The criminal trial against Hunter Biden began today in federal court in the state of Delaware. The president's son, Joe Biden, is facing charges related to the illegal possession of a firearm. Reuters notes that the historic trial begins four days after Donald Trump became the first former US president to be convicted.
In the country's first-ever trial of a child of a sitting president, Hunter Biden, 54, pleaded not guilty to three charges related to the purchase and possession of a revolver in 2018. This is one of two criminal trials against him, with separate charges in California related to tax violations.
The trial in Wilmington, Delaware, presided over by District Judge Merialon Noreika, begins with jury selection.
On Thursday, Trump was convicted by a jury in a New York state court of 34 counts of falsifying documents to cover up the purchase of silence, made shortly before the 2016 presidential election of a porn star, about their intimate relationship in the past. Trump is currently the Republican Party's nominee to run against Democrat Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Hunter Biden's trial gives Republicans a chance to divert attention from Trump's legal problems.
Hunter Biden was accused of lying about not using illegal substances when he bought a revolver and possessed it for 11 days in October 2018. He is also charged with tax crimes.
If convicted of all charges in the Delaware case, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, although shorter sentences are the practice, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Potential jurors will be screened for their ability to commit to participating throughout the trial, which is expected to last until the end of next week. All 12 jurors must find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to be convicted.
The case is expected to focus on Hunter Biden's longtime use of crack cocaine, which he has discussed publicly and which is an important part of his 2021 autobiography “Beautiful Things”. He told Noreika at a hearing last year that he had been clean since mid-2019.
Prosecutors will seek to prove that Hunter Biden knew he was lying when he checked the box for “no“ to a question on a federal gun purchase form asking if he used drugs. The prosecution's legal team revealed they may use details collected from Hunter Biden's phone and cloud services he used, including photos of him smoking crack cocaine and communications with drug dealers. They said they may call as a witness his ex-wife Kathleen Boule, who accused Hunter Biden during their 2017 divorce case of squandering money on drugs, alcohol and prostitutes.
Hunter Biden's attorneys indicated that they may try to show that he completed a drug rehabilitation program before buying the gun, assuming his answer on the gun purchase form was true.
A potential plea deal in both cases collapsed last year after Noreika questioned the extent of immunity granted to Biden. Hunter Biden's lawyers accused Republicans of exerting pressure that led to the failure of the plea agreement.
Republicans in Congress have spent years trying in vain to find evidence of corrupt links between Joe Biden's political actions and his son's foreign business dealings, including his work for the Ukrainian energy company “Burisma”.