Associated Press
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter arrived at court on Monday for jury selection in a federal gun case against him after the collapse of a deal with prosecutors that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. First lady Jill Biden arrived shortly after, entering the courthouse in support of her son.
Hunter Biden, who spent the weekend with his parents, has been charged in Delaware with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. He has been accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application used to screen firearms applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
He has pleaded not guilty and has argued he’s being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department, after Republicans decried the now-defunct deal as special treatment for the Democratic President’s son.
The trial comes just days after Donald Trump, Republicans’ presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. A jury found the former President guilty of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the criminal courtroom has taken center stage during the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Biden is also facing a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were to have been resolved through a deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a yearslong investigation into his business dealings.
But Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, which included a proposed guilty plea to misdemeanor offenses to resolve the tax crimes and a diversion agreement on the gun charge, which meant as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years the case would be dismissed. The lawyers squabbled over the agreement, could not come to a resolution, and the deal fell apart. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed the top investigator as a Special Counsel in August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.
This trial isn’t about Hunter Biden’s foreign business affairs — which Republicans have seized on without evidence to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt. But it will excavate some of Hunter Biden’s darkest moments and put them on display.
The President’s allies are worried about the toll the trial may take on the elder Biden, who’s long been concerned about the well-being and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch as those painful past mistakes are publicly scrutinized. He’s also protective: Hunter Biden was with his father all weekend before the case began, biking with his dad and attending church together.
President Biden, in a last-minute switch in plans, shifted from his Rehoboth Beach home back to his Wilmington compound on Sunday evening. Boarding a helicopter on Sunday was the only time the President was seen publicly without his son all weekend.
Hunter Biden arrived first at the Delaware courthouse on Monday. The First Lady, who turned 73 on Monday, followed about 15 minutes later and walked briskly into court, flanked by U.S. Secret Service agents. Hunter Biden’s sister Ashley Biden was also in court to support him.
Allies are also worried the trial could become a distraction as the President tries to campaign under anemic poll numbers and as he is preparing for an upcoming presidential debate while the proceedings play out.
Prosecutors are hoping to show Hunter Biden was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied on the forms. They have said they’re planning to use as evidence his published memoir, and they may also introduce contents from a laptop that he left at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved. The contents made their way to Republicans in 2020 and were publicly leaked, revealing embarrassing and personal photos in which he’s often nude and doing drugs and messages in which he asks dealers about scores.
The Judge will ask a group of prospective jurors a series of questions to determine whether they can serve impartially on the jury, including whether they have donated to political campaigns or run for political office. She will ask whether their views about the 2024 presidential campaign prevent them from being impartial.
She’s also going to ask whether prospective jurors believe Hunter Biden is being prosecuted because his father is the President. Also, she’ll ask about firearms purchasing and addiction issues, including: “Do you believe someone who is addicted to drugs should not be charged with a crime?”
The case against Hunter Biden stems from a period when, by his own public admission, he was addicted to crack. His descent into drugs and alcohol followed the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden, from cancer. He bought and owned a gun for 11 days in October 2018 and indicated on the gun purchase form that he was not using drugs.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and his attorneys have suggested they may argue he didn’t see himself as an addict when prosecutors say he checked “no” to the question on the form. They’ll also attack the credibility of the gun store owner.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are also planning to call as witnesses Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and his brother’s widow, Hallie, with whom he became romantically involved.
If he were to be convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum and it’s unclear whether the Judge would give him time behind bars.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
20 comments
Ocean Joe
June 3, 2024 at 10:15 am
Where’s Dirty Ricky and Lil Marco? Arent they supposed to show up and scream about the weaponization of the justice system?
As for Hunter, LOCK HIM UP! Lock up Bob Menendez! And order MTG to wear a bag over her face in public for the sake of the children.
Tom
June 3, 2024 at 11:56 am
Make that two bags in case one tears – you know, for the children. 🙂
Dont Say FLA
June 4, 2024 at 8:48 am
Make them plastic bags, the kind that are not toys, as this is most serious business, not games with toys
Ocean Joe
June 4, 2024 at 9:46 am
She is the spawn of Mr. Potato Head.
Dont Say FLA
June 5, 2024 at 7:02 am
Mr Potato Head and the Hee Haw Donkey
Paul Passarelli
June 3, 2024 at 11:46 am
Regardless of the outcome you just know “The Big Guy” is going to pardon him.
Ocean Joe
June 4, 2024 at 9:40 am
Hey Paul, did you finally forget about BENGHAZI?
Dont Say FLA
June 3, 2024 at 12:28 pm
Who knew the G0Ps were such sticklers for ATF paperwork and following gun law to the letter all the while claiming it’s Democrats who will come after you for your guns.
Well… I knew. Duhh. G0Ps pick and choose whichever rights they fancy from the Bill of Rights. Democrats support all of the Bill of Rights.
When a party supports only the rights they fancy, the rights they support can and do change over time with the prevailing winds.
So of course it was going to be the G0P going after a private citizen because of paperwork despite his 2A rights.
Jojo
June 5, 2024 at 4:44 pm
Hypocrisy is the Republican Party’s middle name
MarvinM
June 3, 2024 at 4:19 pm
No, I don’t know that, and neither actually do you.
Just because Trump would do something as president (pardon his son, or anyone who would pay him money/make big campaign contribution/would politically benefit him in the eyes of his prospective voters) doesn’t mean Biden will do the same thing.
Have you seen the characters Trump pardoned the last time he was president?
And this is only a short list:
1/13/21 (days before he left office)
Billy T. Walters (insider trading)
Jon Michael Horder (defrauding investors,
Sunwest, assisted living)
Fred Davis Clark Jr. (Ponzi scheme,
vacation rentals)
1/19/21 (day before he left office)
Sholom Weiss (racketeering)
Eli Weinstein ( Ponzi scheme)
Solomon Melgen (Medicare fraud)
Michael Ashley (mortgage fraud)
Also on 1/13/21, he pardon 4 people involved with a Medicaid fraud scheme (Tampa, WellCare).
While Trump did pardon a number of drug offenders, as have many presidents including Biden, he sure did pardon a crazy high amount of people who were charged with white collar type crimes. Lots of them involving the word “fraud”.
At best, Trump pardoned these people because he believes fraud is OK (It’s just business, right?). At worst, Trump pardoned these people because they gave him or his campaign money.
MarvinM
June 3, 2024 at 4:52 pm
Sorry for the confusion, this was meant as a reply to Paul Passarell.
Paul Passarelli
June 3, 2024 at 7:15 pm
Are you seriously trying to refute my opinion?
MarvinM
June 3, 2024 at 11:57 pm
Um, yeah, I guess I am.
Your opinion was “Regardless of the outcome you just know “The Big Guy” is going to pardon him.”
I disagree. And I bet I’m not the only one on this forum, or in Florida, or in the United States, who disagrees with you.
You are the one who seems upset that.
Tom
June 4, 2024 at 7:45 am
I’d agree. Biden wouldn’t do it because it’s fundamentally wrong and regardless of what you think of his age or political viewpoints, he’s basically a decent person. Trump on the other hand, you know, the guy who calls people human scum because he got convicted of a crime by a jury of his peers, would claim Fredo was being held hostage by the courts and pardon him in a heartbeat. Two very different people here and sadly, that’s the only choice we have right now.
Ocean Joe
June 4, 2024 at 9:43 am
Your target was clear, but you left out Jared’s daddy.
Sundance
June 3, 2024 at 6:03 pm
So he provided false image or light on his profile
Sundance
June 3, 2024 at 6:10 pm
Striking. ,,,He is on the clock of doomsday tick tock tick tock
Sundance
June 3, 2024 at 6:11 pm
Hunter is the hunted
Tom
June 4, 2024 at 7:47 am
Touché 🙂
Dont Say FLA
June 4, 2024 at 8:50 am
G0Ps are getting a taste of going after somebody for his guns.
And according to them, they like it. A whole lot.
Who else has a gun? Today’s G0P needs to see your papers for that gun you got there boy!
Comments are closed.