WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son was prepared to plead guilty to tax crimes in federal court. The culmination of an extensive investigation, the deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutors would spare him a politically explosive trial, in the middle of his father’s re-election campaign and probably in prison.
But it all fell apart.
Now Hunter Biden is facing trial on federal gun charges in a case brought by his father’s Justice Department, at a time when America’s political and legal worlds are colliding like never before. Dogged for years by investigations, scrutinized for his troubled personal life and vilified by Republicans, the younger Biden now also faces the threat of felony convictions and prison time.
The case opening Monday with jury selection in Delaware does not concern Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which have been the focus of the yearslong federal investigation and Republicans’ fruitless impeachment inquiry into the Democratic president. It’s about a gun that Hunter Biden had in his possession for about eleven 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. According to his lawyers, he never fired the gun and it ended up in a garbage can.
The trial will lack details about his foreign affairs affairs that Republicans have used to portray the Biden family as corrupt, but is expected to include deeply personal and embarrassing testimony about dark times in the younger Biden’s life. And it is likely to give new political impetus to Donald Trump’s allies, who are eager to divert attention from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s own legal troubles after he was convicted of 34 crimes in his hush-money trial.
Allies of Joe Biden are concerned about the toll the trial could take on the president, who is already concerned about the well-being and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch that son’s darkest moments in life. be relived publicly. They also worry the trial could be a distraction as the president tries to campaign while facing anemic poll numbers and prepares in Wilmington for a June 27 debate with Trump as the trial plays out nearby.
THE DEAL THAT NEVER WAS
It once seemed like Hunter Biden would avoid prosecution in the gun case altogether.
The deal was announced last June. Nearly three years earlier, Hunter Biden had confirmed the federal investigation into his tax affairs in December 2020, shortly after his father was elected.
The younger Biden is said to have pleaded guilty to tax violations; Prosecutors reportedly recommended two years of probation. There was also a “diversion agreement” that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution for a gun crime as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the plea hearing quickly unraveled.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated to the court by Trump, questioned both sides on 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 are not. The lawyers huddled together to try to save the deal. At one point you heard them shouting at each other.
“Well, we’ll just tear it up!” Chris Clark, Biden’s attorney at the time, shouted as tempers flared.
“So what should we do now?” the judge later asked the lawyers.
“Then there is no deal,” prosecutor Leo Wise told her.
A few weeks later, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss, the Trump-nominated U.S. attorney in Delaware who led the investigation, as special counsel.
Hunter Biden was indicted a month afterward on three weapons charges. They are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, although first-time offenders don’t get close to the maximum and it is unclear whether the judge would actually give him a prison sentence if convicted.
TENSION IN THE COURTROOM
The acrimony between prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s legal team is poignant. He will probably be seen on Monday.
Clark withdrew from the case, saying he might be called to testify in a possible legal dispute over the now-defunct deal. Another attorney, Abbe Lowell, has accused Weiss of bowing to political pressure to indict the president’s son after Trump and other Republicans rejected the “sweet deal.” The defense has noted that charges related to gun possession by drug users are rare absent a more serious crime.
“Mr. Biden is not being prosecuted for any sin that DOJ believes he committed. He is being punished for the perceived sins of his father – the sin of opposing the election of Trump as president,” the court said documents filed by Lowell, who has also represented Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the former president’s daughter and son.
Prosecutors say Lowell’s claim is “fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”
“Contrary to his claim, he has not shown that the special counsel, appointed by and acting at the pleasure of President Biden and his attorney general, is punishing the suspect ‘for his father’s perceived sins’ of capitulating to a former President because his tweets,” Weiss’ team responded.
Weiss has said that “political considerations” played no role in the investigation. Last year, he told lawmakers behind closed doors that no one at the Justice Department was stopping him from filing charges or taking other necessary steps, disputing claims by two IRS whistleblowers that the department had improperly interfered with the tax investigation.
A DARK TIME
The case dates back to a period when Hunter Biden said he was addicted to crack.
In his memoir “Beautiful Things,” he described how he became preoccupied with drugs and alcohol after his older brother, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46. The brothers had a close bond after surviving a car accident involving their mother and sister at a young age.
Hunter Biden has said he has been sober since 2019. But prosecutors plan to use his memoir to prove he knew he was addicted to drugs when he denied it on the form everyone must fill out when buying a gun. They plan to show jurors text messages, videos and photos of Hunter Biden smoking crack, as well as details of cocaine residue that authorities say was found on the baggie in which he held his gun.
“I am a liar and a thief and an accuser and a user, and I am delusional and an addict, unlike any other addict you know, and I have ruined every relationship I have ever cherished,” Hunter Biden wrote. in one text message, weeks after he purchased the firearm, prosecutors said.
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 dated 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 who collected recyclables and gave them to the police.
The defense has suggested it will attack the credibility of the gun store’s employees, noting that changes were made to the gun purchase form after the sale. Prosecutors say there were minor additions that were not related to the parts Hunter Biden filled out. His lawyers have suggested they could argue that Hunter Biden did not see himself as an addict when prosecutors said he checked “no” on the question on the form.
“The terms ‘user’ or ‘addict’ were 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 certainly believe that he was not a user or addict in the present tense.
The case is expected to last a few weeks. He will also go on trial in California in September in the case in which he is accused of paying at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years.
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Associated Press writer Colleen in Washington contributed to this report.
