Hunter Biden gun case to begin with jury selection

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Jury selection is set to begin Monday in a federal gun case against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, after the collapse of a deal with prosecutors that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 elections.

Hunter Biden, who spent the weekend with his father, was charged in Delaware with three felonies stemming from the purchase of a firearm in 2018, when he was, according to his memoirs, at the height of his crack addiction. He was accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false statement on the app used to screen firearm applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and possessing the gun illegally for 11 days.

He has pleaded not guilty and argued that he is being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department after Republicans condemned the now-defunct deal as special treatment for the Democratic president’s son.

The trial comes just days after Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024, was convicted of 34 crimes in New York City. A jury found the former president guilty of a scheme to cover up a secret payment to a porn star to prevent damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the criminal court has taken center stage. of attention during the 2024 campaign.

Hunter Biden will also face a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases should have been resolved through a deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a years-long investigation into his business dealings.

But Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, which included a proposed plea deal to resolve the tax crimes and a diversion agreement from the gun charge, which meant that as long as he stayed away from problems for two years, the case would be resolved. he would be fired. The lawyers argued over the agreement, were unable to reach a resolution, and the agreement fell apart. Attorney General Merrick Garland then named the lead investigator as special counsel in August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.

This trial is not about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings – which Republicans have seized on without evidence to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt. But it will excavate some of Hunter Biden’s darkest moments and showcase them.

The president’s allies are concerned about the impact the trial could have on the elder Biden, who has long cared about the well-being and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch as these painful past mistakes are played out. publicly examined. He’s also protective: Hunter Biden was with his father all weekend before the affair began, riding bikes with his father and attending church together.

President Biden, in a last-minute change of plans, moved from his Rehoboth Beach home to his Wilmington compound on Sunday night. Boarding a helicopter on Sunday was the only time the president was seen publicly without his son all weekend.

Allies are also concerned that the trial could become a distraction as the president tries to campaign under anemic poll numbers and as he prepares for an upcoming presidential debate while the proceedings unfold.

Prosecutors hope to show that Hunter Biden was in the throes of addiction when he purchased the gun and therefore lied on the forms. They said they plan to use as evidence his published memoirs and may also present the contents of a laptop he left at a Delaware repair shop and never recovered. The content reached Republicans in 2020 and was publicly leaked, revealing personal and embarrassing photos in which he is often naked and taking drugs and messages in which he asks drug dealers about scores.

The judge will ask a group of potential jurors a series of questions to determine whether they can serve impartially on the jury, including whether they have donated to political campaigns or run for political office. She will ask if their views on the 2024 presidential campaign prevent them from being impartial.

She will also ask if potential jurors believe Hunter Biden is being prosecuted because his father is the president. Additionally, she will ask about firearm purchase and addiction issues, including: “Do you believe someone addicted to drugs should not be charged with a crime?”

The case against Hunter Biden stems from a period when, by his own public admission, he was addicted to crack. His descent into drugs and alcohol came after the death of his brother, Beau Biden, in 2015 from cancer. He purchased and possessed a gun for 11 days in October 2018 and indicated on the gun purchase form that he did not use drugs.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and his lawyers have suggested they may argue he did not consider himself an addict when prosecutors say he checked “no” to the question on the form. They will also attack the credibility of the gun store owner.

Prosecutors, in turn, also plan to call as witnesses Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and his brother’s widow, Hallie, with whom he was romantically involved.

If he is convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison, although first-time offenders are nowhere near the maximum and it is unclear whether the judge will give him time behind bars.

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