Hunter Biden to go on trial in gun case, days after Trump was convicted

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden will go on trial on gun charges Monday in Delaware within walking distance of his father’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, less than a week after former President Donald Trump’s felony conviction in New York.

A year ago, the younger Biden seemed unlikely to face trial on the weapons charges he was facing over a firearms application that prosecutors say was falsified, or from more serious charges of failing to pay taxes from overseas business activities at a time when he was using drugs and alcohol heavily and spending lavishly.

But a plea deal, which offered him some immunity from prosecution and did not include prison time, imploded in July.

The judge in the case punched holes in the agreement, to the delight of Trump’s allies in Congress who tried to scuttle that deal and have portrayed Hunter Biden’s legal problems as equivalent to those of their party’s 2024 presidential candidate in an effort to impeach President Joe Biden.

Still, it is the son — not the father — who will be on trial twice during an election year. On Monday, he is set to report to the fourth-floor courtroom of Judge Maryellen Noreika when jury selection begins at 9 a.m. in a trial expected to last three to five days.

The other, set to begin in September, involves a series of tax offenses related to his failure to file returns for a number of years.

Last September, a federal grand jury charged Hunter Biden with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the federal firearms application used to screen applicants and possessing an illegally obtained gun for 11 days, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 23, 2018.

“Hunter Biden possessed a firearm while knowing he was an unlawful user of or addicted to any stimulant, narcotic drug or any other controlled substance, in violation of federal law,” prosecutors said.

If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. But nonviolent first-time offenders who have not been accused of using the weapon in another crime rarely get serious prison time for the charges.

© 2024 The New York Times Company