President’s campaign braces for trials
At 8:30 a.m. June 3, Hunter Biden is scheduled to report to Courtroom 4A in Wilmington, Del., facing his most dire legal peril to date and the possibility of a federal conviction on charges he lied about his drug use when he purchased a firearm.
The next day, President Joe Biden is scheduled to depart for Paris on a foreign trip that could not come at a worse personal moment. It sets up what could be a tumultuous month for the president, with his son scheduled to undergo two federal trials — one in Delaware and one in California — as the president takes two foreign trips, hosts a fundraiser with former President Barack Obama and holds a critical debate with his opponent former President Donald Trump.
Biden launched his 2020 presidential campaign at a time when his son was in the throes of a major drug addiction, and Hunter now faces constant, often humiliating, scrutiny because his father is president.
The legal vise tightening around Hunter Biden has also aggravated tensions between White House advisers and Hunter Biden’s legal team, and it has renewed concerns over how and whether some of Hunter’s lawyers will be paid. Those close to the Biden family worry that, after years of relative stability in his life as a recovering addict, Hunter now faces the real possibility of a federal conviction that could result in a prison sentence.
Hunter Biden’s trials — the second, on tax evasion charges, is scheduled to begin June 20 — come after weeks of blanket coverage of Trump’s own criminal trial involving an adult-film actress and allegations of adulterous sex and hush money payouts. Hunter Biden’s trials could draw attention from that tawdry testimony to Hunter’s own lessthan-savory activities including drug abuse, payments to pornographic sites allegedly written off as business expenses and benefiting from his famous family name.
There are vast differences in the two cases — chief among them that Hunter Biden is not running for anything — but Republicans are certain to seize anew on these embarrassing episodes in the Biden family’s past. And while Biden has often refrained from speaking publicly about a case that his own Justice Department is prosecuting, it has weighed heavily on him in ways that have close aides and advisers deeply concerned.
“He is fully capable of what will be a demanding month,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in an interview. “If I would be concerned about anyone’s ability, it would be former President Trump, who has all the stresses of being a defendant, not just a parent.”
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Hunter Biden declined to comment for this article.
Rarely in the history of the presidency have political drama and personal anguish converged in this way: An aging president who has lost two children faces the trial of a third during perhaps the most important month of his reelection campaign.
“The Hunter drama has been going on forever, and I know it has to take a toll on him,” said veteran Democratic strategist James Carville. “He’s just got to soldier on, just gut through it.”