardless of whether the prosecution properly exercised prosecutorial judgment, both Trump and Hunter Biden were convicted of crimes.
Because of his pardon, Hunter Biden will not suffer any consequences for this. And as Trump prepares to return to the White House, it appears increasingly likely that the nature of his high office will protect him from conviction. This has already led to the dismissal of the federal lawsuit against him.
The public perception of double standards for the rich and powerful may not be so unfounded.
John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University and director of the Project on Unity and American Democracy, said America’s trust in the criminal justice system is being undermined. But he added that claims of selective prosecution are “a pebble thrown into a very large lake” compared to the wider problem.
“Justice is never blind,” he said. “But there were times when it was fairer than others.”
He said recent developments reflect growing public distrust across political institutions, including Congress, the president and the Supreme Court.
Trump has capitalized on this distrust of institutions, denouncing the “swamp” of government and promising sweeping reforms of the kind that more establishment politicians his supporters believe are unable or unwilling to deliver.
Put in context, Trump’s ongoing complaints about political prosecutions and Biden’s recent adoption of similar arguments reflect a larger crisis in America’s trust in government. Both politicians took advantage of the situation when it found them in uncomfortable legal terrain.
Biden’s use of Trump-esque rhetoric to describe his exercise of presidential power to protect his son will help the president-elect find more support to swing the ball of destruction at the institution Biden has long promised to protect. It just becomes this.
