Connect with us

News

Hunter Biden trial shows the first family’s agony — and its bond

Published

on

Hunter Biden trial shows the first family’s agony — and its bond

The surveillance footage shows an unremarkable suburban scene: a dark SUV pulls into the parking lot of an upscale grocer. A woman wearing sunglasses steps out. She retrieves a purple gift bag from the back seat, glances over her shoulder, and then drops it into a rubbish bin on her way into the store.

A jury in Wilmington, Delaware was told last week that the woman was Hallie Biden, the former daughter-in-law of the current US president. Inside the bag was a pistol belonging to Biden’s troubled son, Hunter, who, it transpires, was having an affair with Hallie — his late brother’s widow. In the course of that relationship Hunter also turned the mother of two on to crack cocaine.

The week-long criminal trial, in which jurors began their deliberations on Monday, has focused on Hunter Biden, and whether he lied on a federal background check about his own drug addiction when he bought that pistol in October 2018 at a local store called StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply.

But the trial has also provided something else: a raw — at times excruciating — glimpse into the turmoil of the Biden family after the president’s oldest son and presumed political heir, Beau, died in 2015 from brain cancer.

Whether it has any political implication for Biden as he fights for re-election is unclear. A survey by Emerson College Polling earlier this month found 64 per cent of voters said the trial would not affect how they will vote.

Advertisement

Republicans have for years tried, and mostly failed, to pin the sins of Hunter on his father — be it his drug abuse, failure to support a child fathered out of wedlock, or his business dealings. Their efforts have intensified as former president Donald Trump’s campaign has become burdened by his own legal woes.

Unsavoury as the trial’s revelations have been, though, some believe it might also remind voters of Biden’s virtues as a father, particularly at a time when so many American families are dealing with drug addiction.

That is the view of Chris Whipple, who chronicled the family in his book The Fight Of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House. “For, me, the trial confirms what we’ve always known about Joe Biden,” Whipple said. “It’s just hard to overstate how strong the bond is between him and Hunter. How close they are.”

Even if his political career demanded it, Whipple is convinced the president would never cast Hunter aside. “Family is everything to Biden,” he observed.

First lady Jill Biden, pictured, arrives at court. She has supported Hunter Biden’s second wife Melissa at the trial © Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Valerie Biden and James Biden arrive at court
Joe Biden’s siblings: Valerie Biden, left, and James Biden arrive at court © AP

As Hunter himself told the New Yorker in 2019, he was a kind of security blanket for his father on the campaign trail. “I can say things to him that nobody else can,” he explained.

Their bond was forged in Kennedy-esque tragedy that is both family lore and political biography. Biden’s young wife and daughter were killed in a car accident a week before Christmas in 1972. Just 29, the newly-minted senator was sworn into office days later at the hospital bedside of his boys, Beau and Hunter, who survived the accident.

Advertisement

As he has often recounted at campaign events, Biden would ride the train home from Washington, DC each evening to kiss his boys goodnight. Beau’s untimely death has added another chapter to the story. As he ran for the presidency in 2020, Biden cast his fallen son as his inspiration and guiding spirit.

Behind the scenes, though, the grief-stricken family was cratering, as Hallie recounted from the witness stand on Thursday. Within months of Beau’s death, she and her brother-in-law began a “complicated” romance. Hunter would disappear for weeks on end — often bingeing on drugs. The first time she found his stash of crack at her house she had to consult Google, Hallie said, because she did not know what it was. Soon she was smoking it, too. She became paranoid that he was seeing other women.

“It was a terrible experience I went through,” Hallie, now sober and recently remarried, told the court. “I’m embarrassed and ashamed and I regret that period of my life.”

Hunter did not testify but prosecutors played extended clips from the audiobook of his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, last week. He was forced to listen as his own voice filled the courtroom, narrating his descent into crack addiction.

“I’ve bought crack cocaine on the streets of Washington, DC, and cooked up my own inside a hotel bungalow in Los Angeles. I’ve been so desperate for a drink that I couldn’t make the one-block walk between a liquor store and my apartment without uncapping the bottle to take a swig,” he intoned in one passage.

Advertisement

Have your say

Joe Biden vs Donald Trump: tell us how the 2024 US election will affect you

While Hunter’s flaws have been extensively recounted — be it arranging to meet with dealers or standing up his daughter on a visit to New York —there have also been occasional flashes of his charm, as a former stripper he briefly dated testified. “He was just so charming and so nice,” she recalled. “I felt myself having feelings for him.”

As is their habit — and perhaps, to their detriment — the Bidens have not abandoned Hunter. If anything, they have pulled him closer. In the run-up to the trial, he has been a regular presence at the White House, even attending state dinners.

Meanwhile, his second wife, Melissa, has been supported in court by a rotating cast of family and friends, including first lady Jill Biden and the president’s sister, Valerie. Other members of the Biden orbit present in court include Kevin Morris, an entertainment lawyer and friend of Hunter, Fran Person, the president’s former personal aide, and philanthropist Bobby Sager.

President Biden, who last week said he would not pardon his son if he is convicted, has not attended. Still, he has been a spectral presence: His smiling portrait hangs in the lobby of Wilmington’s federal courthouse.

On the eve of the trial, he issued a statement that suggested even the commander-in-chief was not exempt from the parental anguish induced by a wayward child. “I am the president, but I am also a dad,” Biden said. “Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

Published

on

Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

President Trump announced a three-week extension of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon that had been set to expire in a few days, after hosting a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats at the White House on Thursday.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that has been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, did not have representatives at the meeting and did not immediately comment on the announcement. The prime minister of Israel and the president of Lebanon also did not comment.

A successful peace agreement would hinge upon Hezbollah halting attacks, which Lebanon’s government has little power to enforce because it does not control the militia. Lebanon’s military has mostly stayed out of the fighting and is not at war with Israel.

The cease-fire, which was scheduled to end on April 26, would last until May 17 if it takes effect as Mr. Trump described it. Before the cease-fire was brokered last week, nearly 2,300 people were killed in Lebanon and 13 in Israel. Since then, the number of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks have been dramatically reduced, though the two sides have continued exchanging fire.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh, credited Mr. Trump for extending the cease-fire, saying that “with your help and support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Mr. Trump replied, “I like that phrase, it’s a good phrase.”

Advertisement

Asked about the potential of a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Trump said that “I think there’s a great chance. They are friends about the same things and they are enemies on the same things.”

But Lebanon and Israel have periodically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. Israel has invaded Lebanon for the fifth time since 1978, incursions that have destabilized the country and the delicate balance of power between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.

In the hours before the president’s announcement on social media, Israel and Hezbollah were trading attacks in southern Lebanon, testing the existing cease-fire.

Mr. Trump said the meeting at the White House had been attended by high-ranking U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon.

Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Hezbollah claimed three separate attacks on Israeli troops who are occupying southern Lebanon, though none were wounded or killed.

Advertisement

Hezbollah set off the latest round of fighting last month by attacking Israel soon after the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by launching airstrikes across Lebanon and widening a ground invasion of the country’s south.

Continue Reading

News

U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Published

on

U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment against a U.S. Army soldier, accusing him of using his insider knowledge of the clandestine military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January to reap more than $400,000 in profits on the popular prediction market site Polymarket.

The Justice Department says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was part of the team that planned and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this year that resulted in the apprehension of Maduro.

The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the actions against Van Dyke, the first time U.S. officials have leveled criminal charges against someone over prediction market wagers.

Advertisement

According to the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing non-public government information and other charges.

Trading under numerous usernames including “Burdensome-Mix,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, resulting in profits exceeding $400,000.

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”

Van Dyke’s defense lawyer is not yet publicly known. Polymarket did not return a request for comment.

The charges against Van Dyke come at a sensitive time for the prediction market industry, which has been growing exponentially, despite calls in Washington and among state leaders for the sites to be reined in.

Advertisement

Van Dyke is the first to be charged in the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider trading, but Israeli authorities in February arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about military operations in Iran on Polymarket.

Continue Reading

News

Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

Published

on

Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

The Senate early Thursday morning adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.

Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.

Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.

Here’s what to know about the budget plan and the nocturnal ritual senators engaged in before adopting it.

Advertisement

The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the G.O.P. struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.

“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Budget Committee chairman. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”

In resorting to a new budget blueprint, Republicans laid the groundwork to deny Democrats a chance to stop the immigration enforcement funding. But they also submitted themselves to a vote-a-rama, in which any senator can propose unlimited changes to such a measure before it is adopted.

The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.

Democrats took to the floor to criticize Republicans for supercharging funding for federal immigration enforcement rather than moving legislation that would address Americans’ concerns over affordability.

Advertisement

“This is what Republicans are fighting for,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Democratic leader. “To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”

Democrats offered a host of amendments along those lines, all of which were defeated by Republicans — and that was the point. The proposals were meant to put the G.O.P. in a tough political spot, showcasing their opposition to helping Americans afford high living costs. Fewer than a handful of G.O.P. senators crossed party lines to support them.

The G.O.P. thwarted an effort by Mr. Schumer to require that the budget measure lower out-of-pocket health care costs for Americans. Two Republicans who are up for re-election this year, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with Democrats, but the proposal was still defeated.

Republicans also squelched a move by Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, to create a fund that would lower grocery costs and reverse cuts to food aid programs that Republicans enacted last year. Ms. Collins and Mr. Sullivan again joined Democrats.

Also defeated by the G.O.P.: a proposal by Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, to address rising consumer prices brought on by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran; one by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to require the budget measure to address rising electricity prices, and another by Mr. Markey to create a fund to bring down housing costs.

Advertisement

Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is up for re-election in Georgia, also sought to add language requiring the budget plan to address health insurance companies denying or delaying access to care, but that, too was blocked by Republicans.

While Republicans had fewer proposals for changes to their own budget plan, they also sought to offer measures that would underscore their aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and dare Democrats to vote against them.

Mr. Graham offered an amendment to allocate funds toward a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the apprehension and deportation of adult immigrants convicted of rape, murder, or sexual abuse of a minor after illegally entering the United States. It passed unanimously.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, sought to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and other services, and criticized the organization for providing transgender care to minors. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, also attempted to tack on the G.O.P. voter identification bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Both proposals were blocked when Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, voted to strike them as unrelated to the budget plan.

The Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose their own party’s proposals for new voting requirements were Ms. Collins along with Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Advertisement

Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski also opposed the effort to block payments to Planned Parenthood.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending