WILMINGTON (Delaware), June 3 — The criminal trial of Hunter Biden kicks off today in federal court in Delaware as President Joe Biden’s son faces gun charges in a historic case that begins four days after Donald Trump became the first former US president to be convicted. In the first trial of the child of a sitting president, Hunter Biden, 54, faces three felony charges stemming from his purchase and possession of a revolver in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty.
It is one of two criminal cases he faces, with federal tax charges brought separately in California. The trial in Wilmington, with US District Judge Maryellen Noreika presiding, begins with the jury selection process. Trump was convicted by a jury in state court in New York on Thursday of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents to cover up hush money paid to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal shortly before the 2016 US election that put him in the White House.
Trump is the Republican candidate challenging Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 US election. Hunter Biden’s trial gives Republicans a chance to shift attention away from Trump’s legal troubles. Trump is due to be sentenced on July 11.
He has pleaded not guilty in three other pending criminal cases. Hunter Biden was charged last September in the case brought by US Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee, with lying about his use of illegal drugs when he bought a Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver and with illegally possessing the weapon for 11 .