As Hunter Biden prepares to face the first criminal trial of a sitting president's child, the implications for his father's reelection bid and the intensifying political battlefield are set to take center stage in a courtroom drama that could reshape the 2024 election.
Top Points
1. Historic Trial for Hunter Biden: The criminal trial of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, begins next week on gun charges, marking the first time a sitting president’s child has been a criminal defendant. He faces charges related to his 2018 purchase of a firearm while allegedly using illegal drugs.
2. Details of the Case: Hunter Biden, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of lying about his drug use on a gun purchase form and illegally possessing the firearm. Prosecutors plan to present evidence including photos, messages, and testimonies to prove his drug addiction at the time.
3. Political Implications: The trial coincides with President Biden’s reelection campaign amidst other political challenges. Republicans are leveraging the case to allege financial misconduct within the Biden family, while Donald Trump, Biden’s opponent, faces multiple criminal trials of his own.
Next week, the criminal trial of Hunter Biden on gun charges begins, with federal prosecutors expected to delve into lurid details of his crack cocaine addiction, potentially providing ammunition for opponents of his father's presidential reelection bid.
Hunter Biden will make history as the first child of a sitting president to face criminal charges when jury selection starts on Monday, shortly after the historic criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
The son of President Joe Biden has pleaded not guilty to three federal charges related to his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt revolver. He was charged in September by U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee, for lying about his illegal drug use when buying the handgun and for illegally possessing it for 11 days in October 2018. If convicted on all counts, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison.
This trial comes as Joe Biden campaigns for a second term amidst challenges like inflation, conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and concerns about his age. Biden, 81, is the oldest U.S. president.
On Tuesday, closing arguments were presented in New York in the case of Donald Trump, Biden's Republican opponent, who faces charges of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments during the 2016 election. Trump has three other criminal trials pending.
As prosecutors pursue Trump, Republicans have intensified their allegations of financial misconduct against the Biden family, focusing on Hunter Biden. He also faces a separate federal tax trial in Los Angeles in September, also brought by Weiss, and has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Hunter Biden's gun trial, held in Wilmington, Delaware, could extend over two weeks. Federal prosecutors plan to present photos, testimony, and messages to demonstrate that Hunter Biden was using illegal drugs when he purchased the gun and failed to disclose this on a federal form. The prosecution may call his ex-wife to testify about incidents like removing drugs from his car to protect their daughter.
Evidence might include data from his phone, iCloud account, and a laptop he allegedly abandoned at a repair shop, featuring photos of him using crack and arranging meetings with drug dealers. His own words, such as admissions in his 2021 autobiography "Beautiful Things," could be used against him.
To convict on the gun purchase charges, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hunter Biden knowingly made a false statement on the purchase form and that the lie was material to the sale. For the possession charge, they must show he knew he was a drug user or addict and that he knowingly possessed a firearm.
Hunter Biden's legal team has questioned the quality of the evidence, noting the storage pouch containing his Colt handgun had cocaine traces and the weapon was found in a trash bin by a "garbage scavenger" in 2018 but tested five years later. They argue the laptop allegedly abandoned in 2019 showed signs of tampering before government acquisition and that the gun purchase form was altered after submission.
Defense lawyers have also contested the meaning of being a "knowing addict," arguing Hunter Biden had just completed rehabilitation and might have believed he was sober when he denied illegal drug use on the form. Hunter Biden claimed in July that he has been free of illegal drugs and alcohol since mid-2019. At that hearing, Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump nominee, rejected a plea agreement that would have averted the gun charges, leading to the upcoming trial.
Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden are Joe Biden's surviving children. His daughter Naomi died as an infant in a car accident that also killed his first wife, Neilia, while his son Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015 at age 46.
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