NEW YORK (AP) — Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has spent hours a day in a Manhattan courtroom as his hush-money trial draws to a close. A trial begins Monday in Wilmington, Delaware President Joe Biden‘s son Hunter, who is accused of lying on a federal gun purchase form.
Although presidents have been impeached, impeached and pardoned in criminal cases, and their family members have been embroiled in legal troubles before, the criminal courtroom has never been central to presidential elections like this.
“It’s so unusual that we lack the terminology to express how unusual it is,” says presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, author of the forthcoming book “Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic.”
The two criminal cases are by no means the same. One involves the conduct of a former president who is running to win back the White House yet is accused of falsifying corporate records to conceal an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election. The other focuses on a private citizen – albeit the son of the current president – who is accused of lying on a federal gun purchase form while claiming he wasn’t using drugs.
Politically, however, there is a clear overlap. Both men say they are being prosecuted by overzealous prosecutors and unfairly targeted for political gain. And both sides are trying to capitalize on highly personal and potentially embarrassing testimony about their opponents, with Republicans trying to take advantage Hunter Biden as a kind of proxy target for the president himself.
The politics of the moment
Trump has taken a hard line on the politics of the moment, campaigning from the court, claiming he is the subject of a “witch hunt” and sowing doubt about the validity of the country’s criminal justice system. Biden, for his part, has largely stayed the course, a deliberate effort to emphasize the independence of the judiciary.
But this week, Biden’s campaign decided that Trump’s case — the first of four criminal cases and possibly the only one to go to trial before the 2024 election — could no longer be ignored. The campaign enlisted actor Robert De Niro and law enforcement officers who had defended the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, to denounce Trump during a news conference near the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said the news conference was called because reporters “are reporting on this relentlessly day in and day out.”
“And we want to remind the American people, ahead of the first debate on June 27, of the unique, ongoing and growing threat that Donald Trump poses to the American people and to our democracy,” he said.
Trump’s operation quickly followed Team Biden to the same set of microphones to mock the press conference as evidence of “a desperate, failing and pathetic campaign that knows they are losing,” in the words of Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
Inside, meanwhile, jurors heard closing arguments in Trump’s hush-money trial.
Trump’s trial is coming to an end
Prosecutors say Trump and his allies launched a campaign to buy and suppress potentially embarrassing stories and cover up those payments in an illegal effort to influence voters in the waning weeks before the 2016 presidential election, especially as Republicans worry about the possible fallout from the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about sexually grabbing women without their consent.
To make their case to jurors, prosecutors relied on plaid characters from Trump’s orbit, including porn actor Stormy Daniels, who testified about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The prosecution’s key witness was Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, who paid off Daniels and put Trump at the center of the scheme he denies.
Throughout, Trump strategically positioned prominent allies in the courtroom audience and used the trial as a fundraising pitch. These allies have held press conferences in a small park nearby, condemning the criminal justice system. Trump’s family also appeared in court.
Hunter Biden’s trial begins
Hunter Biden, on the other hand, has been largely alone in public dealing with his legal troubles.
Republicans have dug relentlessly into his personal life, struggles with addiction and business dealings, and have tried — without success — to tie those dealings to the president. Hunter Biden remained silent for years amid criticism from the Republican Party. But as his case looms, he has fallen foul of the law and has publicly argued that he has been unfairly targeted.
President Biden has said he loves his son and generally does not comment on the details of his son’s case. But the president has already found himself in the unusual, if not awkward, position of ruling out a pardon if his son is convicted. He will travel to France for a D-Day commemoration as Hunter Biden’s case begins.
White House aides say they are concerned about the toll the trial will take on the president and first lady, who remain deeply concerned about their son’s health, well-being and sobriety. Privately, some Democrats have expressed concern that Hunter Biden’s legal troubles could hurt the president’s reelection campaign and even spell trouble for Democrats in tight House races.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that the president was focused on the American people, not the trials.
“The president and the first lady love their son. They are proud of how their son has gotten back on his feet, continued his progress and will continue to support him,” she said.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to tax and gun charges after a plea deal collapsed last year that would have spared him — and his father — the spectacle of a trial. His attorney Abbe Lowell has argued that prosecutors then “caved to political pressure” to charge the president’s son as Republicans and Trump criticized the proposed plea deal and claimed the younger Biden received special treatment.
The proposed list of questions for prospective jurors includes: “Raise your hand if you do not believe this statement: The law should apply equally to everyone, including the president’s son.”
The case against Hunter Biden stems from a period when he said he was addicted to crack. His descent into drugs and alcohol followed the death of his brother Beau Biden in 2015 from cancer. Hunter Biden purchased and owned a gun for 11 days in October 2018, and indicated on the gun purchase form that he did not use drugs.
Prosecutors plan to use Hunter Biden’s published memoirs as evidence, and they may also introduce the contents of a laptop he left at a Delaware repair shop and never picked up. The content made its way to Republicans in 2020 and was leaked publicly, revealing embarrassing and personal photos and messages.
They also plan to call Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and his brother Hallie’s widow, with whom he began dating, as witnesses. Prosecutors hope to show he was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun.
The court documents do not name them, but it is clear from the context that “witness three” describes Hallie Biden, who saw Hunter Biden use drugs many times, and according to the court documents: “ransacked his bags, backpacks and vehicle in an attempt to find him to help him get sober, and discovered drug paraphernalia and drugs in his possession on multiple occasions.
Biden visited Hallie Biden last weekend, raising questions about whether they had discussed the upcoming case.
Jean-Pierre said the visit was “not about that,” but rather about the approaching anniversary of Beau’s death.
___ Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
