Jury selection is set to begin today in first son Hunter Biden’s federal gun crime case.
The high-profile case revolves around federal gun crime violations committed by Biden: if convicted, he faces up to 25 years in a federal prison.
Hunter Biden (L), son of President Joe Biden, and attorney Abbe Lowell arrive for a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight and Judiciary committees on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 28, 2024. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
Today, the first step in the process of choosing twelve jurors out of the 250 Delawareans who were summoned will begin at the J. Caleb Boggs federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
The start of the trial represents a fresh challenge for the embattled President Joe Biden, who just days ago touted the idea that “Nobody is above the law” after his rival, former President Donald Trump, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that the president wouldn’t pardon his son should he be convicted.
Biden is facing charges related to a three-count indictment brought by Special Counsel David Weiss, who’s leading the case for the government.
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The first two charges relate to the allegedly untruthful statements Mr. Biden made on a form to receive a firearm that, under the terms of U.S. law, he wasn’t allowed to possess.
Biden allegedly certified dishonestly that he wasn’t using illegal drugs at the time he purchased the weapon. He’s since admitted he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time.
The third count in the indictment is related to the actual possession of the firearm, as federal law also prohibits people abusing drugs from owning a gun.
Weiss and his team of prosecutors are expected to bring around a dozen witnesses to the stand—including three of Biden’s former romantic partners.
The highest profile of these is Hallie Biden, the president’s daughter-in-law, who had a relationship with Biden following the death of her husband, Beau Biden, in 2015.
The case could also have broad political ramifications at a time when the campaign stump and the courtroom are more closely-linked in politics than ever.
Should President Biden lose his reelection bid in November, he could find himself facing a great deal of pressure from his family to pardon his son before leaving the White House.
And a conviction could have a limited impact on President Biden’s campaign.
Polls show that most voters don’t blame the alleged sins of the son on the father, but a few do: That could be deadly in a race that could be decided by a tilt margin in some battleground states.
For Republicans, the case could take some of the media attention off of Trump and put it back onto President Biden.
Should Biden be acquitted, Republicans could use the acquittal to continue their claims that the judicial system has been fundamentally broken and politicized by actors from the Department of Justice.
President Biden, for his part, has largely stood off from the case, simply telling the press that he’s “proud of his son” and being largely supportive in his few public statements on the matter.
—Joseph Lord
UNDECIDEDS REACT
Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records is likely to change few minds among undecided voters in two battleground states—but it may not have as much of an impact as Trump’s detractors hope.
The reasons for that are varied, as is the thinking of these voters who are rightly termed independents.
Some have already ruled out voting for Trump but remain undecided about their choice for November. Others have ruled out both major candidates, and some are undecided about whether to vote at all.
Yet another group remains open to persuasion by either major party—or perhaps a third.
In the 24 hours following the Trump verdict, The Epoch Times took the pulse of undecided voters in Michigan and Wisconsin, two key battlegrounds in presidential politics. For many of these voters, whether they love Trump or hate him, the verdict in the case will have little impact.
“I stand by the jury’s decision,” Wade Good of Canton, Michigan, told The Epoch Times. The verdict will factor into his vote, he said, but won’t necessarily determine his choice.
La’Var Williams, 27, of Detroit, said he wasn’t surprised about President Trump’s guilt but was astonished that he had been convicted. He saw the verdict as a validation of the legal system.
About his choice for November, “I haven’t thought too much about it, to be honest,” Williams said, adding that the verdict might factor into his decision.
Crystal, a Milwaukee woman, said the New York verdict has not made her more likely to vote for either Trump or Biden.
She doesn’t see 2024 as a particularly significant contest.
“It’s like any other election to me,” she said.
The undecided voters displayed varying degrees of political engagement, and most appeared to be thoughtful about their choices.
Krishna Gogi, 23, and Rishi Pammi, 21, of Canton, Michigan, both students, were only vaguely aware that President Trump was standing trial and had no reaction to the verdict.
“I’ve lost confidence in both parties,” Gogi told The Epoch Times, “especially with everything that’s happened in Palestine.”
Both said they won’t vote for either major candidate in November but are still unsure whom they will support.
“I’d rather have my voting power go to something I believe in,” Pammi said.
Rick Karbash of Milwaukee voiced a similar intention for different reasons.
“I’m a Ron Paul constitutionalist. And none of these people respect our Constitution,” he said.
Karbash, who operates a downtown hot dog stand, decried both the guilty verdict and the growth of the national debt in colorful language and reserved a few choice words for both parties’ spending on Ukraine and Israel.
“I’m not voting for any of them,” he said.
The impact of Trump’s verdict nevertheless remains uncertain.
Democrats hope it’ll boost the flagging campaign of Biden, who’s now able to call his rival “a convicted felon.”
Republicans hope that voters will see Trump as a martyr, unfairly prosecuted by a weaponized legal system.
It’s unclear which of these hopes, if any, will come to fruition.
—Lawrence Wilson, Nathan Worcester, and Joseph Lord
BOOKMARKS
Addressing the possibility of prison time, Trump said he’d be “okay with it.” The Epoch Times’ Catherine Yang reported on the comments, delivered during an interview with Fox News. Trump, who will face sentencing on July 11, said he told his lawyers, “Don’t beg for anything” when it comes to sentencing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s position that there will be no “permanent ceasefire” until Hamas is destroyed, The Epoch Times Jack Phillips reported. It comes amid vast international pressure for Israel to accept a ceasefire and halt its campaign in Rafah, Gaza.
Former Vice President Mike Pence decried the conviction of his former boss as sending a “terrible message” that will “divide Americans.” The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek reported on the remarks, in which Pence added that the prosecution was “politically motivated.”
Eight Republican senators say they’re done playing softball in the upper chamber following Trump’s conviction in New York. The Epoch Times’ Bill Pan reported that these Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), have vowed to block and slow down all legislation that’s not directly related to public safety.
Trump may have been convicted in New York but, The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek reported, that won’t affect his voting rights in his home state of Florida. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s erstwhile rival, has vowed to ensure that the former president can vote in November.
