Hunter Biden is found guilty on three charges as President Biden kicks off gun safety push.
Hunter Biden found guilty of all charges at gun trial
Hunter Biden was convicted Tuesday of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, he lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using, or addicted to drugs.
Jurors found Biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. The jury in Wilmington, Del., deliberated for about three hours over two days.
Biden started straight ahead and showed little emotion as the verdict was read. After the verdict, he hugged both of his attorneys and smiled wanly. He kissed his wife, Melissa, and they left the courtroom together.
He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Maryellen Noreika, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it's unclear whether she would give him time behind bars. No sentencing date was set on Tuesday.
"We are naturally disappointed by today's verdict," defense attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement. "We respect the jury process, and as we have done throughout this case, we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter."
Biden said in a statement of his own that he is "more grateful today for the love and support" he received from his wife, friends, family and community "than I am disappointed by the outcome."
"Recovery is possible by the grace of God, and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time," he added.
Now, Biden and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the chief political rival of President Joe Biden, have been convicted by American jurors in an election year that has been as much about the courtroom as it has been about campaign events and rallies.
Joe Biden has steered clear of the federal courtroom in Delaware where his son was tried and said little about the case, wary of creating an impression of interfering in a criminal matter brought by his own Justice Department. But allies of the Democrat have worried about the toll that the trial — and now the conviction — will take on the 81-year-old, who has long been concerned with his only living son's health and sustained sobriety.
Hunter Biden and Trump have both argued they were victimized by the politics of the moment. But while Trump has continued to falsely claim the verdict was "rigged," Joe Biden said in an interview last week he would accept the results of the verdict and would not seek to pardon his son.
"As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad," President Biden said in a statement following the verdict. "Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery."
"As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal," the president continued. "Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that."
'Kinda dumb tbh': Trump, Republicans react to Hunter Biden conviction with dissatisfaction
Republican lawmakers and former President Donald Trump expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction with Tuesday’s guilty verdict for Hunter Biden on three felony gun charges, lamenting that federal prosecutors didn’t pursue charges related to the president’s son’s business activities.
“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine," Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt charged in a statement. "Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit."
Trump himself was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to illegally influence the 2016 election late last month.
Congressional Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden and his father for years without producing evidence of criminal wrongdoing against either man or connecting the father to the son’s overseas business dealings. An impeachment probe into the president has all but fizzled out as claims of criminality have fallen short, including those by an FBI informant now facing charges for lying to authorities about the Bidens’ involvement with a Ukrainian energy company and alleged bribes that the FBI now says never took place.
“Today’s verdict is a step toward accountability but until the Department of Justice investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes that generated over $18 million in foreign payments to the Biden family, it will be clear department officials continue to cover for the Big Guy, Joe Biden,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said in a statement.
But other Republicans took it a step further, alleging that the verdict is a distraction effort.
Hard-right Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz called the conviction “kinda dumb.” South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace wrote on social media the guilty verdict and prosecution were part of a scheme to preserve “the veil of fairness in the Justice System” under President Joe Biden. Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk, an influential right-wing youth leader and close Trump ally, called the proceedings “a fake trial trying to make the Justice system appear ‘balanced.’”
Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to Trump, said “the gun charges are a giant misdirection” and a ploy for the Department of Justice “to sell to a pliant media that is all too willing to be duped.”
“DOJ is running election interference for Joe Biden — that’s why DOJ did NOT charge Hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (FARA) or any crime connected with foreign corruption. Why? Because all the evidence would lead back to JOE,” Miller wrote. “DOJ is Joe’s election protection racket.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, agreed with Miller and wrote that Democrats “will now point to Hunter’s conviction as evidence that ‘there’s no lawfare’” against Trump and other Republicans. Bernie Moreno, the Ohio GOP Senate candidate, argued the gun charges were a red herring to “insulate and protect” Joe Biden. Arizona congressional candidate Blake Masters, a close ally of right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel and the GOP’s unsuccessful nominee for an Arizona Senate seat in 2022, espoused a similar theory that the prosecution was “covering for the Bidens’ corruption.”
Hunter Biden was prosecuted by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, who was later appointed by Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland to continue the prosecution as an independent special counsel.
The president’s son was convicted by a jury in Delaware on Tuesday of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer about his drug use, making a false claim on an application for a firearm and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days in 2018.
Biden speaks at major gun safety conference as his campaign looks for the issue to boost him on the trail
President Joe Biden addressed a major gun safety conference in Washington on Tuesday just ahead of the two-year anniversary of the passage of the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, as his reelection team looks to use the issue on the campaign trail.
Biden used his remarks at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s Gun Sense University — its annual training conference — to announce that the federal gun trafficking law and straw purchasing provisions created by nearly two-year old gun legislation, billed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, has led to the Department of Justice charging more than 500 violators.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, shepherded through Congress by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and signed by Biden in June 2022, included tougher restrictions on gun trafficking and straw purchases, when a gun is bought on behalf of another.
The bill, which came together in the wake of shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas is widely considered the most significant gun legislation since Congress passed a ban on certain semiautomatic weapons in 1994, which has since expired.
Biden on Tuesday touted the administration’s recent announcement of a rule to expand background checks and specifically which gun sellers must acquire federal licenses, seeking to close the so-called “gun show loophole.”
The president's remarks at the gun safety event came hours after his son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty of three charges in a federal firearms case, a potentially awkward juxtaposition for the Democratic incumbent.