The legal troubles facing President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden are on edge as his tax trial is moved to September, with an outcome expected immediately before the election.
A federal judge in California agreed to postpone Hunter’s trial on federal tax crimes until September 5. He was scheduled to appear before a jury at the end of June.
His separate trial in Delaware on weapons charges is still on schedule and will begin on June 3.
The timeline puts his charges of illegally obtaining weapons and tax evasion front and center as his father’s 2024 presidential election heats up.
It’s the latest courtroom activity that could have significance in the 2024 presidential election, with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also spending a significant amount of time in court and the possibility of more criminal trials this year.
President Biden and his son Hunter Biden arrive in Syracuse, NY on February 4, 2023
Hunter Biden is charged in Delaware with three charges related to illegal gun possession. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika declined to dismiss the federal gun case against the president’s 54-year-old son, clearing the way for the trial to begin June 3.
The trial is expected to last nine days.
If convicted in the tax evasion case, Biden faces up to 17 years in prison.
The timeline means that if convicted in either trial, the president’s son could face prison time while his father runs for a second term in the White House.
Biden aides and family members worry about the weight the trial will place on the president reporting by POLITICO.
It also says the president has expressed fears that his son will serve prison time.
President Biden hugs his son Hunter after they leave a restaurant on Hunter’s Birthday in Los Angeles on February 4, 2024
A photo from Hunter Biden’s laptop showed the now 53-year-old first son posing nude with a firearm
Hunter Biden is charged in Delaware with three charges in the gun-related case. He is accused of lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to purchase a gun that he kept for about 11 days.
Special counsel David Weiss filed the gun charges in September, when Biden became the first child of a sitting president to be charged.
Hunter Biden has acknowledged that he was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine at the time, but his lawyers argued he had not broken the law.
A federal appeals court also said last week that the case could go to trial.
Hunter Biden’s efforts to have the other criminal case he faces in California involving tax allegations thrown out have also failed.
The investigation into the president’s son looked like it would conclude last year with a plea deal that would have resulted in two years of probation after he pleaded guilty to tax charges.
But the agreement fell apart after the judge expected to approve the deal and instead raised further questions.
In January, Biden instead pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges.
A court sketch of Hunter Biden with his attorney Abbe Lowell in federal court on January 11, 2024. The president’s son pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges filed after a plea deal imploded
Biden is charged with nine tax crimes.
Federal prosecutors accuse the younger Biden of a four-year scheme to skip paying $1.4 million in taxes he owed to the IRS between 2016 and 2019 and instead spend the money on his extravagant lifestyle, including drugs and alcohol.
Republicans, including Donald Trump, criticized the original plea deal, which fell apart as a “cute deal.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have condemned the implosion of the deal, alleging congressional interference and accusing the special counsel of caving to political pressure.
Under the initial plea deal, Hunter Biden also would have avoided prosecution on gun charges if he had stayed out of trouble.
A close friend of Hunter Biden, Kevin Morris, left, is said to have “drained” his money after financially supporting his legal battle over the past four and a half years to the tune of $6 million. Hunter’s lead attorney, Abbe Lowell, seen at right, doesn’t come cheap
Hunter’s lead attorney, Abbe Lowell, seen at right, charges between $855 and $1,500 per hour for his services
Ahead of the looming trials, Hunter Biden’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, 61, is reportedly having his money taken away after he financially supported Biden’s legal battle for the past four and a half years.
Morris decided to intervene because he believed Hunter had little support and lent him more than $6.5 million.
But Morris has since confirmed he will no longer continue to lend money to the first son to fight his legal battle.
Hunter Biden’s problems are not a new headache for the president. He was mercilessly attacked by Trump during the 2020 campaign over his son’s business dealings and drug addiction.
The president’s son has acknowledged that he was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers say he did not break the law.
Then-candidate Biden faced attacks on his son Hunter during the 2020 campaign. During the debate, he addressed his son’s past drug addiction, saying, “He’s working on it and I’m proud of him.”
In a standout moment during the first 2020 presidential debate, Biden fired back at his son’s drug problem: “he’s solved it, he’s working on it, and I’m proud of him.”
But it’s a new reality that the president’s son could go to prison this year as the president seeks a second term in the White House.
While a president’s children and other family members have presented a series of challenges throughout history, prison time for a sitting president’s child during a campaign is unprecedented.
Meanwhile, Trump has also faced legal challenges this election season, spending most of the past two months in the courtroom rather than on the campaign trail.
Donald Trump in Manhattan Criminal Court for his hush money trial on May 14
Prosecutors in New York could rest their case in the hush money trial next week. And jury deliberations could begin as soon as next week, as the ex-president faces 34 charges of falsifying company records.
Prosecutors accuse him of trying to cover up the payment to a porn star.
He also faces charges in Georgia, Florida and Washington DC for election interference and mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
Trial dates for these cases have not yet been set and could be postponed indefinitely if Trump launches his presidential bid.