Hunter Biden trial puts first family’s travails in election-year spotlight

The criminal trial of Hunter Biden, the president’s only surviving son, has shined a light on the human, legal, and political dramas swirling within and beyond the first family.

Reduced to essentials, the case is not complicated: The younger Mr. Biden faces three federal felony counts in Wilmington, Delaware, related to his 2018 purchase of a firearm during a period when he struggled with drug addiction. His defense centers on whether he knowingly lied on the gun-purchase form, where he said he was not using illegal drugs, a required condition for buying firearms. If convicted, he could be sentenced to prison.  

Mr. Biden has also been indicted on federal charges of tax evasion, a case scheduled for trial in California in September. The two cases stem from the implosion of a plea deal last summer that would have immunized the first son from future potential charges. 

The Hunter Biden case pales in significance to the legal woes of former President Donald Trump, who was found guilty last month of falsifying business records in a hush-money deal with a porn star. Mr. Trump, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee in November, has also been indicted in three other criminal cases.

Hunter Biden, of course, isn’t running for office – let alone reelection as president, as his father is. And certainly the specter of a presidential relative facing personal and legal problems is nothing new. Throughout history, many presidents have had family members who have attracted embarrassing (or worse) public attention. 

But for President Joe Biden, whose life has been marked by tragedy, his son’s saga represents an unprecedented dimension in the heat of a presidential election campaign already unlike any other. 

As a political matter, the Hunter Biden gun case is unlikely to have an impact, analysts say. Even if voters across the political spectrum themselves have experience with relatives struggling with addiction, “I suspect reactions will be heavily dependent on party ID,” says Michael Traugott, a presidential scholar emeritus at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

“Republicans, especially, are not likely to be swayed by this in any positive way or accept a very sympathetic view,” Professor Traugott says. 

President Biden has sought to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest. When asked last week in an ABC News interview if he would accept the outcome of his son’s trial, he said “yes.” The president also ruled out a pardon in the event of a conviction.

At the same time, Mr. Biden accused Mr. Trump of trying to undermine the rule of law in the former president’s claim that his conviction last month in a New York state case was politically motivated. Two of Mr. Trump’s remaining cases are federal, sparking accusations by the former president and his allies that the Biden administration has weaponized the Justice Department against him.  

That the Hunter Biden case is also federal cuts a bit into that argument, as have federal indictments of two Democratic lawmakers – Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas. 

Biden critics counter that the earlier Hunter Biden plea deal was a “sweetheart” arrangement by his father’s Justice Department that collapsed at the last minute only because the judge blew the whistle. 

House Republicans also intend to keep pursuing their investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which they say also implicates the president. Last week, the Republican chairs of three House committees urged the Justice Department to charge Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James Biden with making false statements to Congress. The allegations come within an ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Biden. 

“Now, we’re going to do everything we can to hold Hunter Biden and all the different shady associates accountable. This is just the beginning,” House Oversight Committee chair James Comer said Sunday on Fox Business. “But the next step will be accountability for Joe Biden.”

The impeachment inquiry into President Biden has so far failed to surface firm evidence of wrongdoing, despite claims that he had abused his office for financial gain. But if Mr. Trump wins in November, he has suggested he will seek legal retribution against his political enemies, including Mr. Biden. 

For the president, the trial of his son represents nothing less than the latest chapter in a life marked by tragedy. Early in his political career, President Biden lost his first wife – Hunter’s mother – in a car crash, along with the Bidens’ baby daughter when Hunter and his brother, Beau, were young boys. Beau Biden, seen as the family’s rising political star, died of cancer in 2015. 

After that loss, Hunter Biden went into a spiral of drug abuse and infidelity, destroying his marriage. After Beau’s death, Hunter and Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden, became romantically involved, ensnaring her as well in drug use for a time. Both Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, testified at the trial for the prosecution, in an extraordinary airing of family dysfunction unprecedented in modern American presidential politics. 

Hunter Biden’s oldest daughter, Naomi Biden Neal, testified Friday for the defense, saying that her father had gained control of his drug abuse at the time he purchased a gun – an effort to show that Mr. Biden hadn’t lied on his firearms application. But on cross-examination, the prosecution seemed to undermine Ms. Biden Neal’s testimony by presenting contemporaneous text messages between her and her father portraying anguish over his behavior. 

Biden family members have shown up daily to support Hunter – including first lady Jill Biden, who shuttled back and forth between France (where her husband was traveling) and Wilmington. A remaining question, as the trial was expected to head soon to the jury, was whether Hunter Biden himself would testify. Monday morning, the defense announced he would not.

The jury deliberated for one hour Monday and is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m.