President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, will appear in court on Monday on gun charges. This is the first-ever trial of a current US President’s son. It has been less than a week since Donald Trump became the first former President to become a convicted criminal.
Charges against Hunter Biden
Department of Justice Special Counsel Davis Weiss charged Biden in September with lying about his drug use when buying a gun. The President’s son has acknowledged he was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine when he bought a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018.
The three counts carry a total maximum penalty of 25 years behind bars, although the President’s son has no previous criminal record and, in reality, sentences tend to be lower than the maximum. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges last year.
In his memoir Beautiful Things, he describes his journey into drug and alcohol addiction after his older brother, Beau, died in 2015 at the age of 46 from brain cancer. The two were very close, having survived a car crash that killed their mother and baby sister when they were young.
JUST IN: Hunter Biden and Jill Biden arrived at a Delaware court for the start of Hunter's gun trial, while President Joe Biden spent the day across town.pic.twitter.com/tydRXEKOMH pic.twitter.com/x5Iy3VkbXH
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 3, 2024
The President’s son claims to have been sober since 2019. However, prosecutors intend to use his memoir to make the case that he knew he was addicted to drugs when he denied it on the form that every person must fill out when buying a gun.
A plea deal with the aim of avoiding a trial last year collapsed, although it is possible that some kind of agreement could still be revived as the trial starts to take shape. One thing that seems certain, however, is that Republicans will use Hunter Biden’s trial—and another more serious one over tax issues set for September—as a weapon to attack Joe Biden.
Political fallout ahead of the election
On Sunday, Democrats highlighted that Hunter Biden will face the same judicial system that found Trump guilty in the New York hush money trial.
“Hunter Biden, of course, is entitled, as was Donald Trump, to the presumption of innocence and to a trial by a jury of his peers,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“And this justice department is going to proceed in that fashion, present the facts and the law and then we’ll all have to wait for a determination that is made by a jury as to Hunter Biden’s guilt or innocence.”
House Republicans voted six months ago to launch an impeachment inquiry probing whether Joe Biden improperly benefited from Hunter’s business dealings when he was vice president. The investigation has died down without a sign that the House will vote to charge Biden with any crime.
Republicans have highlighted Hunter’s gun and tax charges as Trump faces four criminal cases and a civil fraud verdict that threatens his business in New York.
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