This Monday, Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Bidensat down for the first time in the bench in a Delaware court to face charges that he violated federal gun laws in 2018 when he purchased a firearm and lied about being a drug user. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty.
What are the charges?
Hunter Biden was impeached in September for Special Counsel David Weiss with three felonies stemming from his purchase and possession of a Colt Cobra .38 revolver in October 2018. The first two charges overlap. On the one hand, he is accused of making a false statement when purchasing firearms and, on the other, of making a false statement in a registry. firearms transactions.
Prosecutors maintain that he committed a crime when checked a box which indicated “no” next to a question asking whether he was an unlawful user of a controlled substance or addicted to a controlled substance. The third charge is that Hunter Biden raped a law that bans illegal drug users or drug addicts to possess a firearm.
Joe Biden with his son, Hunter Biden, in a file image.
Reuters
At the same time, Biden has been accused of committing tax crimes in California in December. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in that case and he is scheduled to go to trial in September.
What is the Government trying to prove?
For the first two charges, the Government must demonstrate that Hunter Biden knowingly made a false statement. For one of the first two charges, the Government must also prove that the false statement was important to the sale of the weapon, Reuters reports.
For the possession charge, the Government must prove the following elements: that Biden was an illegal user of a controlled substance or was a drug addict; that he knowingly possessed a firearm; and that when he knowingly possessed the firearm, he also knew that was an illegal user of a controlled substance or a drug addict.
What are the tests?
The prosecutor maintains that has videos and photographs of Hunter Biden smoking crack, as well as messages sent to alleged dealers. The evidence was collected from Biden’s iCloud account, laptop and phone messages, according to the indictment.
Along these lines, the Government has indicated that it could call the ex-wife of Hunter BidenKathleen Buhle, and to other romantic couples to describe what his addiction was like at the time of purchasing and possessing weapons.
Prosecutors maintain they plan to present excerpts from Biden’s 2021 book, Beautiful Thingsin which he described himself as a “crack addict” no plans beyond “the moment-by-moment demands of the crack pipe.”
What is Biden’s legal team alleging?
Some potential defense details by Hunter Biden can be obtained from court filings.
Biden’s legal team has ridiculed some of the evidence that have come to light in court filings, comparing some of the work of Weiss’s office to that of the Police Academy films of the 1980s. In one case, Biden’s legal team said that what the Prosecutors claimed that a photo of cocaine was actually sawdust, according to Reuters.
What sentence is he facing?
Yeah the jury finds Hunter Biden guilty, he could face up to 25 years in prison, although sentences are typically shorter than the maximum, according to the Justice Department. As in all US federal criminal cases, the jury of 12 must unanimously agree on a conviction.
Is this an unusual accusation?
Yes. The Government rarely charges anyone for false statements on gun purchase forms unless the defendant is also charged with a violent crime, according to a Government Accountability Office report cited by Hunter Biden’s legal team. More than 80 million American adults own a firearm, but only about 1,000 a year are investigated for false statements on a gun purchase form, and even fewer are charged, according to the GAO.
Who is a judge?
Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated by President Donald Trump and joined the court in 2018. She was previously an attorney at the prominent Delaware firm Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, where he specialized in intellectual property litigation in federal court. He earned his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1993.
