Biden vows to respect guilty verdict in son’s gun trial
US President Joe Biden has stated he will respect the jury’s decision to find his son guilty of gun crimes after a week-long trial that exposed a challenging period for the family.
The 12-person jury found Hunter Biden, 54, guilty of lying about his drug use on a form when purchasing a handgun in 2018. He faces potential jail time following the verdict, marking the first criminal prosecution of a sitting president’s child.
Hunter Biden’s conviction on all three felony counts comes as President Biden campaigns for re-election in November, and less than two weeks after his election rival, Donald Trump, was also convicted of a crime in New York.
Although President Biden did not attend the trial in Delaware, many family members, including First Lady Jill Biden, were regular attendees. Hunter Biden’s wife, sister, and uncle were sometimes present to support him during the proceedings.
After the verdict, President Biden flew to Wilmington, Delaware, where he greeted and hugged his son on the tarmac.
“I am the president, but I am also a dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” he said in a statement. He added that he would “accept the outcome of this case and continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”
President Biden previously ruled out pardoning his son, whose trial revealed embarrassing details as prosecutors aimed to show he was using crack cocaine when he bought the gun.
Jurors heard from his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and a former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, who described frequent, long drug binges that affected his friends and family. The court also saw text messages detailing his addiction and photographs, some showing a half-naked Hunter Biden.
The verdict on Tuesday prompted immediate political reactions, including from Republicans in Congress who have spent years investigating Hunter Biden’s behavior and business ties.
James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, said it marked a “step toward accountability” but added that “everyone involved” in what he called the “Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes” should be investigated.
A statement from the Trump campaign, meanwhile, said the trial had “been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family”. The former president has often used that description of the family on the campaign trail, referring to allegations of improper conduct made against the president and his son by Republicans.
Democrats in Congress accused their Republican colleagues of hypocrisy and praised the US justice system.
“Compare and contrast the difference in reaction between the Republicans and the Democrats,” Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin said in a hearing.
Referring to Trump’s criminal conviction, he said: “The Republicans are attacking our entire system of justice and the rule of law because they don’t like the way one case came out, whereas the son of the president of the United States is prosecuted and I don’t hear a single Democrat crying foul.”
1 comment
He need to serve the sentence that jury gives