Hunter Biden: the son of the US president is found guilty of three counts of illegally purchasing and possessing a weapon while a drug user

Hunter Biden was found guilty this Tuesday of the three charges he faced for lying about his drug use when purchasing a gun.

A jury in the US state of Delaware found President Joe Biden’s son guilty after a week of witness testimony and presentation of evidence in the criminal trial.

Hunter Biden was expressionless as the guilty verdicts were read, looking forward with his arms crossed and then turning to hug some of the members of his legal team.

The president’s son was declared guilty on all three counts that he faced after the jury deliberated for about three hours.

The first charge was for making a false statement to obtain a firearm, the second was for making a false statement to obtain the weapon in the records and the third is for illegal possession of a firearm.

All of them correspond to serious crimes that carry sentences with a maximum of 25 years of prison in total and a fine of US$750,000, although experts believe that the sentence that Joe Biden’s son would face could be much smaller.

Although several members of Hunter Biden’s family had gone to court in recent days, this Tuesday only two were there: his wife Melissa Cohen Biden and James Biden, his uncle and the president’s brother.

Hunter Biden is the first immediate family member of a sitting president to face a criminal trial, although the crimes were committed before his father’s term.

All the charges he faced were related to the purchase of a revolver in a Delaware gun store in October 2018, a gun he kept for about 11 days.

By the defendant’s own admission, at that time he was in the throes of a “total addiction” to crack.

The two false statements charges stemmed from allegations that he lied about his drug use on a federally required form when he purchased the gun.

Specifically, prosecutors alleged that falsely stated that he was “not an illegal user or addict of any stimulant narcotic” when he bought a Colt Cobra Special revolver.

The third charge was related to possession of a firearm while allegedly using drugs.

The gun was discarded and discovered in a container near a grocery store in Greenville, Delaware, sparking an investigation that ultimately led investigators to the form and Hunter Biden.

The sentence is usually handed down about 120 days after the verdictso it would arrive in mid-October, shortly before the presidential elections on November 5 in which Joe Biden will likely seek re-election against Donald Trump.

If he receives prison time, he will most likely not receive the maximum sentence of 25 years and will be sentenced to about 20 months, says Dru Stevenson, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston.

Stevenson affirms that “it would be strange and unprecedented” if he were sentenced to more than 5 years in prison, since only “people who were really dangerous” who were already part of the FBI records are sentenced to sentences of that duration for the same crimes. .

The expert, in any case, evaluates that there is a “50/50 chance” that Hunter Biden goes to prison.

Stevenson noted that Judge Maryellen Noreika came down hard on Biden’s lawyers during evidentiary hearings, frequently ruling against defense requests.

The other possible scenario, he adds, is that the president’s son is sentenced to probation, something that would be feasible judging by the apparent success in Hunter Biden’s rehabilitation.

US President Joe Biden issued a statement following his son’s guilty verdict in which he stated that “will accept the outcome of the case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers filing an appeal.”

“As I said last week, I am the president, but I am also a father,” he alleged.

He added, “Jill and I love our son and are so proud of the man he is today.”

“We will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will change that,” she concluded.

According to Anthony Zurcher, the BBC’s North American correspondent, the sentencing of Hunter Biden is unlikely to change the course of the presidential campaign or Americans’ voting intentions in the upcoming November elections.

His father’s name will be on the ballot, not his, and there is no evidence linking Joe Biden to the crimes his son committed, he argues.

He points out, in any case, that the guilty verdict will surely It will be a hard personal blow for an American president who is also the patriarch of a close-knit family that has suffered a series of tragedies and traumas.

Hunter Biden’s legal journey is not over, since in September he will face another trial for alleged evasion of US$1.4 million in federal taxes, which may imply greater risk for the president.

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