WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – Hunter Biden is going on trial Monday over criminal gun-related charges. Below is a look at the key moments leading up to the trial, the first for a child of a sitting president.
May 13, 2014: Burisma Group, a private energy company in Ukraine, said Hunter Biden would be joining its board. Joe Biden is vice president and oversees Ukraine policy for the administration of President Barack Obama. Burisma’s founder was the subject of a series of criminal investigations by Ukrainian authorities, which would be closed in 2017 after company and founder made payments to authorities.
May 30, 2015: Joe Biden’s oldest of two sons, Beau Biden, dies of cancer. Hunter Biden would later write in his autobiography, Beautiful Things, it set off his descent into addiction.
Oct. 12, 2018: Hunter Biden purchases a Colt Cobra .38 Special revolver and on the federal firearm purchase form, he responded “no” to a question if he was an unlawful user of controlled substances or an addict. Later that month his sister-in-law threw it in a public trash bin where it was discovered by a man collecting recyclables and turned over to police.
2019: U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, David Weiss, begins investigating Hunter Biden for potential tax and other financial crimes, according to media reports. Weiss was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
April 2019: Joe Biden announces his bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Hunter Biden’s term on the Burisma board expires.
July 25, 2019: President Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and pressured him to investigate an allegation that Joe Biden, while in office, muscled the Ukrainian authorities to shut down a probe that could implicate Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma. The Bidens denied the allegations. The U.S. House of Representatives would later impeach Trump over the call although the Senate voted against removing Trump from power.
June 20, 2023: Hunter Biden reaches a deal to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes and to enter into an agreement to avert a conviction on gun-related charges. The agreement sparked accusations by Republicans that Hunter Biden was receiving favorable treatment as the president’s son.
July 26, 2023: U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she can’t accept a plea deal that Hunter Biden worked out with prosecutors because of concerns it was overly broad and insulated him from other potential business-related charges.
Sept. 14, 2023: Hunter Biden is charged in Delaware for gun-related crimes and faces up to 25 years in prison. He denies the accusations and later enters a not guilty plea.
Dec. 8, 2023: Hunter Biden is charged with federal tax crimes in Los Angeles and he will later plead not guilty. His lawyer Abbe Lowell accuses Weiss, who led the probe, of political bias.
June 3, 2024: Jury selection begins in Wilmington, Delaware over the gun-related charges. The trial could last more than two weeks according to the parties.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
