WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden is on trial in his family’s hometown on three felony gun charges in federal court. He is not a political figure, and the allegations against him have nothing to do with his father, but it’s still an extraordinary moment: The younger Biden is on trial as President Biden is in the throes of his reelection campaign.
The trial is revealing some of the Biden family’s most painful and tumultuous moments in a public courthouse. Prosecutors are asking about what the younger Biden has described as a dark period in his life when he was addicted to drugs and grieving the loss of his brother, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
Here is everything you need to know about the trial.
What are the charges?
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Hunter Biden faces three felony charges related to a gun he purchased in 2018. A four-page indictment accuses him of making two false statements in filling out the paperwork to purchase the weapon. He allegedly claimed to not be addicted to or using illegal drugs, the indictment says, “when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.” And then he allegedly certified he was telling the truth.
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Count three of the indictment charges Biden with unlawfully possessing that gun, a Colt revolver, for 11 days following the purchase. That charge is based on a federal law making it illegal to possess a weapon while a person is using illegal drugs.
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Hunter Biden gun trial
Follow live updates from Hunter Biden’s trial. He faces three felony charges related to a gun he purchased in 2018.
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Where is the trial being held?
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The younger Biden was charged in his home state of Delaware because that is where he allegedly made the illegal gun purchase. The trial will be held in the federal courthouse in downtown Wilmington.
Who could testify?
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Prosecutors say they expect to call 11 or 12 witnesses. The defense did not offer an exact number of witnesses, but suggested that it plans to call the gun shop owner who sold Biden the weapon and a possibly a few experts. During a pretrial conference, defense attorney Abbe Lowell did not rule out the possibility that Biden himself could take the stand, though it is unusual for criminal defendants to testify at their own trials.
The testimony could get deeply personal and reopen some of the most painful moments in the Biden family’s past. Among the witnesses are Hunter Biden’s ex-wife; his brother’s widow, with whom he became romantically involved after his brother’s death; and a former romantic partner who is said to have observed him “using crack cocaine frequently — every 20 minutes except when he slept.” Some of that description fits Lunden Roberts, an Arkansas woman with whom Hunter Biden had a child. An attorney for Roberts did not respond to a request for comment in late May.
How long will the trial last?
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We don’t know for sure, but at a recent hearing, Judge Maryellen Noreika said she could inform the jury that the trial could last up to two weeks — or 10 days in court — with a possibility that it runs into a third week. This is based on conservative timing estimates from both sides.
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Jury selection went relatively quickly on Monday. From there, prosecutors said it could take three days to present their case. Biden’s attorney did not say how long the defense needs, but told the judge that informing the jury that the trial would end no later than June 14 is a “reasonable projection.”
What sentence does Hunter Biden potentially face?
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If convicted, the maximum sentence for the most serious crime in the indictment is 10 years in prison. Under federal sentencing guidelines, however, Biden, who has no prior felonies and has acknowledged being addicted to drugs at the time of the gun purchase, would probably face far less.
Is the trial televised?
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No, and there is no audio streaming. In general, cameras and recorders are prohibited from federal courthouses. The Delaware courthouse does not allow reporters to bring laptops into the courtroom or use their phones. That means the public isn’t getting real-time updates as was the case with in Donald Trump’s just-completed hush money trial in New York state court, where reporters could send information as they sat and watched the proceedings.
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But The Washington Post and other media outlets are attending the trial each day and providing readers with regular updates.
Doesn’t Biden also face tax-related charges?
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Biden was charged in Los Angeles last year with failing to file and pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019, tax evasion and filing false tax returns. Three of the charges are felonies; six are misdemeanors. That case is set for trial in September.
While the two indictments are separate, they stem from the same troubled period in Biden’s life, share some of the same evidence and were once more closely linked together. Last summer, Biden reached a tentative agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty in Delaware to two misdemeanor tax-related charges and admit to the facts of a gun charge. But that plea deal fell apart after Noreika questioned some of its terms.
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Soon after, Attorney General Merrick Garland named U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, who had been leading the Hunter Biden investigation, as special counsel — a move that gave him clear authority to file charges outside of Delaware and paved the way for the tax indictment in California.
Will President Biden attend the trial?
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On Monday, the president was in Wilmington, Del., with no public appearances scheduled. He has given no public indication that he would be in the courthouse — a possibility that would require considerable security arrangements.
Later in the week, Biden will travel to France to participate in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Allied landings in Normandy. He will return to the United States on June 9. Days later, he will travel to Italy for the G-7 summit.
Tyler Pager and Matt Viser contributed to this report.
