Hunter Biden, son of US president, found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm

Bad news for the American president launched into the presidential campaign with a view to his re-election. His son, Hunter Biden, was convicted by a federal criminal court of illegal possession of a firearm in 2018, amid drug addiction, on Tuesday June 11. Joe Biden is traveling to Wilmington (Delaware, east) on Tuesday, where his son’s trial has just concluded, the White House announced, publishing a last-minute change to the American president’s official agenda.

The announcement of the verdict comes on the day Joe Biden is due to give a speech on limiting the proliferation of firearms, a scourge in the United States. After two weeks of debate, often in the presence of Jill Biden, the first lady and mother-in-law of the accused, and three hours of deliberation, the jury of twelve people at the court in Wilmington, Delaware, answered yes to the three counts. charges: two on lies in the documents necessary for the purchase of a revolver in October 2018 and a third on his illegal possession. This is the first criminal conviction against a child of a sitting president.

“This case concerns the illegal choices that the defendant made while he was in the grip of addiction, his choice to lie on a government form when he purchased the weapon and then his choice to possess this weapon”said special prosecutor David Weiss, who investigated the case, during a brief press briefing.

Hunter Biden, a 54-year-old lawyer and businessman turned artist, has been appearing since June 3 in this stronghold town of the Biden clan for having lied about his drug consumption when he bought a Colt Cobra type revolver in 2018 in an armory.

Hunter Biden “knew he was a crack user or [qu’il était] addicted “, had hammered prosecutor Leo Wise, in the presence of Jill Biden. The accused, who did not testify, pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, assured the jurors that“he no longer used drugs” when he bought the gun, which “was never, ever loaded, carried or used during the eleven days it was in his possession”.

Hunter Biden theoretically faces up to twenty-five years behind bars, but an alternative sentence to prison could also be decided.

Support from the Biden couple

The Republican Party, under the orders of Donald Trump, has long sought to tarnish Joe Biden through his son’s setbacks, to the point of opening an impeachment investigation into the head of state. At issue: the affairs of the younger Biden in Ukraine and China. So far, no compromising evidence has been provided. Hunter Biden is also scheduled to appear in California in September on tax fraud charges.

His affairs, which are the focus of conservative media like Fox News, risk parasitizing his father’s attempts to mark the contrast with Donald Trump, convicted on May 30 at the criminal trial for hidden payments to an porn star, Stormy Daniels , a first in history for a former president of the United States.

Less than five months before the November 5 election, the Biden couple showed their support for Hunter, like Jill Biden kissing him in the courtroom and Joe Biden who expressed his support to him. ” endless Love “. But the president had pledged not to grant a presidential pardon to his son.

The trial revived the memory of Hunter Biden’s addictions, to which the prosecution returned in detail, going so far as to show a photo taken by an ex-girlfriend showing him shirtless in his bath, a crack pipe protruding from his hand.

Descent into hell

Prosecutors also used excerpts from his autobiography Beautiful Things. Hunter Biden says he never got over the death in 2015 of his brother Beau Biden from brain cancer at age 46. The two brothers survived a car accident in 1972 that killed their mother and little sister.

Then he describes his descent into hell, his wanderings in search of drugs around seedy convenience stores, and his failed attempts at detoxification, between the years 2015 and 2019. In 2018, he was having a romantic affair with his brother’s widow, Hallie Biden . She was the one who discovered the gun and threw it in a trash can.

She, along with Hunter’s first wife and an ex-girlfriend he was dating in 2018, all confirmed his drug issues. But for the defense, the doubt should have benefited him, arguing that Hunter Biden was in a withdrawal phase on October 12, 2018 when he purchased the weapon.