Supreme Court May Have Just Sealed Hunter Biden's Fate—Legal Analyst

The U.S. Supreme Court may have "sealed" the deal in Hunter Biden's federal gun verdict on Friday, according to attorney and legal analyst Jonathan Turley.

Hunter, 54, President Joe Biden's first child, was found guilty of three felony charges after lying to a licensed gun dealer on his application to obtain a firearm while he was an active drug user. The verdict, reached earlier this month, marked the first criminal conviction of a sitting U.S. president's child. President Biden has said that he does not intend to pardon his only living son.

The younger Biden is expected to appeal his conviction, although Turley said that a Supreme Court decision reached Friday may have ruined any chance the president's son has to contest the verdict. In Friday's case, United States v. Rahimi, justices of the High Court upheld that the government has the right to prevent anyone placed under a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.

Other legal experts have suggested that Biden's team was likely waiting on the Rahimi ruling for potential "ammo" in its appeal. Turley wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News Friday afternoon that the Supreme Court ruling determined federal statutes imposing a "reasonable temporary limitation" on gun ownership for an individual whom a court has deemed to "pose a credible threat to physical safety" are constitutional.

"The key is the temporary qualification," Turley wrote. "The Court is only saying that a court can make reasonable decisions based on such a record to protect others from allegedly violent defendants."

"That brings us back to Hunter," he continued. "While the result in Washington was not as bad as the unanimous decision in Delaware, it may well have sealed his fate on appeal."

A federal appeals court in Delaware last month unanimously rejected an appeal from Hunter Biden's defense team that sought to toss his criminal charges before trial began.

Turley added in his op-ed that the "Biden legal team had been counting on Hail Mary passes since a Special Counsel [David Weiss] was appointed" to the case, whom, Turley said, appeared to "work hard to avoid any felony charges against the president's son." Turley also highlighted Biden's plea deal with the Justice Department that fell apart last summer and that his attorneys "blundered" in hoping for a "jury nullification strategy."

"[Biden's lawyers] hoped that a Delaware jury in Bidentown could never convict a Biden," Turley wrote. "They were wrong."

"That left the last pass to the Supreme Court, which just seemed to land in the stadium seats," he continued. "In reality, it was never a strong throw. After all, Hunter was convicted for lying on gun forms, something that the Court was never likely to excuse."

Newsweek on Friday reached out to Hunter Biden's attorneys via email for comment on Turley's op-ed.

Legal experts have been split on whether Hunter Biden will be sentenced to prison. He has also been charged with tax evasion and filing a false tax return in California. Those charges, upon conviction, could carry a sentence of up to 17 years in prison.