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. For it, 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,” warned him that he was prohibited from purchasing a gun if he answered affirmatively to 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. More than five years later, Hunter Biden has ended up in the dock, becoming the first son of a United States president to be tried in a criminal case.
The trial, which is being held in Wilmington (Delaware), began this Monday with jury selection. There are 12 people (six men and six women), plus four substitutes (all women), who have at their disposal over 20 pages of instructions on how they should carry out their task: “Their deliberations are secret. They won’t have to explain their verdict to anyone. Their verdict must be unanimous; all 12 must agree or there will be no verdict. At the end of all the evidence, you will discuss the case among yourselves in the jury room, and ultimately each of you will have to make your own decision,” those instructions state.
These are the keys to the case:
What is Hunter Biden accused of?
The president’s son is accused of three crimes: false statement when purchasing a firearm; false statement in documents to be kept on file by the gun seller and illegal possession of a firearm. Prosecutors maintain that he was a drug user and addict when he purchased the gun. In the first two, he is accused of lying on the form and in the third, of the subsequent possession of the Colt.
In particular, Biden is accused of violating the following provisions of Title 18 of the United States Code, the equivalent of the criminal code: section 922(a)(6)which punishes “any person who, in connection with the acquisition or attempted acquisition of any firearm or ammunition from a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed distributor, or licensed collector, knowingly makes any oral or false or fictitious writing or provides or displays any false, fictitious or misrepresented identification, with the intent or likelihood of deceiving such importer, manufacturer, distributor or collector with respect to any fact relevant to the legality of the sale or other provision of such firearm or ammunition.”
The second crime charged is violating the section 924(a)(1)(A)which punishes anyone who “knowingly makes any false statement or representation with respect to the information required by this chapter to be maintained in the records of a person licensed (…)” for the sale of weapons.
The third crime is for violating the provision (section 922(g)(3)) which makes it illegal to possess a firearm or ammunition for anyone who is “an illegal user or addict of any controlled substance.”
What penalties can you receive?
At the time of the accusation, the court made clear in a document the maximum penalties Hunter Biden faces. Up to 10 years for the first offense, 5 for the second and another 10 for the third, along with fines of up to $250,000 for each of them and up to three years of supervised release. In total, then, the maximum would be 25 years in prison, but these are maximum penalties. For someone with no criminal record, rehabilitated and when the illegal purchase and possession of the weapon is not accompanied by any other violent crime, prison sentences are not common.
How does the trial proceed?
After the selection of the jury, it is the turn of the opening statements, starting with that of the prosecutor. The prosecution must then present evidence of the crimes of which it accuses Hunter Biden. They can be documents or statements from witnesses, whom the defense can also question. Following the indictment, Hunter Biden’s lawyers can present their own evidence and witnesses, if they wish. At the end of their turn, the prosecutor and the prosecution will present their conclusions in their final arguments. The judge will then give instructions to the jury, who will retire to deliberate. It will rule on each crime and needs to do so unanimously for there to be a decision.
What must the prosecution prove?
The accused has the presumption of innocence. The prosecutor has the need to prove each and every element of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. To achieve a conviction on the two counts related to the purchase of the revolver, prosecutors must convince the jury that Hunter Biden knowingly made a false statement on his gun purchase form and that the lie was relevant to the closure of the case. operation. 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.
What evidence do prosecutors provide?
The prosecution will use excerpts from Hunter Biden’s own memoirs, Beautiful things, in which he acknowledges that he was addicted to drugs for four years until March 2019. Prosecutors have also accessed text messages from the defendant from that time. “He was sleeping in a car smoking crack,” he said in one of them. The Prosecutor’s Office is considering calling as witnesses Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and the widow of his brother Beau Biden, Hallie Biden, with whom he later had a relationship, to testify about his addiction.
What does the defense allege?
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty. However, the judge has made two of his lines of defense difficult. She has prevented an expert from testifying about the state of denial regarding his addiction that Hunter Biden could be in when comparing the gun, especially considering that he had undergone an 11-day rehabilitation period. She has also vetoed into evidence a version of the form altered by store employees, arguing that it does not change the facts and would introduce confusion. The judge has also rejected the defense’s claim that the accused is suffering political persecution.
What happened to the agreement with prosecutors?
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 archive the revolver case. The Prosecutor’s Office waived pursuing the purchase of the gun i
n exchange for him staying away from drugs for two years and for him to renounce 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 the defense and pressure from the Republicans.
Can the president pardon his son?
Yes. The crimes of which your son is accused are federal and the president has a broad capacity to pardon them if he were sentenced to go to jail. So far, Biden has stayed away from the incidents of the case, but has shown strong support for Hunter as a father. Biden stayed in Wilmington this Monday, extending the weekend, to support his son. First lady Jill Biden accompanied him to the courthouse. In a statement, the president said Monday that she has “unlimited love” for his son, “trust in him and respect for his strength.” “I’m the president, but I’m also a dad,” she said, adding that she would have no further comment on the case. “Jill and I love our son, and we are very proud of the man he is today,” she concluded.
What other accusations does Hunter Biden have pending?
Hunter Biden has been charged since December with nine alleged tax crimes before California courts. Biden’s son regularized the pending payments and the case was going to be closed in accordance with that agreement with prosecutors that finally derailed.
Do the cases affect the president?
Both the charges for the purchase and possession of the revolver and the alleged tax crimes concern only Hunter Biden. Republicans have spent years unsuccessfully trying to find links showing that Joe Biden benefited from his son’s business dealings, that he collected commissions and other irregularities. His harassment of the president – through requests and interrogations of supposed witnesses and the opening of an investigation for a possible impeachment with which to continue eroding him― has reached a dead end by not having found any evidence against President Biden. Much of the accusations centered on the testimony of a confidant who said that Joe Biden had collected a commission of five million dollars from Ukraine. It was later proven that it was all a fabrication by a person with ties to Russian intelligence, and the confidant that the Republicans had blindly believed in is being prosecuted for perjury.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
#Hunter #Biden #accused #penalties #receive #keys #trial #Joe #Bidens #son
