United States: Debates begin at trial of President Biden’s son

The trial for illegal possession of a weapon of the son of US President Joe Biden, Hunter, gets to the heart of the matter on Tuesday with the opening of the debates in the federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, five months before the election where his father hopes win a second term.

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 Donald Trump – who consider him to be Joe Biden’s Achilles heel.

“Infinite love for my son”

Last week, a New York court found Donald Trump guilty of accounting falsifications intended to hide a payment of $130,000 in order to avoid a sex scandal at the very end of his 2016 presidential campaign. An unprecedented verdict for a former American president.

The first day in court in Wilmington, the Biden stronghold in the state of Delaware, on the east coast of the United States, concluded with jury selection. Hunter Biden can count on the support of his clan, including his wife Melissa Cohen Biden and his mother-in-law Jill Biden, who both attended the hearing.

“As president, I will not comment on an ongoing federal proceeding, but as a father, I have infinite love for my son, I trust in him, and I respect his strength,” Joe said Biden in a statement.

Chronology

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.

The jury 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. Prosecutors should insist on the chronology, since Hunter Biden claims to have been cured of his addictions since 2019 but that he had not checked the drug addict box on the form when purchasing this weapon.

The defense argues that he did not consider himself a drug addict at the time and therefore it was not a lie. If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, but in practice such prosecutions rarely result in prison time on their own.

Charged with tax fraud

He was also charged in December with tax fraud for evading, through a “scheme,” 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 the efforts of Joe Biden, campaigning for his re-election, to mark the contrast with his Republican opponent, targeted by four separate criminal proceedings.

The debates at the trial will certainly focus on Hunter Biden’s book “Les Belles Choses” (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, ephemeral love affairs with his brother’s widow… Lawyer then businessman, he converted to painting after recovering from drug and alcohol addictions.

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AFP

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