Less than two weeks after Donald Trump was convicted of all 34 crimes he was accused of, the other side of the political aisle is facing legal issues all their own.
To be fair, it is Joe Biden’s son, not the president himself, who faces charges for purchasing a gun back in 2018. The charges relate to Hunter Biden’s purchase of a revolver and could see the 54-year-old face a hefty prison sentence. His lawyers are already set to appeal the verdict — which revolves around his possession of the firearm for less than two weeks in total — but if they are unsuccessful, the president’s second son could be behind bars by the end of the year.
Is Hunter Biden a felon now?
On Tuesday, June 11, 54-year-old Hunter Biden was found guilty on three felony charges relating to the purchase of a pistol in 2018. Prosecutors argued that Biden lied to a federally licensed gun dealer when he claimed he was not using or addicted to any illegal drugs on a mandatory gun-purchase form.
As a result of the trial, Hunter Biden is now a convicted felon, right alongside presidential candidate Donald Trump. He expressed disappointment in the wake of the verdict, but per his attorney, they intend to “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available.”
As it currently stands, Biden could face up to 25 years in prison, but a sentence that harsh is unlikely. As a first-time offender, he’s unlikely to get the maximum sentence, and considering the crime — lying on a gun application to obtain a weapon he possessed for less than two weeks — it’s unlikely he’ll serve any jail time at all.
It’ll also be a hard case for Biden’s Republican opponents to twist, given their devotion to the NRA and America’s broken gun laws. They’ll either need to support harsher gun laws like the one that landed Biden in hot water, thus allowing us to keep weapons out of the hands of those who may use them for violence — something gun control activists have been pursuing for decades — or they have to find another way to attack the president’s son. They can’t do so via the felony conviction, either, or chance throwing shade their own felon’s way.
Their quagmire doesn’t save Biden from his guilty verdict, however. He’ll now face sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled but will likely be shifted due to appeals anyway. It’s a strange year for politics, which have taken place as much in the courtroom as they have on the political stage, and this trial doesn’t even spell the end of Biden’s legal woes. We’ll see those continue up until the election, at least, but for now, we have an answer in the first of his court cases.