Assuming he's found guilty, it will be because a jury found him, beyond a reasonable doubt, to have knowingly and intentionally falsely filed the paperwork that allowed the therefore illegal purchase of the gun. The gun itself was not illegal, but it was allegedly illegally obtained because he allegedly falsely represented his status as an addict.old salt wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 2:54 pm The law behind the paperwork form is that it is illegal for addicts to purchase a gun.
Had he not lied on the form, he would not have been permitted to purchase the gun.
The paperwork form is part of the enforcement mechanism. If he was an addict, it was illegal to purchase & possess the gun.
Where's the support for gun control, dismissing it as a mere paperwork crime ?
The woman living with him felt it was dangerous enough to dispose of the gun, in a reckless manner.
It was not a mere paperwork error.
This not a mere error nor is it mere paperwork, just as filing false paperwork to hide the intention of affecting the 2016 election and related tax and campaign finance law violations, is not mere error nor mere paperwork.
But the scale of Trump's crime, which has indeed been adjudicated by a jury as proven beyond a reasonable doubt, is far, far greater than an addict purchasing a gun when he was half out of his mind. Happens all the time, rarely prosecuted unless there's a related crime committed to which the gun was important. (Now, if he'd used the gun to kill someone, commit assault, etc could make an argument as to importance.)
Even more so, Trump's other indicted crimes dwarf this one.
Back to Hunter. The defense will argue that Hunter did not think he was an addict, an habitual user, at the moment of his filling out the gun purchase form. They will attempt to provide a basis for reasonable doubt as to intent.
May not be sufficient to convince a jury, but many jurors have a likelihood of having addicts in their lives who they understand were not thinking clearly when under the influence of addiction. They may have some empathy for the notion that either at the moment of filling out the form he actually thought he'd kicked it, or that he was in such denial that he simply wasn't willing to believe what anyone around him would have said about his state of addiction. And they may see his later recovery an admissions of addiction as coming from a very different time and perspective, having come to grips with the reality of his addiction.
Or they'll find that implausible and convict. Or they'd disagree and be hung.
In either case, the crime is a matter of false representation to the government.
Tax avoidance is obviously white collar.
Note that Trump needed to be found to have had the intent to make illegal false representations AND that he intended it to benefit his Presidential campaign. They found both beyond a reasonable doubt. 34 times.