Hunter Biden’s trial for illegal gun purchase and possession set for June 3

Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, will stand trial in early June on federal gun charges. The Delaware federal judge in charge of the case, Maryellen Noreika, has set the jury trial for the weeks of June 3 and 10. Hunter Biden, 53, was indicted on three federal counts that carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison; however, it is rare for defendants to get the maximum penalty in cases such as this one that involve a non-violent crime. Meanwhile, the president’s son has rejected an invitation from the House of Representatives to appear again before a committee, this time in public, alleging that the Republicans are looking for a “circus act.”

Joe Biden’s son is facing three gun-related charges in Delaware and he has also been indicted on nine other tax charges in California. In the gun case, Hunter Biden is accused of lying when he claimed he wasn’t using illegal drugs when he bought a .38-caliber Colt Cobra in 2018. The 53-year-old submitted a written statement “certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious,” according to the indictment.

Special counsel David Weiss has accused the president’s son of three crimes — two counts of alleged false statements he made while purchasing the gun (on the written form and to the gun dealer) and a third count for possessing the gun while addicted to drugs. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty at a hearing last October.

A few months ago, the president’s son admitted to the crimes as part of a plea deal in which the criminal charges would be dropped if he agreed to stay away from drugs for two years and not own a gun in the future. It is a common agreement in similar cases in which the defendant has been rehabilitated and has no criminal record.

In the agreement to drop the gun case, Hunter Biden also admitted to two tax fraud offenses in 2017 and 2018 (which had been regularized with the payment of $1 million) for which he was to be sentenced to lesser penalties, likely avoiding prison time.

But there was discrepancy in how the prosecution and the defense interpreted the plea deal. The agreement was also criticized by Republicans, who argued it gave the president’s son preferential treatment. In the end, the deal collapsed, with the prosecutor deciding to file charges for the purchase and possession of the weapon in Delaware and for the alleged tax crimes in California.

Much of the long investigation against Hunter Biden focused on the accusations of an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, 43, who was charged in February with providing false testimony and fabricating evidence for political reasons. Smirnov accused both Hunter Biden and Joe Biden of receiving $5 million each in bribes from Ukrainian company Burisma. Although Smirnov’s accusations have been discredited, Republicans in the House of Representatives continue their offensive against Hunter Biden as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president.

Although there is no strong evidence, Republicans are keeping the investigation open. In this context, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, announced last week that he had invited Hunter Biden and several of his partners to a public hearing in Congress. Initially, Hunter Biden requested to give his testimony in public, but Republicans preferred to question him in a closed-door hearing. That hearing did not lead to the result they were after: at no time were the Republicans able to corner Hunter Biden or find anything in his testimony that implicated the president in his business dealings.

Now, Hunter Biden has rejected the invitation in a letter sent to Congress by his lawyer, Abbe Lowell. In the letter, he points out that the date set for the session, March 20, conflicts with a court hearing in Los Angeles that he has to attend the next day. “The scheduling conflict is the least of the issues, however. Your blatant planned-for-the-media event is not a proper proceeding, but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended.”

“Your latest step — this March 6 invitation — is not a serious oversight proceeding. It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-the-right-wing media circus act,” the letter adds.

Comer responded to Biden’s refusal in a statement: “Hunter Biden for months stated that he wanted a public hearing, but now that one has been offered alongside his business associates that he worked with for years, he is refusing to come.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition