Closing summary
Dr Anthony Fauci, the face of the US government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, took questions from a Republican-led congressional committee about the origins of the virus and whether US-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started.
Meanwhile, jury selection continues in Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on three firearms-related charges brought by special counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee. Joe Biden released a statement saying that he has “boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength”. Also:
Stormy Daniels said she believes Donald Trump should be jailed and urged Melania Trump to leave her husband, in her first interview after Trump was convicted last week on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order allowing him to temporarily close the southern US border to asylum seekers in a sharp political U-turn aimed at winning support on a key voter concern in a presidential election year.
Kevin McCarthy, former Republican House speaker, said Americans should accept the results of November’s presidential race amid rising political tensions in the aftermath of Trump’s campaign finance violation conviction.
Trump called on the supreme court to step in and annul his guilty verdict in a hush-money trial that left him with the unwanted distinction of being the first former US president to be a convicted felon.
Biden has congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum for her historic win after she was elected Mexico’s first female president on Sunday.
Bob Menendez, the embattled Democratic senator charged with bribery, will reportedly enter the race today to seek re-election in New Jersey as an independent. Andy Kim, the Democratic congressman running to replace Menendez’s Senate seat, said Menendez “isn’t running for the people of New Jersey, he’s doing it for himself.”
Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee revealed that she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and said her treatment may require her to be “occasionally absent” from Capitol Hill.
Migration at the southern border surged to record numbers at the end of last year. Joe Biden’s expected executive order comes at a moment when the number of migrants crossing from Mexico is down in the past six months, a trend attributed to stronger enforcement on the part of the Mexican authorities but which is not expected to sustain itself.
Biden initially rolled back Donald Trump’s restrictive border policies after taking office in January 2021, issuing orders to freeze his predecessor’s border wall construction and reissuing protections set up under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) scheme originally adopted by the Barack Obama White House.
Biden suspended Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy – whereby asylum seekers were forced to wait in Mexico while their US immigration claims were being considered – on the first day of his administration before the homeland security department formally cancelled it months later. The US supreme court subsequently upheld Biden’s approach following a lower court ruling against it.
When Trump’s policy was in operation, Biden denounced it, saying:
This is the first president in the history of the United States of America [under whom] anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That’s never happened before.
A recent Associated Press poll showed about two-thirds of voters, including 40% of Democrats, disapproved of Biden’s handling of the southern border.
An attempt by the White House to cobble together legislation tightening US border restrictions by tying it to aid to Ukraine and Israel failed earlier this year after Republican lawmakers withdrew support, apparently at the urging of Donald Trump, who did not want Joe Biden to claim credit for resolving an issue he has attempted to make his own.
Biden’s executive order will enable US immigration officials to quickly deport migrants who enter the country illegally without processing their asylum claims, according to CBS.
Controversially, it will rely on a presidential authority known as 212 (f) which became infamous during Trump’s presidency because of its use to enforce certain immigration restrictions, including travel bans from Muslim countries.
Like Trump’s restrictions, Biden’s order is likely to face legal challenges.
Here’s more on the executive order that Joe Biden plans to sign to temporarily close the southern US border to asylum seekers.
Biden is expected to sign the order as early as Tuesday to seal the border with Mexico to migrants when numbers of asylum claimants rise above a daily threshold of 2,500. Mayors of several US border cities are expected to be present in the White House for Biden’s announcement.
Biden’s move marks a sharp political U-turn aimed at winning support on a key voter concern in a presidential election year. The order echoes a similar approach adopted by Donald Trump in 2018 when he was president and reverses Biden’s one-time philosophical opposition to his predecessor’s hostility to migrants.
When he was a presidential candidate, Biden denounced Trump’s policy, saying it upended decades of US asylum law. He has been forced to change course as the number of asylum seekers coming through the US-Mexico border has surged during his presidency, with opinion polls consistently showing immigration to be at or near the top of voters’ concerns, ahead of inflation and the economy.
Andy Kim, the Democratic congressman running to replace Bob Menendez’s Senate seat said the embattled New Jersey senator “isn’t running for the people of New Jersey, he’s doing it for himself.”
As we reported earlier, Menendez is reportedly entering the race as an independent while he is on trial for allegedly accepting bribes.
In a statement to the New Jersey Globe, Kim said:
Americans are fed up with politicians putting their own personal benefit ahead of what’s right for the country. Everyone knows Bob Menendez isn’t running for the people of New Jersey, he’s doing it for himself. It’s beyond time for change, and I’m stepping up to restore integrity back into the U.S. Senate
Donald Trump’s brazen pitch to 20 fossil-fuel heads for $1bn to aid his presidential campaign in return for promises of lucrative tax and regulatory favors is the “definition of corruption”, a top Democrat investigating the issue has said.
“It certainly meets the definition of corruption as the founding fathers would have used the term,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in an interview about Trump’s audacious $1bn request for big checks to top fossil-fuel executives that took place in April at his Mar-a-Lago club. He added:
The quid pro quo – so called – is so very evident … I can’t think of anything that matches this either in terms of the size of the bribe requested, or the brazenness of the linkages.
Whitehouse and his fellow Democrat Ron Wyden have launched a joint inquiry, as chairs of the Senate budget and finance panels respectively, into Trump’s quid-pro-quo-style fundraising, which already seems to have helped spur tens of millions in checks for a Trump Super Pac from oil and gas leaders at a 22 May Houston event.
The two senators have written to eight big-oil chief executives and the head of the industry’s lobbying group seeking details about the Mar-a- Lago meeting, as has representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight and accountability committee, who has begun a parallel investigation into the pay-to-play schemes that Trump touted to big oil leaders.
Talking of lock him/her/them up, as Stormy Daniels would like the New York judge, Juan Merchan, to do with Donald Trump when he’s sentenced next month…
There were chants of “lock him up, lock him up” at the annual convention of Massachusetts Democrats at the weekend, before attendees got down to the official business of nominating Elizabeth Warren to return to Washington as a US Senator for a third six-year term, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported.
Warren said of Trump’s conviction: “The legal system worked. Donald Trump and his supporters were on attack against the courts, the judges, the juries, the witnesses. But the process worked as it is supposed to. The jurors listened to the evidence and they found him guilty; now he is a convicted felon.”
She added that Trump can “cry, whine and lie, but he is a convicted felon.”
Warren is also speaking out on X about reproductive rights.
We need to remember that because of Donald Trump and his extremist Supreme Court, reproductive freedom could disappear everywhere, including in Massachusetts.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 3, 2024
I'm furious, and I'm fighting back. https://t.co/zCREHw7Rwi
Meanwhile, Keith Boykin, film producer, political commentator and former aid in the Bill Clinton White House decided to fact check Trump on his past urging of the US justice system to lock up Hillary Clinton, and a few other things.
I never said “lock her up.”
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 3, 2024
The judge won’t let me testify.
Mexico will pay for the wall.
I’ll only hire the best people.
Largest inaugural crowd ever.
Covid will go away by Easter.
I won the 2020 election.
The Bible is my favorite book.
I’ll release my tax returns if I run.
I’ll… pic.twitter.com/ZfaJoU4Lze
Updated
How Trump’s deny-everything strategy could hurt him at sentencing is how the Associated Press headlines its latest analysis now that we’re in the sentencing phase following Donald Trump’s criminal conviction last Thursday.
The news wire has a piece describing how the former US president and now felon has been on a rant and doesn’t seem any closer to taking responsibility for his actions in falsifying business records to cover up a fraud against the US electorate.
The AP writes that he has not uttered any variation of the words that might benefit him most come sentencing time next month: “I’m sorry.”
The fact, I think, that he has no remorse – quite the opposite, he continues to deny is guilt – is going to hurt him at sentencing. It’s one of the things that the judge can really point to that everybody is aware of — that he just denies this — and can use that as a strong basis for his sentence,” said Jeffrey Cohen, an associate professor at Boston College Law School and a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts.
Jeremy Saland, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, weighed in.
If he turns around and blames the court, attacks prosecutors, decries this as a witch hunt, lies — you should have no misgiving: There will be consequences and there should be consequences.”
Trump’s constant attacks on the prosecutors, judge and court system and his aggressive trial strategy — outright denying both claims of an extramarital affair by porn actor Stormy Daniels and involvement in the subsequent scheme to buy her silence — would make any change of tune at his sentencing seem disingenuous.
Updated
Stormy Daniels is warming up on X in the wake of her post-Trump-conviction interview calling for him to be jailed.
Daniels gets a lot of flak from MAGA world and she chooses to engage with some of it, while also flagging her interview in the Daily Mirror.
Thanks to Chris and @dailymirror for chatting with me and for being so sympathetic about my friend and my teary eyes. Read my full story here (enjoy trolls! 😂) https://t.co/MSKS0mTbk9
— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) June 3, 2024
Daniels, proud porn star.
Guess it's a good thing I'm a pornstar and not a prostitute...not that I expect you to understand the difference. https://t.co/uQtWu67A9F
— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) June 3, 2024
Life choices.
Better than being convicted https://t.co/IB4TB82Wmi
— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) June 3, 2024
A fan from the weekend.
Dear Maga, just wanted you to know that Stormy Daniels gave us all a happy ending😉 pic.twitter.com/BXraZZ44li
— Badd Company (@BaddCompani) June 2, 2024
Updated
Interim summary
Dr Anthony Fauci, the face of the US government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, took questions from a Republican-led congressional committee about the origins of the virus and whether US-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started.
Meanwhile, jury selection continues in Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on three firearms-related charges brought by special counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee. Joe Biden released a statement saying that he has “boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength”. Also:
Stormy Daniels said she believes Donald Trump should be jailed and urged Melania Trump to leave her husband, in her first interview after Trump was convicted last week on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order as early as Tuesday allowing him to effectively shut down the US border with Mexico to asylum-seekers crossing illegally when a daily threshold of crossings is exceeded, according to multiple reports.
Kevin McCarthy, former Republican House speaker, said Americans should accept the results of November’s presidential race amid rising political tensions in the aftermath of Trump’s campaign finance violation conviction.
Biden has congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum for her historic win after she was elected Mexico’s first female president on Sunday.
Bob Menendez, the embattled Democratic senator charged with bribery, will reportedly enter the race today to seek re-election in New Jersey as an independent.
Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee revealed that she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and said her treatment may require her to be “occasionally absent” from Capitol Hill.
Updated
Stormy Daniels says Trump should be sentenced to jail
Stormy Daniels said she believes Donald Trump should be jailed and required to do community service after he was convicted last week on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
Daniels, in her first interview since the conviction, told the Daily Mirror:
I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service — working for the less fortunate or being the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter.
She said she didn’t know what the sentencing could be, but compared Trump to a child that needed a punishment “that not just matches the crime”.
Daniels also urged Melania Trump to leave her husband “not because of what he did with me or other women but because he is a convicted felon”. She added:
It’s been proven he is abusive; he was found liable for sexual assault and tax fraud and is now a criminal.
Democratic congressman Robert Garcia followed up his comments in the House hearing with a social media post criticizing Marjorie Taylor Greene for refusing to refer to Anthony Fauci as Dr Fauci.
Greene is “totally insane” and a “national embarrassment”, Garcia posted to X.
Totally insane that Marjorie Taylor Greene would not refer to Dr. Fauci as a doctor. He’s one of the most brilliant medical minds in the country. She’s a national embarrassment. https://t.co/ADdjb57fKy
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) June 3, 2024
Robert Garcia, the Democratic congressman from California, said the House subcommittee hearing “might be the most insane hearing I’ve actually attended”.
Garcia, addressing Anthony Fauci, said:
I’ve only been in Congress a year and a half, but I’m so sorry that you were subjected to those level of attacks and insanity.
He said both of his parents had died of Covid-19, and thanked Fauci for putting in policies that saved lives during the pandemic, calling him an “American hero” who has saved more lives than “all 435 members of this body on both sides of the aisle.”
"These attacks are ridiculous" -- Rep. Robert Garcia responds to Marge Greene's theatrics by saying "this might be the most insane hearing I've attended" pic.twitter.com/xuRt0GOwlp
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2024
Fauci says he received 'credible death threats'
Anthony Fauci, addressing the House subcommittee, detailed the threats and harassment that he and his family received during his time as the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases.
Fauci said he had experienced “everything from harassments from emails, texts, letters of myself, my wife, my three daughters”, as well as “credible death threats” that meant “someone who clearly was on their way to kill me”, adding that he still gets death threats today. He said:
It is very troublesome to me, it is much more troublesome because they’ve involved my wife and three daughters.
Dr. Anthony Fauci gets emotional discussing death threats and his family have received since the beginning of the COVID pandemic:
— The Recount (@therecount) June 3, 2024
“It is very troublesome to me, it is much more troublesome because they involve my wife and my three daughters.” pic.twitter.com/jXTb8xO8Op
Joe Biden has congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum for her historic win after she was elected Mexico’s first female president.
Sheinbaum, a leftwing climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won a landslide victory on Sunday and will inherit the project of her mentor and outgoing leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph.
Victory for Sheinbaum is a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and home to the world’s second biggest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women. She will also be the first person from a Jewish background to lead the country.
Sheinbaum is also the first woman to win a general election in the US, Mexico or Canada. In a statement, Biden said:
I look forward to working closely with President-elect Sheinbaum in the spirit of partnership and friendship that reflects the enduring bonds between our two countries. I expressed our commitment to advancing the values and interests of both our nations to the benefit of our peoples.
At the House committee on the Covid-19 pandemic, the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene refused to address Anthony Fauci as “Dr”, instead pointedly referring to him as “Mr Fauci”.
Greene said:
That man does not deserve to have a license. As a matter of fact, it should be revoked and he belongs in prison.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Greene disrespects Fauci: "Mr Fauci -- because you're not 'doctor' -- you're Mr. Fauci in my few minutes. No, I don't need your answer ... he belongs in prison" pic.twitter.com/vyBBc2N5zd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2024
Biden to sign executive order restricting asylum processing along US border
Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order as early as Tuesday allowing him to effectively shut down the US border with Mexico to asylum-seekers crossing illegally when a daily threshold of crossings is exceeded, according to multiple reports.
The move would allow US immigration immigration officials to quickly deport migrants who enter the country illegally, without processing their asylum claims, when border crossings surpass a certain threshold, sources told CBS News.
Biden administration officials have briefed members of Congress in recent days and told them to expect the president to sign the order alongside mayors from South Texas, the New York Times reported.
The move would severely restrict migrants from seeking asylum at the US southern border if they crossed the border unlawfully once daily encounters between ports of entry reached 2,500, CNN reported, meaning that the measure is likely to almost immediately take effect.
The order would represent the single most restrictive border policy instituted by Biden or any modern Democrat, the Times said. It would rely on a presidential authority known as “212(f)”, used during the Trump administration to enact several immigration restrictions, including the so-called “travel ban”.
Donald Trump has called on the supreme court to step in and annul his guilty verdict in a hush-money trial that left him with the unwanted double distinction of being the first former US president to be a convicted felon.
The 2024 presumptive Republican nominee made his plea in a typically florid post on his Truth Social site, highlighting that a sentencing hearing scheduled for 11 July falls just four days before the GOP’s national convention in Milwaukee, when his nomination is expected to become official.
“The ‘Sentencing’ for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention,” Trump wrote.
A Radical Left Soros backed D.A., who ran on a platform of ‘I will get Trump,’ reporting to an ‘Acting’ Local Judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED, will make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation?
Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman for Maryland, appeared to reference Donald Trump’s recent conviction as he spoke at the House subcommittee hearing on the Covid-19 pandemic.
Raskin, addressing Anthony Fauci, said he apologized for the fact that “some of our colleagues in the United States House of Representatives seem to want to drag your name through the mud. They’re treating you, Dr Fauci, like a convicted felon.” He added:
You probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration.
Bob Menendez, the embattled Democratic senator charged with bribery, will enter the race to seek re-election in New Jersey as an independent, according to a report.
Menendez will file nomination petitions in Trenton today, the New Jersey Globe reported, adding that the incumbent Democrat will not deliver the petitions himself as he attending the 12th day of his federal corruption trial.
Menendez faces bribery charges over his alleged work promoting the interests of the Egyptian government. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he accepted bribes – including gold bars, a luxury car and almost half a million dollars in cash – as he promoted Egypt’s interests in his influential role as chair of the Senate foreign relations committee.
Menendez’s presence on the ballot could complicate Democrats’ efforts to hold on to the Senate seat, although Joe Biden won New Jersey by 16 points in 2020. But Menendez’s hopes for a victory in November appear bleak.
A poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University last month showed Menendez receiving just 6% or 7% of the vote in hypothetical general election match-ups. But Menendez’s candidacy will allow him to fundraise for donations that can be used to help cover his lawyers’ bills, as campaign finance filings show the senator has already spent at least $2m on legal services.
Fauci says he has a 'completely open mind' to Covid-19 origin theories
Anthony Fauci, in his opening statement before the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, thanked the panel for the opportunity to testify.
The former government scientist addressed “certain issues that have been seriously distorted concerning me”.
On the subject of the lab leak theory, Fauci said the accusation that he “influenced these scientists to change their minds with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous”.
He then addressed accusations that he allegedly tried to “cover up” the possibility that the virus originated from a lab. “The truth is exactly the opposite,” he said.
Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there’s more evidence supporting the virus’s natural origins, AP reported. Fauci said:
I have repeatedly stated that I have a completely open mind to either possibility and that if definitive evidence becomes available to validate or refute either theory, I will ready accept it.
Updated
Anthony Fauci has now been sworn in to the House subcommittee hearing.
According to his opening statement published ahead of the hearing, the former government scientist will discuss how “misinformation and disinformation” led to “considerable and understandable” public confusion during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kevin McCarthy, former Republican House speaker, has said that Americans should accept the results of November’s presidential race – as rising political tensions in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s campaign finance violation conviction in New York are set to inflame election integrity issues.
The relatively moderate McCarthy, who was ousted as speaker last year in a Republican power struggle and has since resigned from Congress, said on Sunday that “every American should accept the results” of the election that is expected to pit Democratic incumbent Joe Biden against the former Republican president Trump.
McCarthy, who is free of political obligation to Trump, had previously signed a legal petition soon after the 2020 election that urged the supreme court to review a Texas lawsuit challenging the election results in several swing states.
He also voted not to certify election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania during the vote certification process that came after police managed to halt the 2021 Capitol attack.
But in his interview with CNN, McCarthy said that resistance to election results was not just a question for politicians but “for the whole American public”.
“We’ve gotta get beyond it,” McCarthy said.
Brad Wenstrup, the Republican Ohio congressman who leads the House GOP’s investigation of the Covid-19 origins, began the hearing by thanking Anthony Fauci and extending his “appreciation and gratitude”.
Wenstrup apologized to Fauci for the threats he received over his response to the Covid-19 response.
As someone who’s been shot at and received threats as well. My heart goes out to you. This should never happen in America, regardless of any disagreements we may have.
Anthony Fauci to testify over Covid-19 origins
Anthony Fauci, who was previously the top public health official leading the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, is set to set to appear before a congressional committee for the first time since his retirement in December 2022.
Fauci is testifying at a Republican-led House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic about the country’s Covid-19 pandemic response and the origins of the virus.
We will bring you the latest updates as they come.
Updated
Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was one of a handful of Congressional Black Caucus members who was arrested in Washington DC in the summer of 2021 while protesting delays in passing legislation to protect voting rights.
She was demonstrating outside the Hart Senate office building alongside other protesters at the time of her arrest.
Jackson Lee, whose state is one of the hardest places to vote in the US, said at the time”:
Any action that is a peaceful action of civil disobedience is worthy and more – to push all of us to do better.
In her statement Sunday, Jackson Lee said she was committed to working with Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries – as well as the chamber’s Republican speaker, Mike Johnson – “to be present for votes on legislation that is critical for the prosperity and security of the American people”.
“By God’s grace, I will be back at full strength soon,” Jackson Lee’s statement said.
Updated
Sheila Jackson Lee, the Democratic congresswoman for Texas who has revealed that she has pancreatic cancer, has been in Congress since 1995.
In March, she staved off an intraparty challenge from former congressional intern Amanda Edwards, capturing 60% of the votes cast in the overwhelmingly liberal district.
Her primary victory set the stage for her to run for re-election against Republican Lana Centonze in November, when her opponent’s party will try to hold on to a thin majority in the US House.
Jackson Lee leaned on her tenure and popularity in her congressional district to run for mayor of Houston in December. But she lost to fellow Democrat and former state senator John Whitmire by a margin of 65% to about 35%. The Congressional Black Caucus member filed for re-election to her seat a couple of days after her defeat to Whitmire.
‘I have boundless love for my son': Biden says he is 'so proud' of son Hunter as trial begins
Joe Biden has released a statement as jury selection began in his son Hunter Biden’s criminal trial at the federal courthouse in Delaware.
“I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden wrote.
Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean.
As the President, I don’t and won’t comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support.
Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee revealed that she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and said her treatment may require her to be “occasionally absent” from Capitol Hill.
In a statement published on X on Sunday that alluded to her Christian religious beliefs, the 74-year-old Texas representative acknowledged that “the road ahead will not be easy” yet added:
I stand in faith that God will strengthen me.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee issued the Following Statement: pic.twitter.com/1WnKAN2CQs
— Sheila Jackson Lee (@JacksonLeeTX18) June 3, 2024
Pancreatic cancer is often fatal, but Jackson Lee – whose mainly liberal district encompasses a part of Houston – did not delve into the specifics of her prognosis.
Hunter Biden, who spent the weekend with his parents, faces three felony counts tied to a 2018 firearm purchase while using narcotics.
Prosecutors allege that Hunter Biden lied about his drug use on application forms when he purchased a handgun, and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
The president’s son has acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn’t break the law.
In his memoir Beautiful Things, he described becoming consumed by drugs and alcohol after his older brother, Beau, died in 2015 at age 46 from brain cancer. The brothers were very close, having survived a car crash when they were young that killed their mother and baby sister.
Hunter Biden has said he has been sober since 2019. But prosecutors intend to use his memoir to make the case that he knew he was addicted to drugs when he denied it on the form that every person must fill out when buying a gun.
Hunter Biden arrived at the courthouse in Wilmington earlier this morning ahead of jury selection in his gun charges case.
Hunter Biden was accompanied by his wife, Melissa Cohen, and his attorney, Abbe Lowell.
His stepmother, first lady Jill Biden, and his half-sister Ashley Biden, are also attending the trial.
His father Joe Biden, whose attendance would bring considerable logistical and security challenges to the courthouse, is in Wilmington but is not expected to attend.
Jury selection begins in Hunter Biden gun trial
Good morning, US politics readers. Hunter Biden goes on trial today in Wilmington, Delaware, on gun charges in a case that could prove an embarrassment to his father, Joe Biden, and hand a political weapon to Republicans desperate for a distracting issue in the wake of Donald Trump’s 34-count conviction in the New York hush-money case last week.
Prosecutors allege that Biden lied about his drug use on application forms when he purchased a handgun in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty. In theory, he could face a hefty jail sentence, but it is widely seen as highly unlikely. He has long struggled with addiction issues and a troubled private life.
The trial, which will be overseen by US district judge Maryellen Noreika, is expected to last up to about two weeks. Jury selection is scheduled to begin about 8.30am ET today, and the president’s son will be required to be in court each day of his trial on gun charges.
Here’s what else is going on today:
The House and Senate are both in and voting tonight.
At 10am ET, the former government scientist Dr Anthony Fauci is set to appear before the Republican-led House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic.
The House will take up legislation sanctioning the international criminal court if it moves ahead with arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials.
