Technology

Stop Calling It A 'Slap On The Wrist' Just Because The Media Hyped It Up More Than It Deserved

From Hunter Biden to the ChatGPT lawyers, when media deploy the phrase 'slap on the wrist,' prepare to take several grains of salt.

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Hunter Biden (Al Drago/Bloomberg)/ChatGPT (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto) via Getty Images

There’s a “two-tiered justice system,” decried Republicans after Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax offenses and a gun charge. The president’s son was getting a “slap on the wrist,” conservatives raged. Meanwhile, in less politically charged circles, the pair of New York attorneys who turned in a court filing full of fake caselaw generated by ChatGPT received $5000 fine and asked to write “we’re naughty boys” letters to some federal judges. Even our headline for this news used the phrase “slap on the wrist.”

That the nation with the most incarcerated people in the world has a ubiquitous short-hand expression tailored for casting aspersions on situations where someone is still punished, but not punished “enough,” says some deeply troubling shit about the fabric of American society. But without wading into psychoanalyzing the whole country, we can at least distill this lesson when it comes to reading about the justice system: if “slap on the wrist” starts appearing in headlines, it’s probably because the media hyped up the case way more than it deserved in the first place.

It’s the last refuge after the bullshit bubble bursts.

Hunter Biden seems like a guy with a lot of problems, but also not a cartoon supervillain. That hasn’t stopped right-wing media fluffers from going to incredible lengths to transform a guy with a drug and stripper problem into Keyser Söze. Rudy Giuliani seemingly exposed himself to possible child pornography charges for the cause (that he then had to feverishly move to remedy), while Jonathan Turley tried to warp time and space to build a federal case upon non-existent sands. When Hunter ended up copping to tax charges and only received probation, Republicans went nuts:

There’s a lot of merit to “two-tiered” justice system criticisms generally, but in this case the only thing “two-tiered” is that there’s one tier for first-time non-violent offenders and another for those with extensive criminal histories — especially when those histories include convictions for violent crimes:

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Kodak Black, unlike Biden, had a long list of arrests and convictions. In the months between the time he committed the federal gun offenses in January and March 2019 and his sentencing for that offense in November 2019, the rapper was arrested yet again on different gun and drug charges at the Canadian border and, separately, was accused by prosecutors of assaulting a corrections officer in jail. At the time of his sentencing in 2019, he was also facing a felony sex-crime charge over a 2016 attack on a teenage girl in a hotel room after one of his concerts, for which he received probation in 2021 after pleading guilty to first-degree assault and battery.

Anyone observing this case from outside the media bubble knew that probation seemed the likely outcome if Hunter agreed to a plea. Like, for instance, actual lawyers practicing in this space.

Maggie Abdo-Gomez, a Miami tax attorney and former IRS lawyer, said it’s rare for people to face criminal charges for simply failing to pay their taxes.

“I’ve only seen them — one time — prosecute someone for failure to pay taxes,” she said. “Because the truth is, if we prosecuted for failure to pay taxes, the jails would be full. Forget the drug dealers and the murderers and everybody else. I have a small practice, and I’ve got tons of people that owe taxes.”

“The laws were enforced as if it had been anybody else,” she added, regarding Hunter’s case. “I would say probably a little stricter, because failure to pay is very common.”

Caroline Ciraolo, acting head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division for the last year of the Obama administration, said the case’s resolution didn’t strike her as outside the norm. If the Justice Department had found evidence that Hunter Biden lied or took other “affirmative acts” to dodge his taxes, he likely would have faced tougher charges, she said.

But even media outlets viewing the Hunter Biden story through skeptical eyes allowed themselves to repeat the really wanted to talk to these folks before the case ended, instead unwittingly amplifying the ranting of bad faith actors.

And now those folks are tossing around “slap on the wrist” a lot. Except for Turley, who is currently working on a theory that Hunter’s deal is part of a massive coverup because… obviously.

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The same scenario played out with the ChatGPT lawyers. After getting called out for filing a brief replete with phony cases, the mainstream media jumped on a dangers of modern technology narrative that overlooked that this was no more than an old-fashioned case of laziness. Based on the record, the attorney thought ChatGPT was a legal research database and cited its manufactured output without bothering to check it against a real service. Worse, when confronted, the attorney apparently didn’t check Lexis or Westlaw or Fastcase, but instead asked ChatGPT to back up its work, which the hallucination machine was all too happy to do.

Embarrassing… yes. But also just naive. There was never anything in the record to suggest there was anything at play here beyond tech ignorant lawyers failing to check their work. When the judge slapped them with a $5000 fine, that felt appropriate for what seemed to be an innocently committed if wildly boneheaded move. But the ruling garnered its fair share of “slap on the wrist” rhetoric because a lot of the press coverage around the matter focused on undated notary stamps and the lawyers’ shifting response to indicate a bad faith effort to defraud the court that never really materialized.

They were just bumbling and received the sanction they deserved.

These aren’t the first and won’t be the last occasions where the media busts out the “slap on the wrist” rhetoric. Sometimes it’s legitimately earned — there are no absolutes out there after all. But more often than not when you hear slap on the wrist outside of a rock-paper-scissors throw down, take the opportunity to go back and question the whole narrative of the case to that point.

Was it really a “slap on the wrist,” or a mountain out of a mole hill?

Here’s What Happens When Your Lawyer Uses ChatGPT [New York Times]
‘Slap On The Wrist’: GOP Rages Against Hunter Biden Plea Deal–Vows To Continue House Probes [Forbes]

Earlier: For The Love Of All That Is Holy, Stop Blaming ChatGPT For This Bad Brief
ChatGPT Lawyers Get Slap On The Wrist From Court. But Infamy Is Forever.
Trump Allies Point To Hunter Biden Charges As Proof Of DOJ Corruption
Jonathan Turley Has New Theory To Bust Hunter Biden And All It Requires Is Warping The Fabric Of Space-Time
Did Rudy Giuliani Just Cop To Possessing Child Pornography?

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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