Inside Hunter Biden’s federal gun charges case in Delaware

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Inside Hunter Biden’s federal **** charges case in Delaware

3 hours ago

Bernd Debusmann Jr,BBC News, Washington

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Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the federal charges in Delaware

With the strike of a judge’s gavel in Delaware, Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, will become the first child of a sitting president to be a ********* defendant.

Prosecutors allege that the younger Biden, 54, lied about his ***** use on application forms when he purchased a handgun in 2018.

He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the three federal counts, in a case that will get under way on Monday with jury selection.

Mr Biden has pleaded

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The trial – which comes as his father campaigns for re-election – is likely to see prosecutors delve into graphic details of Mr Biden’s ****** ******** addiction, potentially providing fodder for the president’s political foes.

Here is what we know about the case.

What are the charges?

Mr Biden is facing three federal charges in the case: two counts of making false statements and one count of ******** **** possession.

The charges all relate to his purchase of a revolver at a Delaware **** store in October 2018, which he kept for about 11 days.

By Mr Biden’s own admission, he was deep in the throes of a “full blown addiction” to ****** ******** at the time.

The two false statement charges stem from allegations that he lied about his ***** use on a federally-mandated form when he purchased the *******.

Specifically, prosecutors allege that he falsely claimed that he was “not an unlawful user of and addicted to any stimulant ********* *****” when he purchased a Colt Cobra Special revolver.

The third count is related to his possession of a firearm while alleged to have been a ***** user.

The **** was discarded and discovered at a grocery store in Greenville, Delaware, prompting an investigation that ultimately led investigators back to the forms.

What evidence is there in the case?

To convict Mr Biden, prosecutors will have to convince jurors that he knowingly made false statements on the form in a bid to deceive the store that sold him the *******.

Additionally, they will have to prove that Mr Biden was a ***** user or addicted to drugs, and took possession of the **** despite knowing as much.

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika has already ruled that defence lawyers cannot argue that the prosecution can only get a guilty verdict by proving Mr Biden was using drugs on the day he bought the *******.

Instead, in a pre-trial hearing, the judge agreed with prosecutors’ argument that they need only prove that “unlawful use (had) occurred recently enough to indicate that the individual (was) actively engaged in such conduct”.

In court filings made ahead of the trial’s start, prosecutors suggested that they would rely, in part, on deeply personal text messages and other communications made while Mr Biden was in the throes of addiction.

In one such text message cited in court documents, Mr Biden refers to himself as a “liar and a thief and a blame and a user and I’m delusional and an ******* unlike beyond and above all other ******** that you know”.

The prosecution is also expected to rely on the testimonies of witnesses including ex-wife Kathleen Buhle and Mr Biden’s ex-partner Hallie Biden – who is also the widow of Mr Biden’s brother Beau.

Prosecutors will also be able to point to Mr Biden’s own 2021 memoir, in which he detailed his experiences as a ***** user who was “up twenty-four hours a day, smoking every 15 minutes, seven days a week”.

“All my energy revolved around smoking drugs and making arrangements to buy drugs – feeding the ******,” he wrote in the book.

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Hunter Biden has repeatedly accused Republicans of using his addiction and recovery to “embarrass” and ******* his father

While Mr Biden has himself been quiet about the trial, legal documents filed by his lawyers suggest that they will focus on how much Mr Biden was aware of his addiction at the end of the purchase, and on the quality of the evidence itself.

His primary attorney, Abbe Lowell, has sought permission from the court to call upon an expert witness who can testify about an *******’s understanding of their substance ****** issues.

“Someone, like Mr Biden who had just completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and lived with a sober companion after that, could surely believe he was not a present tense user or *******,” Mr Lowell wrote.

Infamous laptop could feature

Among the most prominent pieces of evidence at the trial is likely to be the information on Mr Biden’s infamous laptop, which has been the focus of intense media speculation and focus from ************* news outlets.

The laptop has also been at the centre of unproven theories linking Mr Biden and his father to ***********, which they both deny.

Mr Biden’s own lawyers have argued that the computer was tampered with before it fell into the hands of investigators.

The special counsel appointed to oversee the probes into Hunter Biden, David Weiss, has said that the tampering argument is a “*********** theory” with “no supporting evidence.”

In a May filing, prosecutors wrote that the laptop contained “significant evidence” of Mr Biden’s guilt.

Could he go to prison if convicted?

The two false statement charges each carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years, while the third count is punishable by up to five years – meaning that Mr Biden could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Actual sentences for federal *******, however, are typically less than the maximum penalties specified by law.

If Mr Biden is convicted, the judge in the case will ultimately determine the sentence after considering sentencing guidelines and a variety of other legal factors.

Hunter Biden’s other charges

In addition to the **** charges in Delaware, Mr Biden is facing separate federal charges in California over allegations that he evaded a tax assessment, ******* to properly file and pay taxes and filed a fraudulent tax return.

Several months after the spectacular collapse of a plea deal that would address both sets of charges last year, Mr Biden also

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to the tax charges.

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