We’ve taken a few trips down memory lane with Joe Biden’s son Hunter over the past couple of years. Whether it’s his incredibly fortunate job history, including gigs with the Ukrainians and the Chinese or his occasional alleged issues with various “substances” and strippers, he’s apparently had quite an interesting life. But even with all of those exploits under his belt, he’s always seemed to avoid any serious entanglements with the law. Using that as a launching point, the New York Post did a bit more digging this week and found that Hunter isn’t the only member of the extended Biden clan who appears to have run afoul of the long arm of the law but somehow always seems to skate away without taking too much legal damage. Let’s take a look.
In August 2019, Caroline Biden, 33, a niece of former Vice President Biden, was busted in Lower Merion Township, Penn., for driving under the influence and without a license, public records show. While the case is active, it’s unlikely Caroline will face much in the way of consequences — if history and Biden family rap sheets are any guide.
Her arrest, which was never made public, was at least the ninth among Joe Biden’s close family, and followed incidents involving his brother Frank, his son Hunter and his daughter Ashley. The cases — ranging from felony theft to drug possession — were all either thrown out, or resulted in light sentences with no jail time, according to a Post review of public records and published reports.
The Pennsylvania drunken-driving collar was the third run-in with the law for Caroline, who is the daughter of Joe’s younger brother, James Biden Sr.
Some of these stories are mildly interesting I suppose, but also not the sort of thing that plenty of families, unfortunately, run into from time to time. What’s more potentially intriguing is how those cases worked out after the legal system was finished with them. (More on that in a moment.)
The niece mentioned above, Caroline Biden, had more on her record than just a drunken driving (sans license) charge. She was also charged with striking a New York City police officer during what was described as “a full-scale meltdown.” The charges against her were dropped on the condition that she take anger management classes. But in 2017 things definitely got serious when she was busted for spending more than $100K on a stolen credit card. She was even convicted on that one, but the conviction was later mysteriously tossed and she was allowed to plead to a much less serious offense and avoid jail time.
Joe’s daughter Ashley has limited herself to much more minor mischief. She had a pot bust in New Orleans about twenty years ago. While the police confirm her conviction, there’s no official record of it for some reason. She was also arrested on another misdemeanor charge in 2002 involving obstructing a police officer, but that charge was dropped as well.
Joe’s brother Frank has also gotten into his share of scrapes with the law, including a bizarre minor theft charge, DUI and being involved in a DUI-related accident that cost someone their life. But Frank has also fared really well in the courts, with no record of ever going to jail. The other stories about Hunter are too numerous to go into yet again here.
We should note that there’s no record of Joe Biden ever personally intervening in any of these cases to get a favorable outcome and his campaign spokesman denied any such suggestion to the Post. (He also called it a “garbage story.”) Absent any proof to the contrary, let’s assume that’s true. But you don’t always have to get your famous relative to directly and personally intervene. Sometimes a smart lawyer will just be able to “casually mention” that his client’s father, brother, or uncle is a famous Senator with presidential prospects and all sorts of doors can open. (Including cell doors, apparently.)
In any event, that remains in the arena of speculation. Some people are just lucky in this life, whether that means they are lucky in love or lucky in court. Perhaps that’s just the case with the Biden clan.
