Historic US Election-Season Trial of Biden’s Son Set to Begin

AFP/APP

Wilmington: Joe Biden’s son Hunter goes on trial Monday on gun charges, the first prosecution in US history for the child of a sitting president — just as the Democratic leader is seeking to accelerate his campaign for reelection.

The 54-year-old denies three felony counts stemming from his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 when, by his own admission, he was heavily addicted to drugs.

The Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist has been plagued by legal troubles and controversies that have been a drag on his father’s campaign, mostly connected to alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction.

In the latest chapter in his troubled life, Hunter Biden will be tried in the family’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on two counts of making false statements on paperwork for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally.

He faces a third charge that he illegally possessed the gun — which he had for only 11 days in October 2018.

The prosecution is a public relations test for the Democrats, coming just days after another historic event — Republican White House nominee Donald Trump becoming the first former US president to be criminally convicted.