Trial of a president’s son: Cocaine, a Colt Cobra revolver and an alleged lie

livemint.com:

WILMINGTON, Del.—On a Friday evening in October 2018, Hunter Biden rolled up in a black Cadillac to StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in the Delaware city where he had been born and raised. A salesman standing in the window didn’t initially recognize him as the son of the state’s longtime Democratic senator, now-President Joe Biden, and would later recall declining a tip from the younger Biden as he purchased a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver. There will be no mistaking Hunter Biden on Monday when he appears in federal court for his criminal trial on charges stemming from that 2018 purchase.

At 8:30 a.m., he’s due in the fourth-floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika for the start of jury selection. For the younger Biden and his family, the proceeding comes with substantial legal and political peril.

Hunter Biden, 54, pleaded not guilty last year to charges he lied on a federal form about his drug use when he purchased the revolver in 2018, at a time when he has acknowledged being addicted to crack cocaine. If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years behind bars, although any prison term is likely to amount to just a fraction of that maximum sentence. But the proceeding itself is expected to delve into details of his addiction and thrust the Biden family’s inner dynamics into public view as the president campaigns for re-election.

The trial is expected to wrap up just weeks before Biden has his first debate with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. The sitting president’s son will be defending himself against the Justice Department of his own father’s administration, just days after Trump was convicted on 34 charges related to paying hush money to a porn star. Unlike