(Wilmington) Hunter Biden’s criminal trial for illegal firearm possession delved Tuesday into the past addictions of the American president’s youngest son, five months before the election between the Democrat and his recently convicted Republican rival Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden, a 54-year-old lawyer and businessman turned artist who recovered from years of drug and alcohol addiction, is a favorite target of his father’s opponents – Donald Trump at first leader – who see him as the Achilles heel of the outgoing tenant of the White House.
Like Monday, first lady Jill Biden was present at the federal court in Wilmington, in the small state of Delaware – stronghold on the east coast of the Biden clan – noted an AFP journalist.
Jill Biden took her place two benches behind her stepson Hunter, between the latter’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, for this trial which should last one to two weeks.
“No one is above the law. Whoever you are and whatever your name is,” thundered prosecutor Derek Hines, as all the prosecutors pursuing Donald Trump and his family in civil and criminal proceedings have been hammering home for months.
Hunter Biden is being prosecuted for lying about his drug use when he acquired a firearm in 2018, which is considered a crime in the United States.
Very harsh extracts from the audiobook of Hunter Biden’s memoirs “Les Belles Choses” (2021) were broadcast on Tuesday for the 12 jurors, in which he recounts his consumption of crack, the vodka drunk from the bottle, the nocturnal wanderings in search of drugs around seedy convenience stores, failed attempts at detoxification, and short-lived romances with the widow of his brother Beau Biden who died in 2015 of cancer.
“Robert Hunter Biden chose to illegally possess a firearm” while “he was a crack user and drug addict,” accused prosecutor Hines, showing a photo of a Colt Cobra, the weapon at the center of the case.
He pleads not guilty and his lawyers claim that “he was no longer using drugs when he acquired this weapon (which) was never, ever, loaded, carried or used during the 11 days it was in his possession “.
Joe Biden has refused to comment on the trial.
The jury will have to decide specifically on two counts relating to alleged lies in the documents necessary for the purchase of the revolver in 2018, and a third on the illegal possession of this weapon.
Hunter Biden claimed to have been cured of his addictions since 2019, but he did not check the “addict” box on the weapon purchase form in 2018.
He faces up to 25 years in prison, but in practice such prosecutions rarely result in prison time on their own.
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, where he resides.
These two trials could interfere with Joe Biden’s attempts to mark the contrast with his Republican opponent, targeted by four separate criminal proceedings.