United States – Hunter Biden’s criminal trial on gun charges is set to start in earnest on Tuesday and could contain graphic details of drug taking from his Much Young Men’s autobiography and voicemail messages, which prosecutors claim implicate the president’s son.
Allegations and Charges
Hunter Biden, 54, is on the alter for not declaring his usage of narcotics when he purchased a Colt Cobra for possessing an unlicensed 38-caliber revolver and keeping the same for 11 days in October 2018, as reported by Reuters.
He has not entered any pleas to the three felony count charges. Hunter Biden is amongst the first family members in the United States to be criminally charged.
A hearing at the federal courthouse in the Bidens’ residence city of Wilmington, Delaware, is held shortly after ex-president Donald Trump, a contender for the November 5 US election against Joe Biden, was convicted of a crime for the first time.
The trial is likely to focus on Hunter Biden’s crack cocaine use and his addiction, which he has talked about in detail in his book of memoirs, “Beautiful Things,” published in the year 2021. He declared to the U. S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in the hearing last year that he has never used drugs since June of 2019.
It is still being prosecuted that Hunter Biden comprehended that he was engaging in falsehood when he marked the box “no” alongside the question that was posed on the federal gun purchase form as to whether he was an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
Special Counsel David Weiss of the United States is also likely to present an FBI agent, Erika Jensen, to attract information from Hunter Biden’s messages regarding his drug problem and his book “Beautiful Things.”
“I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney,” was one of the messages prosecutors disclosed in a court filing. In another, Hunter Biden said he was behind a minor league baseball stadium in Wilmington “waiting for a dealer named Mookie.”
Witness Testimony and Legal Maneuvers
Prosecutors may call as a witness Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden’s former wife, who alleged that Hunter Biden had spent all the monies on drugs, alcoholism, and prostitutes during their divorce in 2017.
Sixteen jurors and four alternates were empaneled on Monday, with many explaining how family members or friends had suffered from addictions. Hunter needs to be convicted in the presence of 12 jurors, implying all Jurors need to unanimously believe that Hunter Biden is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.
Among the charges are federal tax charges filed by Weiss in California, who was appointed to office by Trump.
The trial was held just days after Trump was found guilty in a state-level trial in New York of 34 criminal counts of filing a false statement to conceal a payoff to a porn star for an extramarital affair that threatened to overshadow Trump’s election victory in November 2016.
Hunter Biden’s trial provides Republicans an opportunity to focus on legal issues that do not relate to the ex-president. Trump is expected to be sentenced in New York on July 11th. He has pleaded not guilty in three other related active criminal cases: two involving his bid to reverse the loss to Biden in the November 2020 election and the other accusing him of improperly retaining classified material from his presidency after he vacated the White House in January 2021.
Potential Sentencing
If Hunter Biden is found guilty on all charges in the Delaware case, he risks up to 25 years imprisonment; however, as the U.S. Justice Department states, defendants are often not given such harsh punishments.
In his turn, Noreika, who was appointed by Trump, introduced several orders during the weekends as requested by the prosecutors that directly threatened Biden’s legal approach, as reported by Reuters.
The judge stated that Biden’s legal counsel could not submit expert evidence that those who have been struggling with substance use disorder did not call themselves an addict.