Biden’s only living son was found guilty on Tuesday of lying about the purchase of a firearm in 2018, when he signed a document ensuring that he did not use prohibited drugs.
The indictment stressed that Hunter, 54, “knew that he was a crack user or (that he was) dependent.” Without testifying, he pleaded not guilty. His attorney assured jurors that “he was no longer using drugs” at the time he purchased the gun.
For his part, Joe Biden, who aspires to re-election in November, never expressed himself in detail about his son’s judicial entanglements and has always expressed his support and paternal love.
After the verdict, the president, who is seeking presidential re-election, once again assured that he will “respect” the decisions and course of justice and that he will not grant Hunter a presidential pardon.
“Jill (Biden, the First Lady) and I will always be there for Hunter (…). That will never change,” Biden reaffirmed and repeated that he “loved” his son and was “proud” of him.
“I’m the president, but I’m also a father,” Biden said in a statement. “Many families in which one of their members struggles with addiction can understand the pride that comes from seeing someone you love come out of it and be strong and resilient in recovery.”
There are those who see Hunter as the black sheep of the family, but his father has never turned his back on him.
“My son has done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him,” Joe Biden said recently when Republican congressmen opened a new investigation.
Hunter is frequently seen at his father’s side and takes trips abroad with him.
Hunter is also being investigated in Congress by the Republican Party for his past as a businessman.
It is because of these issues that the conservative speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, ordered his office to launch an investigation to try to remove the president.
Hunter must also appear in California in September for tax fraud in a case that is focusing the attention of conservative media at a time when his father seeks to put the spotlight on his rival, Donald Trump, the first former president of the United States to be convicted in criminal proceedings.
In the shadow of the older brother
Joe Biden speaks little in public about his son, but he often evokes the memory of his first-born Beau, who according to the president would also have become president of the United States if he had not died in 2015 of brain cancer.
Hunter’s life seems like the antithesis of that of his brother, with whom he had a close relationship, forged after they were both victims of a serious car accident in 1972 that cost the life of their mother, Joe Biden’s first wife, since the younger sister of the two boys.
Just as Beau seemed destined for a national political career, Hunter’s was unremarkable, as a lawyer and businessman. His brother fought as a soldier in the war in Iraq, while his youngest was expelled from the Navy in 2014 for cocaine use.
In his autobiographical book “Beautiful Things” (2021), Hunter Biden recounts his vodka binges and suburban night wanderings in search of drugs, failed attempts at detoxification or short-lived affairs with his brother’s widow.
Of his father, he wrote: “He never abandoned me, never ignored me or judged me.” “At times, his perseverance even exasperated me.”
“Speak, Dad. I’m calling to tell you that I love you. I love you like nothing in the world, boy. You have to get treated.” According to the Fox News channel, that was a voice message that Joe Biden left for his son in 2018.
In May 2023, in an interview with the MSNBC network, the American president declared: “I have confidence in him. I have faith in him, and I am proud of him.”
Since the beginning of the year, Biden has given even more media visibility to his son. Hunter was omnipresent during an official visit by the president to Ireland in April and was also seen dressed to the nines among guests at a state dinner to entertain the Indian prime minister.
Ukraine
Republicans accuse Hunter Biden of having used the influence of his father, Barack Obama’s then vice president (2009-2017), to benefit his businesses abroad, especially in Ukraine.
“I have never done anything unethical,” Hunter Biden said. Before adding: “I wouldn’t do it again.”
Extortion and influence peddling?
Hunter Biden is being investigated for alleged influence peddling and using his father’s position to promote his businesses that left him millions in profits.
On the subject, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, wrote on his Twitter account that during his testimony Devon Archer confirmed that Joe Biden was “the brand” that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family. “What were the Bidens selling? Nothing but access and influence at the highest levels of government,” he stated, saying President Biden needs to be honest. “What else is he hiding?” he questioned.
After Biden was appointed in charge of policy between the United States and Ukraine, a couple of weeks later, his son Hunter joined the board of directors of Burisma. That fact, possible tax fraud, corruption in obtaining permits for gas production, and the possible sending of money to the United States were the subject of investigation by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies.
According to journalistic reports, Hunter Biden would be the target of investigations by the Prosecutor’s Office in Ukraine, and at the time they were preparing the request to interrogate him for sending $3,000,000 to the United States, then Vice President Biden traveled to Kiev and forced the Ukrainian president at the time, Petro Poroshenko, to fire Attorney General Viktor Shokin, in charge of the investigation, otherwise he would not disburse a $1 billion loan that Ukraine needed at that time to maintain economic solvency.
Biden himself spoke about the dismissal of the prosecutor in 2016, but gave a different motivation to his decision, according to a video recorded during a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2016.
“I remember convincing our team that we should be providing loan guarantees, and I went… I guess the 12th or 13th time to kyiv, to announce that there were another billions of loans. I received a promise from (Petro) Poroshenko (President of Ukraine) and (Arseni) Yatsenyuk (Prime Minister of Ukraine at the time) that they would take action against the prosecutor general, but they did not do so. And I told them we’re not going to give them $1 billion. They responded: “You have no authority, you are not the president, the president has promised.” I replied: “Call him. “I told you that you will not receive $1 billion.” I told them that I was leaving in 6 hours, and that, if by that time they did not fire the prosecutor, they would not receive the money. And well, son of a bitch, they fired him,” Biden said. about that fact, in a testimony recorded on video.
The president’s story caused laughter among those in attendance.
Addiction free
Today he claims to be free of addictions. Remarried and father of a little boy named Beau, like his deceased brother, he dedicates himself to painting.
But the past comes back from time to time to torment him, and with it, also his father at times when he seeks to remain in the White House.
Recently, the Democratic president admitted that he had not six but seven grandchildren, acknowledging the existence of a little girl, the result of a relationship with Hunter Biden that he was unaware of until recently.
The Republican opposition immediately denounced the contrast between Joe Biden’s silence about the small Navy and the public image of a loving patriarch that the president sells to the public.
Love affair with his sister-in-law
He had a romantic affair with his sister-in-law, Beau’s widow, had a daughter with a woman from Arkansas who sued him for child support, and finally suffered the ridicule of seeing the compromising emails and photos on his laptop published. They show themselves naked, with women and consuming drugs.
The Department of Justice investigated him for the millions of dollars he made from his investments abroad.
But Joe Biden has always come to his son’s defense, such as during the 2020 presidential race, when Trump brought up Hunter’s drug use and shady business dealings during a debate.
“My son, like many people (…) had a drug problem,” the president said on television.
“He overcame it, he fixed it, he worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son,” he said.
Hunter faces a second trial, for tax evasion in September.
Source: With information from AFP
