WILMINGTON, Del. In less than 48 hours last week, First Lady Jill Biden emerged from a ceremony in Normandy that marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France to the front row of a Delaware courtroom, where Biden Hunter it’s on trial in a gun caseand then back to Paris for a elaborate state visit at the Élysée Palace.
“Here we are again,” the first lady said with a laugh as she and President Joe Biden were welcomed by French President Emanuel Macron and his wife, Brigette, at the palace on Saturday, the lighthearted comment an oblique nod to their transatlantic journey. .
It was a manifestation of the great effort that the Biden family made to support Hunter Biden while on trial in Wilmington, Delaware, accused of lying on a federal gun purchase form when he said he had no drug problems. Jill Biden has been a regular presence in the courtroom, supported by a rotating cast of other family members.
“The back and forth, the push and pull, the family responsibilities, the duties of the first lady, her career, the campaign — this is who she is,” said Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director.
Every family faces personal challenges, and politicians are often left to navigate these dynamics in public. But the very expansive display in cutting out fussy details around Hunter Biden’s addiction – at the height of an election year – is an order of magnitude greater. And the president’s family has shown determination to ensure Hunter Biden doesn’t face everything alone.
The trial resumes on Monday. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but does not deny having a drug problem. Her memoir, “Beautiful Things,” is about hitting rock bottom after the 2015 death of her brother Beau from cancer. But his lawyers say he did not consider himself an “addict” at the time he filled out a gun purchase form in 2018 to buy a handgun.
Joe Biden avoided court and said little about the case, fearing creating the appearance that he was interfering in a criminal matter brought by his own Justice Department. But the president has long walked the line between public servant and father.
Just 30 years old, the Democrat was sworn in as Delaware’s junior senator in a hospital room where his children were recovering from a car crash that killed his wife and baby daughter.
In grainy black-and-white news reports, Biden can be seen holding 3-year-old Hunter as the new senator takes the oath of office and 4-year-old Beau watches from a hospital bed. Joe Biden then promised that if there was ever a conflict between “being a good father and being a good senator,” he would resign.
The president released a brief written statement as Hunter Biden’s trial began.
“As president, I do not and will not comment on pending federal cases, but as a father, I have boundless love for my son, trust in him and respect for his strength,” he said. “Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I will continue to support Hunter and our family with our love and support.”
Still, the case followed him to Normandy, where Biden was asked in an ABC interview whether he thought his son would get a fair trial and whether the president would rule out pardoning his son if there was a guilty verdict.
Biden responded with a terse “yes” on both issues.
During the first week of the trial, Jill Biden was in court four out of every five days, missing only Thursday due to the events of D-Day. Others who have held seats in the courtroom at various times include Hunter’s sister Ashley, aunts Bonny Jacobs and Valerie Owens and their wife, Melissa Cohen Biden.
The first lady leaned over the court railing to hug Hunter, who has been calling her mother since she married Joe Biden in 1977. She walked out of the courtroom holding hands with him. She heard hours of testimony.
Hunter didn’t make things easy for his family, and the evidence in the case was a highly personal tour of his mistakes and drug use, a kind of nightmare version of “This is Your Life.”
Jurors heard hours of testimony from his ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend and widow of her brother, who painted a picture of trips to strip clubs, infidelity, habitual crack use, and her failed efforts to help him get clean. Jurors were shown images of the president’s son bare-chested and disheveled in a filthy room and half-naked holding crack pipes. And they watched a video of his crack being weighed on a scale.
Federal prosecutors argued that the evidence was needed to prove to jurors that Hunter Biden, 54, was suffering from addiction when he purchased the gun and therefore lied by checking “no” on the form that asked whether he was “an illegal user.” of, or addicted to” drugs.
On Friday, his oldest daughter, Naomi, 30, testified for the defense, telling jurors a hopeful story about how her father seemed to be getting better at the time of the gun purchase.
“I told him I was very proud of him,” she said softly.
But then prosecutor Leo Wise showed her texts that showed erratic behavior during the same period. Her father spent hours without responding to her message and at 2 am he asked her if her boyfriend could meet to change cars.
“Right now?” she answered. “I’m sorry dad, I can’t take this.”
As she came down from the stand, she stopped at the defense table, stopping to hug her father before leaving the courtroom.
On Friday afternoon, the first lady returned to France for the state dinner.
Their transcontinental flights underscore the importance of family to the Bidens in a big way, said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, an expert on first ladies and author of “Camera Girl,” about Jacqueline Kennedy.
“She understands that at the end of the day what matters is her son and his well-being and knowing that he has support and also knowing the vulnerability of someone who is in recovery,” Anthony said.
Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman and spokesman on mental health and addiction, said Hunter Biden’s story is so common that he expected many Americans would see something familiar in it, however disturbing or embarrassing it may seem. Kennedy himself struggled with drug addiction and is the son of a famous lawmaker, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
“The disease of addiction seems to be what’s on trial here,” he said, arguing that a big part of the case is the definition of sobriety. a profound change in your thinking that accompanies stopping drugs?
“Half say it’s physical and the other half say it’s mental – and the truth is it’s both,” he said.
The trial is ending. The defense is debating whether to call more witnesses on Monday, including the president’s brother, James. After closing arguments, the case will go to the jury.
But Hunter Biden’s legal troubles won’t end there. He faces a separate trial in September in California, accusations of non-payment of $1.4 million in taxes.
A plea deal was negotiated last summer This would have resolved both the weapons issue and the fiscal issue, avoiding the spectacle of a trial so close to the presidential elections next November. But when US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, appointed by former President Donald Trump, questioned aspects of the agreement, lawyers were unable to reach a resolution. The deal fell apart.
Attorney General Merrick Garland then named former U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware as the lead investigator. as special advisor in August. A month later, Hunter Biden was indicted.
Hunter Biden argued he is being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department after Republicans condemned the now-defunct plea deal as special treatment for the Democratic president’s son.
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Long and Superville reported from Washington. AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller in Paris and Associated Press writers Randall Chase, Mike Catalini and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.
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