WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son was in federal court, ready to plead guilty to minor tax crimes. The culmination of a sprawling investigation, the agreement between Hunter Biden and prosecutors would spare him a politically explosive trial in the middle of his father’s re-election campaign and probably a prison sentence.
But all collapsed.
Now Hunter Biden is heading to trial on federal gun charges in a case brought by his father’s Justice Department at a time when the American political and legal worlds were in flux. collide like never before. Pursued for years by investigations, scrutinized for his troubled personal life and vilified by Republicans, the younger Biden now also faces the threat of a felony conviction and prison time.
The case that opens Monday with jury selection in Delaware does not involve Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which have been a focus for years. federal investigation and the Republicans unsuccessful impeachment investigation in the Democratic president. This is a gun that Hunter Biden had for about 11 days – a .38 caliber Colt Cobra Special. Prosecutors say he bought it illegally in October 2018 because he falsely swore on a federal form that he was not a drug user. He never fired the gun, according to his lawyers, and it ended up being thrown in a trash can.
The trial will lack details about its foreign affairs that Republicans took hold of to attempt to portray the Biden family as corrupt, but it is expected to contain deeply personal and embarrassing testimonies about dark times in the young Biden’s life. And it will likely give new political momentum to Donald Trump’s allies, eager to deflect attention from presumptions The Republican presidential candidate’s own legal troubles after he was found guilty of 34 counts in his secret trial for the money.
Joe Biden’s allies are concerned about the toll this trial could take on the president, who is already worried about the well-being and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch the most difficult moments be relived in public. darker parts of this son. They also fear the trial could become a distraction as the president tries to campaign while polls are anemic and he must prepare in Wilmington for a trial. June 27 debate with Trump while the trial takes place nearby.
THE DEAL THAT NEVER WAS
It once looked like Hunter Biden was going to avoid prosecution in the gun case altogether.
The deal was announced last June. Nearly three years earlier, Hunter Biden confirmed the federal investigation into his tax affairs in December 2020, shortly after his father’s election.
The younger Biden reportedly pleaded guilty to tax crimes; prosecutors reportedly recommended two years of probation. There was also a “diversion agreement” that would have allowed him to escape prosecution for felony gun charges provided he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the plea hearing quickly unraveled.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee to the bench, questioned both sides about their concerns about the deal. To her, it seemed unusual and required her to be involved in the case in a way that most federal judges do not. Lawyers banded together to try to save the case. At one point you could hear them shouting at each other.
“Well, we’ll just tear it up!” Chris Clark, Biden’s then-lawyer, shouted as tempers flared.
“So what do we do now?” » the judge then asked the lawyers.
“Then there is no agreement,” prosecutor Leo Wise told him.
A few weeks later, Attorney General Merrick Garland named David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware who was leading the investigation, as a special advocate.
Hunter Biden was charged a month later on three firearms charges. They carry a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, although first-time offenders fall far short of the maximum sentence and it is unclear whether the judge would actually sentence him to prison. if he was found guilty.
TENSION IN THE COURTROOM
The bitterness between prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s legal team is evident. It will probably be on display Monday.
Clark recused himself from the case, saying he could be called to testify in a possible legal dispute over the now-defunct deal. Another defense attorney, Father Lowell, accused Weiss of bowing to political pressure to charge the president’s son after Trump and other Republicans criticized the “sweetheart deal.” The defense pointed out that charges related to drug possession of firearms are rare when they are not linked to a more serious crime.
“Mr. Biden is not being prosecuted for any sin that the DOJ (the Department of Justice) believes he committed. He is being punished for the alleged sins of his father – the sin of opposing Mr. Biden’s election. Trump for president,” according to court documents filed by Lowell, who also represented Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the former president’s daughter and son, in law.
Prosecutors say Lowell’s claim is “a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”
“Contrary to his assertion, he did not establish that the special counsel, appointed by and serving at the pleasure of President Biden and his attorney general, was punishing the defendant ‘for the perceived sins of his father’ in order to capitulate to a former President because of his tweets,” Weiss’ team responded.
Weiss said “political considerations” played no role in the investigation. He said lawmakers behind closed doors last year, that no one at the Justice Department had stopped him from filing a complaint or taking other necessary actions, contesting the allegations of two IRS whistleblowers that the department inappropriately interfered in the tax investigation.
A DARK TIME
The case dates back to a period when, by his own admission, Hunter Biden was addicted to crack.
In his memoirs “Beautiful Things,” he described being consumed by drugs and alcohol after the death of his older brother, Beau, in 2015 at the age of 46 from brain cancer. The brothers were very close, having survived a car accident when they were young that killed their mother and younger sister.
Hunter Biden has said he has been sober since 2019. But prosecutors intend to use his memoir to demonstrate he knew he was a drug addict when he denied it on the form everyone must fill out when purchasing a firearm. They plan to show jurors text messages, videos and photos of Hunter Biden smoking crack, as well as details about cocaine residue which authorities say was found on the pouch he used to hold his gun.
“I am a liar and a thief and a blamer and a consumer and I am delusional and an addict unlike every other addict you know and I have ruined every relationship I have ever cherished,” Hunter Biden wrote . in a text message a few weeks after purchasing the gun, according to prosecutors.
Jurors are expected to hear testimony from his ex-wife and other former romantic partners, including Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden, with whom Hunter Biden had a relationship after his brother’s death. Hallie Biden found the gun in Hunter Biden’s truck and threw it in the trash. It was found by a man collecting recyclables who handed it over to police.
The defense suggested it would attack the credibility of the gun shop’s employees, pointing out that changes were made to the gun purchase form after the sale. Prosecutors say there were minor additions unrelated to the portions Hunter Biden filled out. His lawyers suggested they could argue that Hunter Biden did not consider himself a drug addict when prosecutors say he checked “no” to the question on the form.
“The terms ‘user’ or ‘addict’ are not defined on the form and were not explained to him,” the defense wrote in a recent filing. “Someone, like Mr. Biden, who had just completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and then lived with a sober companion, could surely believe that he was not a user or addict in the present.”
The affair is expected to last a few weeks. He is also scheduled to go on trial in September in California in the case where he is accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years.
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Associated Press writer Colleen in Washington contributed to this report.
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News Source : apnews.com
