The president’s son faces long odds to avoid conviction — in a case with dubious origins.
Hunter Biden, joined by his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrives at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 4, in Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of opening arguments in his trial on gun charges. | Ryan Collerd/AFP via Getty ImagesAnkush Khardori is a senior writer for POLITICO Magazine and a former federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, where he specialized in financial fraud and white-collar crime.
At the end of his opening statement, Biden’s lead counsel, Abbe Lowell, stressed to the jury that Biden is entitled to a presumption of innocence and that the prosecution has a heavy burden of proof — which is true enough, but registered, in that moment at the courthouse, as a concession that the evidence is not on their side.
Under the terms of that deal, Biden was prepared to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and to agree to a pretrial diversion program to resolve the potential gun charge . Republicans in Congress balked, loudly claiming that this was a “during the investigation, which is not unusual, and people routinely get off without criminal charges after failing to pay much larger sums to the IRS.
Want to read more stories like this? POLITICO Weekend delivers gripping reads, smart analysis and a bit of high-minded fun every Friday.If the trial ends in a conviction, Biden will also be able to raise a Second Amendment defense on appeal by pointing to the Supreme Court’s recent string oftoo, in the run-up to the trial, but she would not have the last word on the matter.
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