Hunter Biden, first son of a US president to sit on the bench

Hunter Biden, 54, has a date with his past this Monday. His descent into hell of alcohol and drugs left him with unfinished business. This Monday he becomes the first son of a sitting United States president to sit on the bench. He will be tried for three crimes that involve a maximum sentence of 25 years. The prosecutor accuses him of lying on two forms by saying that he was free of addictions when he bought a .38-caliber revolver in October 2018 and of illegally keeping it in his possession for a few weeks. The defendant has pleaded not guilty. The trial begins this Monday in Wilmington (Delaware) in full hangover from the ruling that declared former President Donald Trump on Thursday of 34 crimes of falsification of invoices, checks and accounting records.

“No one is above the law,” the president said Friday in his first words about the jury’s ruling against his predecessor. Nor that of his own son. In a twist of fate, the building where the trial is being held is named after J. Caleb Boggs, the Republican senator from whom a young and promising 29-year-old Democratic politician took his seat in the 1972 elections. That politician, Joe Biden , is the tenant of the White House more than half a century later.

Republicans have seen the president’s weakness in their son for years. Although his attempts to link Biden to dirty laundry, kickbacks and influence peddling through his son’s businesses have failed miserably (the confidant who accused him of taking a bribe is being prosecuted for perjury), Trump’s party has politicized again and again the legal problems of Hunter Biden, also charged in parallel with nine tax crimes in a California court.

The trial begins this Monday with jury selection and is expected to last only two weeks. For the president, it is a political and personal blow. Despite the possible cost at the polls, Joe Biden continues to support his son and appear in public with him constantly, including this last weekend.

After years of investigation by a prosecutor appointed by Donald Trump, David Weiss, Hunter Biden initially admitted the illegal purchase and possession of the weapon as part of an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to be sentenced with lesser penalties for two tax crimes already regularized and to file the case. of the revolver. The Prosecutor’s Office waived pursuing the purchase of the gun in exchange for him staying away from drugs for two years and giving up having a firearm in the future.

It is a common agreement in similar cases in which the accused have been rehabilitated and have no criminal record. The agreement, however, was derailed at the moment it was going to be endorsed. Judge Maryellen Noreika, appointed by Trump, rejected it due to the different interpretation of the agreement between the prosecution and defense and pressure from Republicans. Attorney General Merrick Garland gave special prosecutor powers to Weiss, who ultimately decided to press charges.

The crimes of which Hunter Biden is accused carry maximum sentences of up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000, but it is not common for sentences as high as this to be imposed in a case like this. At the first hearing of the case, the judge highlighted their nature as “maximum penalties”: a higher one cannot be imposed, but a lower one can be imposed.

To achieve a conviction on the two counts related to the purchase of the revolver, prosecutors must convince the 12 jurors, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hunter Biden knowingly made a false statement on his gun purchase form. and that the lie was relevant for the sale to be closed. For the weapons possession charge, they must prove that he knew that he was an illegal user of a controlled substance or that he was a drug addict and that he knowingly possessed a firearm.

Hunter Biden stopped on October 12, 2018, at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, a firearms store off Highway 202, north of Wilmington, Delaware. More than a store, it is an arsenal. His display cases are full of pistols, rifles and semi-automatic rifles. Joe Biden’s son decided to buy a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, caliber 38. To do this, filled out form 4473, a multi-page form of small print. Question 11.e) asked you to answer whether you were an illegal user or addict of any stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance. Hunter Biden put an X in the no box. A footnote asked him to certify that his answers were “true, correct and complete,” and warned him that he was prohibited from purchasing a gun if he checked yes. in that question and that making a false statement in this regard was a crime. Hunter Biden purchased the revolver. The gun ended up 11 days later in a trash can at a Greenville supermarket, about a 10-minute drive from the gun store.

The president’s son acknowledged in his memoirs that he struggled with a drug addiction. crack at the time, but his lawyers maintain that he did not break the law and that any other nonviolent criminal with no prior record would not have been charged. Biden’s defense has claimed that he had completed an 11-day rehabilitation period and that he may have believed he was clean when he checked the no box on the form.

The Prosecutor’s Office is considering calling Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and the widow of his brother Beau Biden, with whom he later had a relationship, as witnesses to testify about his addiction. The defense will try to discredit the prosecution’s evidence. Interestingly, like Trump, Hunter Biden maintains that he is the target of political persecution. The defendant alleged that he had been “selectively accused for an improper political purpose” because he is the son of the president and a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections on November 5. The judge rejected that argument and refused to file the case.

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