The first prosecution in U.S. history for the child of a sitting president gets underway Monday when jury selection begins in the gun trial of Joe Biden’s son Hunter in Delaware.
The 54-year-old Hunter Biden denies three felony counts stemming from his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 when, by his own admission, he had been heavily addicted to drugs, AFP reports.
The Yale-trained lawyer and sometime lobbyist-turned-artist will be tried in the family’s hometown of Wilmington on two counts of making false statements on gun purchase paperwork that he was not using drugs illegally.
The Biden family scion faces a third charge of illegally possessing the gun — which he had for only 11 days in October 2018.
President Joe Biden, center, and his son Hunter Biden, right, leave St. Edmond Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Del., Saturday, June 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Hunter Biden failed to successfully appeal his gun charges in May before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as Breitbart News reported.
The president has said he stands by his son and loves him for his attempts to recover from drug addiction.
Prosecutors have outlined they expect to take three days to present their case.
David C Weiss, special counsel overseeing the prosecution, has signaled he will call Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, to the stand. Prosecutors also may call Hallie Biden, the widow of Joe Biden’s son Beau, who died of brain cancer.
Hallie Biden was dating Hunter Biden when he bought a handgun in 2018.
The untelevised trial will likely last about two weeks, the AFP report sets out.
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Hunter Biden faces separate tax evasion charges in California, in a case set for trial later this year.
AFP notes if found guilty, Biden could face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by incarceration.
The case is United States v. Hunter Biden in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Court No. 24-1703