What Hunter Biden's conviction means for President Joe Biden (2024)

Hunter Biden’s conviction for lying about his drug use on a handgun licence application will be a devastating personal blow for his father, Joe Biden.

The US president doubles as the patriarch of a tight-knit family that has seen its share of personal tragedy and trauma.

Now his surviving son has been found guilty of three federal crimes that carry a potentially lengthy prison term.

But Hunter's verdict is unlikely to change how Americans vote in November's election.

His father's name will be on the ballot, not his. There's no evidence connecting the president to his son's offences. And there has been scant polling evidence that the public is following this trial closely.

After the verdict was announced, the president released a statement hinting at the dual obligations demanding his attention.

“I am the president, but I am also a dad,” he said.

He added that he continued to support his son and was proud of the man he is today.

At the start of the trial, Joe Biden said he wouldn’t comment on the proceedings, but his son’s courtroom drama has followed him for weeks, as he conducted his official duties and campaigned for re-election. Hunter's yet-to-be determined punishment may be similarly distracting as the president prepares later this month for a pivotal presidential debate.

"This will, of course, be a personal distraction for the president, as it would be for any father," says Michael LaRosa, who served as press secretary for First Lady Jill Biden during the first two years of the Biden presidency. "It's not a distraction from his duties as president, but I'm sure it will take an emotional toll on the family."

While in France for D-Day commemorations last week, President Biden said that he would not consider using his authority to pardon his son. And he added that he would accept the jury’s verdict – a contrast from Donald Trump’s rejection of his own conviction as rigged and corrupt.

The former president’s response to the Hunter Biden verdict was also markedly different. In a statement released by the campaign, Trump said the trial was “nothing more than a distraction” from what he asserted were more serious crimes committed by the Biden family.

That was a sentiment echoed by many other Republicans. Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina said the verdict was just “the veil of fairness”.

Others noted that the trial only went ahead because a federal judge last year rejected what critics saw as a "sweetheart" plea deal.

Trump’s trial became a partisan brawl from start to finish, with Republican officials lining up behind the former president to condemn the proceedings. Hunter’s conviction had a different feel, marking the culmination of a dark period for a Biden family that has known more than its share of turmoil.

Hunter Biden spiralled into drug use around the time that his brother, Beau, died from brain cancer. His battles with addiction and the toll it exacted on his family relationships were presented in painful detail during the trial through excerpts from Hunter’s memoir, his text messages and emails, photographs and testimony from those close to him.

All the while, friends and members of Hunter Biden’s family – including First Lady Jill Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden – sat behind him, watched and sometimes hugged him or held his hand during breaks in the trial. His half-sister Ashley cried during the defence attorney’s closing arguments.

“Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support,” President Biden’s post-verdict statement concluded. “Nothing will ever change that.”

The prosecuting attorney during his closing argument said the evidence presented was ugly and personal. He also said that it was overwhelming and it was necessary to show that when Hunter Biden filled out the federal background check application for a handgun, he knowingly lied when he certified that he was not using drugs.

In the end, a unanimous jury agreed. This guilty verdict means the president’s son - the only surviving child from his first wife, who was killed along with his infant daughter in a car accident half a century ago – may face years in prison.

Hunter Biden now awaits sentencing for his conviction, but even after the judge decides his punishment his legal travails will not be over. He is also facing a September trial on charges of failing to pay $1.4m in federal income taxes.

That trial, coming less than two months before the election, may not contain the raw emotion on display in the Delaware courtroom, but it could prove more politically damaging for the president. Hunter’s foreign business dealings and his financial ties to the president have been a source of continued scrutiny by Mr Biden’s Republican critics.

Drug addiction and the consequences of it have touched many American lives. Allegations of financial impropriety and tax fraud, however, may generate less sympathy from the voting public.