Hunter Biden, the son of United States President Joe Biden, has been charged with three counts of false testimony in connection with the possession of a firearm for 11 days in 2018. The three crimes could carry a maximum of 25 years in prison. prison, although the case falls within the federal Justice system – that is, outside that of the 50 states that make up the United States – and, due to the precedent in its operation, it is extremely unlikely that the maximum sentence will be set.
The key to the accusation is that, when he purchased a Colt revolver on October 12, 2018, Biden lied on the forms he filled out by stating that he did not use illegal drugs, which was not the case. The defendant was in possession of the revolver for 11 days. Despite the opposition of some conservative judges, in the United States, the possession of weapons by people with drug addictions or who consume them is a crime. Hunter Biden has had a life marked by alcohol and drug addictions and a series of more or less chaotic relationships, from strippers to the widow of his older brother, Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.
Biden’s defense will try to have the charges dismissed at trial and to force the Prosecutor’s Office to seek a new agreement with the accused like the one that had already been reached in July but that was blown up at the last moment. The news, which was expected after this failure in the negotiations between the Prosecutor’s Office and Biden’s lawyers, adds another factor of tension to the pre-campaign of the United States elections. With part of the Republican Party planning an impeachment against Joe Biden for the activities of his son, and with Donald Trump facing four criminal cases and several more civil cases, the 2024 elections may be more a chronicle of courts than politics.
Paradoxically, the charges against Hunter Biden have been presented by David Weiss, the special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice of the Government chaired by his father. Weiss, who was appointed prosecutor for the state of Delaware – where the Biden family resides – by President Donald Trump, began investigating Hunter Biden five years ago. As the investigations progressed, the White House intervened, and the current attorney general – a position equivalent to that of Minister of Justice in Spain – Merrick Garland decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the president’s son. The White House has refused to assess the accusation in any way, in the same way that it did not make any type of statement the four times that Donald Trump was subjected to the same process.
Biden is not only under the spotlight of Justice for his revolver but also for not having filed his income tax return. These are activities that would deserve applause from the most conservative wing of the Republican Party – the same one that wants to impeach the president -, for whom personal income tax is unconstitutional and the possession of firearms should be completely liberalized or even mandatory. In fact, the legal doctrine defended by Republican judges is more favorable to Biden than that of Democrats.