Trump allies were 'secretly rooting' for Hunter Biden to be acquitted: NYT

Hunter Biden was found guilty on all three felony firearms charges against him, but Donald Trump's allies were privately hoping he'd be acquitted.

The former president's Republican allies have had mixed reactions to Tuesday's verdict, with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) calling it "kinda dumb" while others suggested it was part of a conspiracy to protect president Joe Biden, but Trump pals had been hoping for an acquittal to make a narrative that would be easier to spin, reported the New York Times.

"Many Trump allies had been secretly rooting for an acquittal," the newspaper reported. "The talking points wrote themselves: It would have been yet more evidence that the United States justice system was rigged in favor of the Bidens and against the Trumps. Tuesday’s guilty verdict was inconvenient to that narrative."

Campaign officials had anticipated raising tens of millions of dollars by citing an acquittal as evidence the justice system was rigged against Trump, according to a source with knowledge of the campaign’s fund-raising plans, but the campaign instead floated a conspiracy theory in its official statement about the conviction.

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“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine,” said Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s national press secretary. “Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”

President Biden has not been charged with any crimes, and House Republicans have abandoned their effort to impeach him after failing to turn up evidence of wrongdoing in its months-long inquiry, and sources close to Trump say he's changed his mind about the political benefits of attacking Hunter Biden.

"In a meeting last year, Mr. Trump acknowledged privately to an associate that attacks against the president’s son had the potential to backfire politically, according to a person who attended the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation," the Times reported. "Mr. Trump said Republicans needed to be careful, the person said, 'not to go overboard' on the Hunter Biden attacks, especially on the drug addiction issue, because it could elicit sympathy and make people view the president as a caring father."

"These days, Mr. Trump rarely mentions Hunter Biden on the stump," the newspaper added. "Instead, he tends to refer broadly to Mr. Biden and his family as corrupt."