Jury selection begins Monday in the gun trial of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, the first prosecution in US history for the child of a sitting president – just as the Democratic leader seeks to accelerate his reelection campaign.
The case comes on the heels of another unprecedented trial, in which White House hopeful Donald Trump became the first former US president convicted of a crime, and Republicans are keen to distract from their front-runner’s legal woes.
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 admission, he had been heavily addicted to drugs.
The Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist has been plagued by legal troubles and controversies, mostly connected to alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction, that have dragged on his father’s campaign.
He will be tried in the family’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on two counts of making false statements on gun purchase paperwork that he was not using drugs illegally.
He faces a third charge of illegally possessing the gun – which he had for only 11 days in October 2018.
Hunter Biden nearly escaped prosecution. But last July, a plea bargain fell apart.
If found guilty, Biden could face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offences, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by incarceration.
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