Hunter Biden, son of the US President, found guilty of illegal possession of a weapon
Hunter Biden, the son of the President of the United States, was found guilty of three crimes by a court in Wilmington, Delaware, with the jury’s decision this Tuesday culminating a long and controversial process over his troubled past. ¡tic of Joe Biden’s second son.
According to North American justice, Hunter Biden committed three crimes of illegal possession of firearms in 2018, when he was under the influence of drugs, during a phase of his life when he consumed ‘crack’. The personal habits of the President’s only surviving son – the eldest, Beau, died of cancer in 2015 – were one of the most explored points throughout the trial, especially by Republicans.
There is still no date for the announcement of the sentence. According to the New York Times, the penalty for the crimes he was accused of could be up to 25 years in prison but, as he does not have a violent criminal record and did not use firearms, it is highly unlikely It is likely that Hunter Biden will be sentenced to an effective sentence.
At the hearing where the jury’s decision was announced, NBC News reports that Hunter Biden reacted without any emotion to the confirmation that he had been found guilty, agreeing after reading the ruling.
The conviction could be a serious blow to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, which seeks to present itself as the opposite of the criminal Donald Trump, who was found guilty in his own trial in New York last month.
Hunter Biden arrives at the Wilmington, Delaware courthouse with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Before the trial, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the three charges relating to the purchase of the firearm, and his lawyers accused the Justice Department of giving in to pressure from Republicans, outraged by what they consider to be a “political persecution†against Trump.
Last week, Hunter Biden’s lawyers called three witnesses to the stand, including his daughter Naomi, to try to demonstrate that he did not consider himself a drug addict when he filled out the form.
The case highlighted a turbulent period in Hunter Biden’s life after the death of his brother, Beau, in 2015.
A key witness for prosecutors was Beau’s widow, Hallie, who had a brief and troubled relationship with Hunter after her husband’s death. Hallie said she found the gun unloaded in Hunter’s truck and panicked, throwing the gun into the trash of a grocery store, where a man inadvertently recovered it.
The defense suggested that Hunter Biden was trying to change his life at the time of purchasing the gun, having completed a detoxification and rehabilitation program in late August 2018.
North American President Joe Biden said last week that he would accept the jury’s verdict and ruled out the possibility of a presidential pardon for his son.
Last summer, it was assumed that Hunter would avoid prosecution in the gun case, but the deal with prosecutors fell apart after the Trump-appointed judge raised concerns about the matter. .
