Joe Biden responds to his son Hunter Biden being found guilty.
President Joe Biden expressed respect for both the judicial process and his son Hunter Biden after a Delaware jury found him guilty Tuesday on three counts of illegally possessing a gun amid his struggles with addiction nearly six years ago.
Hunter Biden, who has spoken about his problems with substance abuse at length, is now facing potential prison time following the verdict.
“As I said last week, 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,” President Biden said in a statement.
“So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery. As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal,” he went on.
The president said last week that he would not consider using his presidential pardon power on his son. But so far he has not disclosed whether he has ruled out commuting the sentence, whatever it may be.
“Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with love and support. Nothing will ever change that,” President Biden concluded his statement.
Hunter Biden was accused of lying on a gun-purchase form that asked whether he was addicted to drugs when he filled it out in October 2018.
The government used Hunter’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” to bolster its case. Hunter wrote about how frequently he smoked crack cocaine at the time in question; jurors even heard him read passages in his own voice as portions from the audiobook were played in court.
The Biden family is well-known for the tragedies it has endured, including the car-crash deaths of the president’s first wife and small daughter in 1972, an accident that Hunter and Beau Biden survived. Beau Biden’s 2015 death from cancer prompted his brother to spiral.
Three jurors who spoke to the media said they were evenly split when they began deliberations, but settled on the guilty verdicts after hours of discussion, even though one female juror told CNN the case seemed like a “waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Hunter Biden did not offer testimony in his own defense.
His trial stands out for the stark difference in how the Biden clan has responded to prosecutorial decisions compared to former President Donald Trump and his allies. Trump and his supporters have gone on the attack by pushing conspiracy theories about the nation’s legal system, and specifically the Justice Department’s supposed involvement in Trump’s state-level conviction last month.
Earlier Tuesday, attacks like these prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to send a letter to Trump ally Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, urging them to stop.
