Photo: Ryan Collerd Agence France-Presse Hunter Biden, son of the US president, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive at the J.Caleg Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday as his trial for illegal possession of a firearm begins.
France Media Agency in Washington
Published at 10:15 a.m. Updated at 10:23 a.m.
- United States
Joe Biden on Monday assured his son Hunter, whose trial for illegal possession of a weapon opens in federal court, of his “infinite love”, while refraining from commenting on the procedure itself .
“As President, I will not comment on an ongoing federal proceeding, but as a father, I have infinite love for my son, I have confidence in him, and I respect his strength,” the US president said in a statement.
This is an unprecedented and risky episode that is beginning for the campaign of American President Joe Biden: the trial for illegal possession of a weapon of his son, Hunter, opens Monday in federal court.
With a past strewn with addictions and former dubious affairs abroad, Hunter Biden is one of the favorite targets of his father's Republican adversaries, starting with his predecessor Donald Trump , who consider him to be Joe Biden's Achilles heel.
The opening of his trial comes days after Mr. Trump was found guilty of accounting falsifications in his criminal trial in New York.
Hunter Biden, 54, is accused by federal prosecutors of lying while filling out forms to acquire a revolver in 2018, in which he denied a drug addiction that he later admitted.
Also indicted for tax fraud in another case, he is defending himself here on three counts to which he pleaded not guilty in October.
A Wilmington jury , the Biden stronghold in the state of Delaware, in the eastern United States, will have to rule on two counts relating to the possibly fraudulent completion of documents necessary for the purchase of a firearm, and a third on the illegal possession of this weapon.
Paternal love
Hunter Biden, trained lawyer then lobbyist, fell into alcoholism and drugs before emerging from his torments.
Joe Biden, if he never spoke in detail on the legal troubles of his youngest son, always assured him of his paternal love.
But the Democrats have no interest in the news of this trial – and possible remarks that Joe Biden could make to the media on this subject – replacing the press headlines on the conviction of Donald Trump in New York.
If convicted at trial, Hunter Biden could be sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison — although in practice, few convicted of similar offenses actually go behind bars.
“The Beautiful Things”
During the two weeks of hearings planned, his book “Les Belles Choses” (2021) will undoubtedly be summoned, 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, the short-lived romances with his brother's widow…
Hunter Biden claims to have finished four years of addiction in 2019 – that is to say after the controversial purchase of the revolver.
But in 2018, on a form for purchasing a firearm, he described himself as not a drug addict – a contradiction at the heart of the prosecution's argument, considering that this is a lie, punishable by American law .
But the defense disputes this lie, arguing that Hunter Biden did not consider himself, at the time of filling out the form, to be a drug addict.
In Congress, elected Republican officials have opened an impeachment investigation against Joe Biden, accusing him of having used his influence when he was vice-president of Barack Obama (2009-2017) to allow his son Hunter to do business in China and Ukraine.
But no evidence has really been provided on this subject, and the courts have not charged him in this regard.
Hunter Biden was also indicted in December for tax evasion, accused of evading, through a “scheme,” the obligation to pay $1.4 million in taxes. He has pleaded not guilty and a trial is expected this year in California.