WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – In the span of less than 48 hours, first lady Jill Biden shuttled from a ceremony in Normandy marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France to the front row of a Delaware courtroom where Hunter Biden is put on trial in a gun case, and then back to Paris for an extensive state visit to the Élysée Palace.
“Here we are again,” the first lady said with a laugh as she and the president gathered Joe Biden were greeted at the palace on Saturday by French President Emanuel Macron and his wife Brigette, with the light comment an oblique nod to her transatlantic commute.
It was a manifestation of the great lengths the Biden family has gone to to support Hunter Biden as he stands trial in Wilmington, Delaware, accused of lying on a federal gun purchase form when he said he did not have a drug problem. Jill Biden was a regular presence in the courtroom, supported by a rotating cast of other family members.
“The back and forth, the push and pull, of family responsibilities, of the first lady’s duties, of her career, of the campaign — that’s exactly who she is,” said Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director.
Every family struggles with personal challenges, and politicians often have to navigate those dynamics in public. But the very extensive broadcast in court of tasteless details surrounding Hunter Biden’s addiction – in light of an election year – is of an order of magnitude greater. And the president’s family has shown determination to ensure Hunter Biden doesn’t go through it alone.
The trial will resume on Monday. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but he does not deny there is a drug problem. His memoir, “Beautiful Things,” is all about hitting rock bottom after his brother Beau’s death from cancer in 2015. But his lawyers say he did not consider himself an “addict” when he filled out the gun purchase form to buy a revolver in 2018.
BOTH PRESIDENT AND A FATHER
Joe Biden left the courtroom and said little about the case, wary of appearing to be interfering in a criminal case brought by his own Justice Department. But the president has long walked the line between civil servant and father.
At just 30 years old, the Democrat was sworn in as Delaware’s junior senator from a hospital room where his young sons were recovering from a car crash that killed his wife and infant daughter.
Grainy black-and-white newsreels show Biden holding three-year-old Hunter as the new senator takes the oath of office and four-year-old Beau watches from a hospital bed. Joe Biden then promised that if there was ever a conflict between “me being a good father and me being a good senator,” he would resign.
The president issued a brief written statement as Hunter Biden’s trial began.
“As president, I do not comment on pending federal cases, but as a father, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him and respect for his strength,” he said. “Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I will continue to be there with our love and support for Hunter and our family.”
The case nonetheless followed him to Normandy, where Biden was asked in an ABC interview whether he thought his son would get a fair trial and whether the president would rule out pardoning his son if there was a guilty verdict.
Biden responded to both matters with a curt “yes.”
CONCRETE OF SUPPORT
During the first week of the trial, Jill Biden was in court four days out of five, only missing Thursday because of the events of D-Day. Others who have been in the courtroom at various times include Hunter’s sister Ashley, aunts Bonny Jacobs and Valerie Owens and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden.
The first lady leaned over the court railing to hug Hunter, who has called her mother since she married Joe Biden in 1977. She walked out of the courtroom hand in hand with him. She listened to hours of testimony.
Hunter hasn’t made things easy for his family, and the evidence in the case is a deeply personal tour of his mistakes and drug use, like a nightmare version of “This is Your Life.”
Jurors listened to hours of testimony from his ex-wife, a former girlfriend and his brother’s widow, who together painted a picture of strip club trips, infidelity, habitual crack use and their failed attempts to help him get clean. Jurors saw images of the president’s son, bare-chested and disheveled in a filthy room and half-naked with crack pipes in his hand. And they watched a video of his crack cocaine being weighed on a scale.
Federal prosecutors have argued that the evidence was necessary to prove to jurors that 54-year-old Hunter Biden was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied when he checked “no” on the form asking if he was ‘an unlawful user’. of or addicted to drugs.
On Friday, his eldest daughter, Naomi, 30, testified for the defense, telling jurors a hopeful story about how her father seemed to get better around the time he bought the gun.
“I told him I was so proud of him,” she said softly.
But then prosecutor Leo Wise showed her texts that showed erratic behavior during the same period. Her father did not respond to her message for hours and then asked her at 2 a.m. if her boyfriend could meet up to switch cars.
“Straight away?” she replied. “I’m really sorry dad, I can’t handle this.”
When she came down from the stand, she paused at the defense table and paused to hug her father before leaving the courtroom.
On Friday afternoon, the first lady left for France for the state dinner.
Her transcontinental flights underscore the great importance of family to the Bidens, Carl Sferrazza Anthony, an expert on first ladies and author of “Camera Girl,” said of Jacqueline Kennedy.
“She understands that ultimately what matters is her son and his well-being, and that he has support and also knows the vulnerability of someone in recovery,” Anthony said.
A STORY
Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman and leading voice on mental health and addiction, said Hunter Biden’s story is so common that he expected many Americans would see something familiar in it, no matter how disturbing or embarrassing it seems. Kennedy himself struggled with drug addiction and is the son of a famous lawmaker, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
“It appears that the disease of addiction is on trial here,” he said, arguing that a big part of the case is the definition of sobriety. Are you sober if you don’t use drugs? Or are you sober when there is a profound change in your thinking that comes with stopping the drugs?
“Half say it’s physical, and half say it’s mental – and the truth is it’s both,” he said.
WHAT COMES NEXT
The process is coming to an end. The defense is debating whether to call more witnesses Monday, including the president’s brother James. After closing arguments, the case goes to the jury.
But Hunter Biden’s legal troubles won’t end there. He will be charged in California in September with failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
A plea deal was negotiated last summer that would have resolved both the gun and tax issues, avoiding the spectacle of a trial so close to this November’s presidential election. But when Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, questioned aspects of the deal, the lawyers were unable to reach a resolution. The deal fell apart.
Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed the lead investigator, former U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, as special prosecutor in August. A month later, Hunter Biden was indicted.
Hunter Biden has argued he is being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department after Republicans characterized the now-defunct plea deal as special treatment for the Democratic president’s son.
___
Long and Superville reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Paris and Associated Press writers Randall Chase, Mike Catalini and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.
