Hunter Biden charged in arms case: Could indictment affect US prez 2024 chances?

The troubles for the Biden family are never ending. Two days after it was announced that the United States president, Joe Biden, will face an impeachment inquiry, now his son – Hunter – has been indicted on gun charges on Thursday after a plea deal fell apart in July.

This is the first time that a child of a sitting US president has been indicted on federal criminal charges. The indictment against 53-year-old Hunter have been brought by US Special Counsel David Weiss, a Donald Trump appointee as US attorney for Delaware.

While the White House has remained mum on the indictment so far, Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell said special counsel David Weiss was “bending to political pressure”. “We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court,” Lowell was quoted as saying.

Former US president and likely contender for Biden in the 2024 polls, Donald Trump, surprisingly described Hunter Biden’s indictment as a “sad situation.” “It’s a sad situation, I mean, nobody should be happy about this,” Trump told NBC News in his first public comments on the development.

But what exactly is the case that Hunter Biden has been charged in? Moreover, how will the troubled son’s case hurt Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign?

Gun matters

Hunter Biden has been indicted in federal court in Delaware on three counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics. Two of the counts carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, while the third is of five years. Each of the three counts also carries a fine of $250,000 (Rs 2.07 crore).

The charges are pertaining to the purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. The US president’s son, whose life has been riddled with personal tragedies, lied on the form required to be filled out when buying the firearm from a Delaware store.

Hunter swore that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs – even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase. Hunter has revealed earlier that he took to drinking and drugs heavily following the death of his brother, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

According to the indictment, Hunter “provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.” For the unaware, it is a federal crime to lie on the form required to possess a firearm or to possess a firearm as a drug user.

Biden’s gun, which he possessed only for 11 days, was found by Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother, Beau, soon after its purchase. Hallie Biden, with whom Hunter Biden was having a romantic relationship at the time, threw the gun in a dumpster, claiming she was concerned that he might use it to take his own life.

It is unlikely that Hunter will receive the maximum punishment as in the past nonviolent first-time offenders who have not been accused of using the weapon in another crime have rarely got serious prison time for the charges.

In addition to the gun case, Weiss is also weighing whether to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes.

Hunter’s many troubles

Hunter, who has never held a position in Joe Biden’s campaign or Cabinet, has had his share of personal and legal woes. He had an acrimonious divorce from his first wife Kathleen Buhle in 2017. During the divorce hearings, Buhle accused Hunter of “spending extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations) while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills”.

In his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things, Hunter concedes that his infidelity was the final straw in their marriage. A DNA test in 2019 found he was “the biological and legal father” of a child born to Lunden Alexis Roberts, an exotic dancer from Arkansas.

And his woes extend to his professional life. His connections to a scandal-plagued, now-bankrupt Chinese energy giant, CEFC China Energy has also drawn media scrutiny. His dealings in Ukraine have also drawn attention, with many accusing Hunter of using his father’s position as vice president to gain favours.

In fact, the impeachment inquiry against US president Joe Biden stems from allegations that the American leader was involved in his son’s business dealings, with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying that after uncovering a “culture of corruption”, it demands deeper review. “These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption,” McCarthy said.

Also read: Hunter Biden to plead guilty to tax offences: The many scandals of the US president’s son

Poor Joe

Hunter’s legal woes aren’t just a blow to him and his family on a personal level. The ramifications go much further.

Political pundits are of the opinion that the indictment will help the Republicans in the 2024 presidential elections. It will cast a shadow of doubt on senior Biden’s credibility as he potentially goes up against Donald Trump.

In fact, a recent survey revealed that one in three Americans were highly concerned about whether President Joe Biden may have committed wrongdoing related to his son’s business dealings – despite the fact that there’s been no evidence to substantiate these claims.

The indictment piled on top of the impeachment inquiry will also take away from the criminal cases that Donald Trump faces; the former US president faces a total of 91 criminal charges at the moment with trials scheduled to begin next year. As the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The indictment will give radical Republicans in Congress the talking point they need to muddy the waters with respect to Trump’s multiple criminal indictments. Weiss has given them just what they wanted.”

However, some believe that it’s not Hunter Biden that is the real concern for the US president. It would be his age. Only a quarter of Americans, according to a CNN poll, believe that Biden has the stamina and sharpness to serve as commander-in-chief, which was further compounded when he appeared confused and bewildered during a press conference in Vietnam last week.

With inputs from agencies