What to know about Hunter Biden's federal gun trial that starts Monday
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Hunter Biden outside the U.S. Capitol in December. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Hunter Biden will face three felony gun charges in a trial starting Monday that carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if he's convicted.
Why it matters: Some Republicans will likely try to focus on the case, the first of two trials President Biden's son faces this year, in an attempt to draw attention from former President Trump's recent felony conviction in New York.
- It is likely to exact a personal toll on President Biden and reveal the fractures within the president's family as he's locked in a tight 2024 race with Trump.
State of play: Special Counsel David Weiss charged Hunter Biden with crimes related to making false statements on a form when he purchased a firearm in 2018 that prosecutors allege he possessed while using a narcotic.
- The president's son has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
- The trial in Wilmington, Delaware, begins Monday morning with jury selection and is expected to last a few weeks at most.
The latest: "Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today," President Biden said in a statement on Monday morning.
- The First Lady attended the Delaware court on Monday morning.
What we're watching: Hunter Biden's lawyers have signaled they will contest that he knew he was an addict at the time, given he had just finished a short stint in a rehab program, and they will allege potential tampering with the gun form he signed.
- The prosecution will likely call witnesses close to Hunter Biden to provide testimony about his addictions at the time.
- These could include his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle; his former girlfriend and sister-in-law, Hallie Biden; and Lunden Roberts, with whom he had a child that culminated in a messy paternity suit.
- Weiss' team referenced messages with Buhle and Hallie Biden in a recent filing.
Between the lines: The president has kept his son close in the past week ahead of the trial and been spotted with him in public several times.
- Current and former presidential aides predict that the airing of the dirty laundry of Biden's insular-family is expected to be emotionally painful and distracting for the president.
- The president clings to his son despite the controversies around him in part because he is the only living person from the 1972 car accident that killed his wife and daughter and left his two sons hospitalized.
- After Beau Biden died in 2015 of brain cancer, the president began referring to Hunter Biden as "my only surviving son."
- The president has said that Hunter Biden "did nothing wrong."
Zoom out: Hunter Biden almost avoided the trial, but a proposed plea deal collapsed last July.
- After that, he changed his legal team and Weiss asked the attorney general for special counsel status to further investigate the president's son.
- That further chilled the relationship between the president and his Attorney General Merrick Garland.
- A spokesperson for Hunter Biden's team did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
What's next: Regardless of the outcome of this trial, Hunter Biden is set to face a more complicated trial in California this September over his taxes.
Flashback: Hunter Biden cites 2nd Amendment in request to dismiss gun charges
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from President Biden.
