New York.– Hunter Biden watched from behind the scenes in Chicago on Monday as his father, President Biden, took the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention to bask in the appreciation of the party faithful and to get some closure after a relentless 2024.
On Wednesday, from halfway across the continent, came a darker milestone for the president’s youngest son: a preliminary hearing in a Los Angeles federal court ahead of his trial on tax evasion charges, the latest act in a legal saga that has outstripped his father’s reelection bid.
Biden did not attend — his lawyers exercised their right not to appear hours earlier — though the bitter tussle between his defense team and the prosecution foreshadowed another ordeal for the family that could rival or even exceed his June trial on charges of lying on a federal weapons purchase application.
Both allegations stem from the same period, from 2015 to 2010, when Biden was addicted to crack cocaine, alcohol and a lavish lifestyle funded by roughly $11 million in consulting contracts with foreign companies that paid him to do minimal work.
Until President Biden dropped out of the race last month, allies of former President Donald J. Trump viewed the Hunter Biden trials as their best opportunity to push an unproven “Biden family crime” narrative to link the father to the son’s egregious sins, particularly after their efforts to impeach the president.
Even as Trump continues to complain about President Biden’s decline after years of preparing for a 2020 rematch, House Republicans quickly launched a potential investigation into Vice President Kamala Harris.
Although the legal system is not finished with Hunter Biden, who was charged in a case related to the purchase of a gun in Delaware.
He continues to face charges of evading a tax assessment, failing to pay taxes and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.
On Wednesday, Leo J. Wise, the lead prosecutor in the case, made it clear that he will present evidence that Biden chose to spend his money on drugs, female companionship, clothes and expensive hotels, instead of paying his taxes.
But Mark J. Geragos, a veteran California lawyer who recently joined Mr. Biden’s legal team, accused the special counsel’s prosecutors of trying to obscure flaws in his argument to humiliate him in front of a jury.
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