Hunter Biden’s conviction has propelled Trumpland conspiracies into a new realm

In the space of three weeks, two unprecedented, extraordinary court cases. In the first, a former president of the United States is found guilty on 34 counts of committing felony offences over the payment of ‘hush money’ to a former porn star. And in the most recent case, the serving president’s son has been convicted of buying a revolver when he was still a crack addict – and therefore lying on the form he had to fill in to say he was drug-free.

In the former case, when Donald Trump was found guilty, there were howls and shrieks of outrage from him and his supporters that this was unfair; the case should never have been brought; Trump is innocent; this was a weaponised justice system presided over by “crooked Joe Biden” on a mission to nobble his opponent in November. It was a corrupt justice system. It was a bent judge. A “Soros-backed” district attorney brought the case – and obviously no good conspiracy worth its name can thrive without the mention of the Jewish financier, George Soros, somewhere.

In the latter case, there was a brief statement from the president about the conviction of his troubled son, Hunter. President Biden, while at the G7 summit, said, “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction, he’s one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” before adding: “I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything – I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him.”