The mainstream press wants it known that it would be unusual for any defendant facing the charges to which Hunter is pleading to face prison time. However, any unprotected defendant guilty of the more serious crimes made out in the underlying facts would be charged with the most serious provable offenses. They would accordingly be doing years in federal prison. Hunter Biden’s lenient charges in light of the underlying facts themselves violate long-standing Department of Justice policies. Andrew McCarthy concisely explains the anomalies in this NRO note. Brett Tolman is good on the disappearance of the felony firearms possession charge in this Federalist column.

The prosecutors labored for five years to produce this mouse. When IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley disclosed that the prosecutors “slow-walked” the case, he wasn’t kidding. If slow-walking were an Olympic event, these prosecutors would be “in the running” for a gold medal.

[Plenty more at the link. Scott does a great job of concise drill-downs on the important points. Pay attention to his last thesis; I suggested the same thing yesterday, but it’s good to see others catch it. — Ed]