The trial for illegal possession of a weapon by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, opened Monday in federal court in Wilmington, a potential threat to the American president in the midst of his campaign to be re-elected.
Hunter Biden, 54, who recovered from years of drug and alcohol addiction, is one of the favorite targets of his father’s Republican opponents – starting with his predecessor Donald Trump – who considered Joe Biden’s Achilles heel.
The trial begins four days after a New York court found Donald Trump guilty of accounting falsifications intended to hide a $130,000 payment to avoid a sex scandal at the tail end of his 2016 presidential campaign. An unprecedented verdict for a former American president.
Hunter Biden arrived at court Monday morning accompanied by his wife as well as his mother-in-law Jill Biden, wife of the American president. At the end of the day, a jury of 12 people was chosen, and the opening of the debates is expected on Tuesday.
“As president, I will not comment on an ongoing federal proceeding, but as a father, I have infinite love for my son, I trust him, and I respect his strength,” Joe Biden said in a press release.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty in October in the case.
He is accused of lying when filling out forms to acquire a firearm in 2018, in which he denied the drug addiction he later admitted to.
A jury in Wilmington, the Biden stronghold in the state of Delaware, on the east coast of the United States, will have to decide on two counts relating to alleged lies in the documents necessary for the purchase of a revolver in 2018, and a third on the illegal possession of this weapon.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, but in practice such prosecutions rarely result in prison time alone.
Vodka and crack
He was also charged in December with tax fraud for evading, through a “stratagem,” the obligation to pay $1.4 million in taxes. He pleaded not guilty in this case, for which his trial will be held in September in California (west), where he now resides.
These two trials could interfere with Joe Biden’s efforts to mark the contrast with his Republican opponent, targeted by four separate criminal proceedings.
Trial debates likely to focus on Hunter Biden’s book The beautiful things (2021), in which he recounts the vodka drunk from the bottle, the nocturnal wanderings in search of crack around seedy convenience stores, the failed attempts at detoxification, the fleeting love affairs with his brother’s widow…
Lawyer then businessman, he converted to painting after recovering from drug and alcohol addictions.
In Congress, elected Republican officials opened an impeachment investigation against Joe Biden in September, accusing him of having used his influence when he was vice-president of Barack Obama (2009-2017) to allow his son Hunter to doing business in China and Ukraine.
But no evidence has really been provided on this subject, and no legal action has been taken against him.