WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden’s ongoing legal troubles may no longer be a political concern for the president, but they remain very personal.
President Joe Biden’s son has already been convicted of a firearms-related felony and faces possible prison time, and now he faces a second criminal trial for allegedly evading taxes on millions of dollars in income from foreign companies.
The trial could put a spotlight on Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, which Republicans have scrutinized for years and accused the Democratic president (without evidence) of corruption related to his son’s activities abroad.
The potential political impact of the trial, which comes just weeks before the presidential election, may have faded somewhat since Biden decided in July to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. But the president is deeply concerned about his son’s well-being, and the trial will weigh heavily on the final months of a political career that has spanned five decades.
Read more: Hunter Biden’s lawyer accuses prosecutors of trying to smear him with salacious details in tax trial
It is unclear whether the Biden family will attend the trial, which begins with jury selection on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court. First lady Jill Biden sat in the courtroom nearly every day during Hunter Biden’s trial in Delaware, flying back from France to attend the trial but then turning back for a lavish state visit to the Elysee Palace.
The Bidens have seen some of Hunter Biden’s darkest moments replayed in public during his trial in June, when he was convicted of three felony firearms charges. The tax case could reveal more salacious evidence that prosecutors allege Hunter Biden squandered money on escorts, drugs and luxury cars during the years he allegedly failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
President Biden, meanwhile, has said he has no plans to pardon or commute his son’s sentence, but the 81-year-old made that pledge while still on the campaign trail, and it’s not clear whether he’s changed his mind with just a few months left in the White House.
Gun Cases
Neither trial was ever supposed to take place in the first place.
Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty last year to a misdemeanor tax evasion charge in a deal with Special Counsel David Weiss of Delaware, who launched the investigation under the administration of President Donald Trump.
The agreement allowed Hunter Biden to avoid prosecution on the gun charges if he stayed out of trouble for two years, but it fell apart after a Delaware judge expressed concern about unusual aspects of it, and Judge Weiss subsequently indicted Biden on gun charges in Delaware and tax charges in California.
The gun case has resurfaced salacious and embarrassing details about Hunter Biden’s descent into a crack cocaine addiction before he got sober in 2019. Jurors saw private text messages and photos of Hunter Biden holding drug paraphernalia and half-naked, and prosecutors tried to convince jurors that he lied when he said he wasn’t a drug user on federal paperwork to buy a gun in 2018.
The jury deliberated just over three hours before finding him guilty on all three charges. The first lady shook Hunter Biden’s hand, strode out of the courthouse, and into a waiting SUV for the drive away.
Weiss’s lawyers have not yet said whether they will seek prison time when Hunter is sentenced on Nov. 13, the week after the election. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, but as a first-time offender, Hunter could face much less than that or no prison time at all.
Family support
President Biden, to avoid the appearance of interfering in a criminal case brought by his own Justice Department, stayed away from the courthouse during the Delaware trial and spoke little about the case while it was ongoing.
Shortly after Hunter’s conviction, the president and the first lady released statements expressing their love for their son and their pride in his recovery. Hours later, the president arrived in Wilmington to spend the night at his Delaware home, and embraced Hunter as he waited for him on the tarmac.
Hunter has been at his father’s side in the months since the gun trials — he and other family members watched from the Oval Office as the president explained to the nation why he was dropping out of the presidential race — and last month he joined his father on stage at the Democratic National Convention after the president spoke in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Further legal risks
In a tax indictment filed last year, prosecutors detailed a four-year scheme to evade taxes while spending lavishly on drugs, strippers and luxury hotels. The outstanding taxes have since been paid.
Hunter Biden’s legal team argues that he did not act “knowingly” – that is, with the intent to break the law – and that alcohol and drug abuse impaired his decision-making and judgment.
Prosecutors pressed the judge to inform jurors about Hunter’s spending habits, including payments to people he hired to clean up his drug paraphernalia, so they could evaluate whether he knowingly or falsely listed those items as business expenses.
“He wasn’t on trial because he hired people to clean up his drug paraphernalia,” prosecutor Leo Wise said at a recent court hearing, “but then he went on to claim it was a business expense.”
It’s unclear how many sensational details jurors will hear. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarci said he would “tightly control” the presentation of potentially sensational evidence after the defense urged the judge to exclude it from the case.
“They want to attack his character,” Mark Geragos, the prominent lawyer representing Hunter in the California lawsuit, said at a hearing last month. “They want to smear him. That’s what they’re here for.”
Prosecutors also say they want to present evidence about Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings to prove his state of mind during the years at issue in the case.
That includes testimony about a Romanian businessman who prosecutors allege hired Hunter Biden and a business associate to influence the U.S. government when Hunter Biden’s father was vice president. Prosecutors say the Romanian was under criminal investigation in his home country at the time and hoped the U.S. government would help end his legal woes.
The defense has accused prosecutors of trying to introduce “politically biased” and irrelevant details about the defendants’ overseas business into the trial. The judge has deferred ruling on the case until trial but last month warned the lawyers to focus on the tax allegations.
“I am not going to discuss any improper conduct by any administration,” the judge said.