President Joe Biden attended the church service alone on Saturday amid his son Hunter’s new legal troubles.
Shortly after 5 p.m., the president entered St. Joseph on the Brandywine near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, put on his dark blue jacket and strolled to the door.
Biden has not yet publicly commented on the fact that Hunter Biden faces three federal charges with a prison sentence of up to 25 years in connection with the purchase of a gun.
As he left the White House on Friday for a weekend at home, he did not respond to questions.
When Biden goes to church, the group of reporters who follow him every day will be kept outside the building and across the cemetery from the president.
The president didn’t even look at the journalists when a reporter shouted, “Mr. President, would you pardon your son?’ as he left the church after the service.
President Joe Biden chats with churchgoers as he leaves church service at St. Joseph on Brandywine on Saturday
The president ignored a shouted question as he returned to his waiting SUV after mass on Saturday
At Friday afternoon’s news conference, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted the president would not pardon Hunter after Biden ignored a question on the subject, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
“I’ve answered this question before and was very clear. “I said no,” she said in her daily news conference, repeating an answer she gave on the issue in July.
After making remarks at the White House about the United Auto Workers strike, the president repeatedly left the Roosevelt Room and headed out the door as reporters asked him whether he would use his presidential powers to help his son.
“That’s all I’m going to say,” the president said as he concluded his remarks on the strike.
He ignored the shouted question “Will Hunter be pardoned?” and walked straight out of the room.
Jean-Pierre did not answer a question Friday about whether the president had spoken to his son since the charges were announced.
“I will not engage in the conversation that the president is having with his family,” she said.
President Joe Biden puts on his jacket as he arrives at church in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday
President Joe Biden ignored a question at the White House on Friday about whether he would pardon his son Hunter
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden is preparing for his trial.
His attorney argued Friday that the case against Hunter will not go to trial – but declined to say whether Hunter was on drugs when he bought the gun that led to a federal charge.
Attorney Abbe Lowell told ABC’s Good Morning America that the Justice Department caved to “political pressure” from Republicans in Congress when it charged Hunter Biden with three felony counts for lying about his crack cocaine addiction when purchasing a gun in 2018 .
The president’s son now faces a maximum of 25 years in prison, but his lawyer has insisted the case will be “dismissed” before Hunter faces trial.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has known about this for years. No charges,” Lowell said. ‘What has changed? Not the facts, not the law, but all the politics that have now come into play.”
“The only thing that has changed is the political pressure exerted by Republicans in Congress and the media that supports them,” he argued.
The indictments accuse Hunter Biden of two counts of filling out a form certifying that he had not used illegal drugs when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. The third count alleges that he possessed a firearm and consumed a narcotic.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter
Lowell said Hunter was not using drugs at the time he purchased the revolver.
“If you want to be specific, be specific.” If the form asks if you are using drugs on the day you buy a gun, that’s a problem. If it says whether you’ve ever taken drugs, that’s a problem. “That will be decided in court,” he said.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked him whether the defense will argue that Hunter “was not a drug user on the day he signed the form”?
“No, there are several parts to our defense,” Lowell replied. He also argued, “I think the case will be dismissed before trial.”
Hunter Biden detailed his drug use, including smoking crack cocaine, in his memoir. The first son told how he relapsed into addiction after his brother Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.
Video discovered on Hunter’s laptop shows him naked and brandishing a handgun in a hotel room in 2018, allegedly five days after purchasing the weapon.
But when asked if Hunter Biden had taken drugs the day he bought the gun, Lowell said: “I think that’s something that, if it ever comes to that, you and everyone else will see the evidence.” .”
He declined to be more specific.
But he went on to rail against the Justice Department for withdrawing from an earlier negotiating agreement and accused the administration of caving to political pressure from Republicans in Congress who have been investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings and the Biden family’s finances.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abe Lowell (left) argued Friday that the case against President Joe Biden’s son should be dropped before it goes to trial – but refused to say whether Hunter was on drugs when he bought the gun this led to federal charges.
Abbe Lowell declined to say whether Hunter had taken drugs the day he bought a gun
President Biden’s son, Hunter, was charged with federal gun crimes by special counsel David Weiss on Thursday – just as Hunter was charged with President Joe Biden in June 2023
Hunter allegedly lied about a gun report (above) that was required for his gun transaction. A photo of the form shows he answered “no” when asked if he was an “unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or a depressant, stimulant, narcotic or other controlled substance.”
US Attorney David Weiss, appointed by Donald Trump, is overseeing the prosecution and has been given special counsel status.
Lawyers for Weiss and Hunter reached a deal in July that required the president’s son to plead guilty in federal court in Delaware to two counts of failing to pay his taxes in exchange for prosecutors recommending probation had.
A separate felony gun charge for illegally possessing the Colt Cobra .38 specialty handgun would have been dropped in two years if Biden had complied with the terms of a so-called diversion agreement.
Lowell argued Friday that “there is an agreement in place that should have prevented the federal prosecution.” He also argued that the courts now find the law used in the articles of impeachment to be unconstitutional.
“The law has changed,” Lowell said. “But the law has not changed in favor of law enforcement. However, the law was changed because several federal courts have declared this weapons charge unconstitutional.”
The plea deal, which Republicans called a “sweetheart deal,” collapsed in a Delaware courtroom when the presiding judge began questioning some of its details, including one that theoretically freed Hunter Biden from other tax crimes during the same period would protect.
Prosecutors said this was not the case. Hunter’s lawyers said that was the case. The agreement failed. The three federal indictments were announced Thursday.
In two cases the prison sentence is a maximum of ten years, in the third case a maximum of five years. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
Republicans insist that Biden’s son committed more crimes and that Weiss’ gun charges should be just the tip of the spear.
On July 27, after the agreement collapsed, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out that President Biden would pardon Hunter. But it remains to be seen whether the White House’s stance has changed after Hunter faced the three new felony charges.
Shortly before leaving office, President Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger for a 1985 cocaine and drug trafficking conviction for which he had already served time.
In the final weeks of his own term, Trump pardoned a host of friends and associates, including his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner. Both Ivanka and Jared Kushner were White House advisers at the time.
An image from Hunter Biden’s laptop showed the now 53-year-old first son posing naked with a gun
The White House is not commenting on the new felony charges against the president’s son, and Biden joked he would get in “trouble” if he answered press questions at the end of an economic speech later on Thursday.
Still, it is a major blow to the president, who is running for re-election next year. Hunter’s legal problems were assumed to be resolved with the plea deal, and it was shocking when the agreement fell through.
The charges came the same week that House Republicans launched a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden over his alleged ties to Hunter’s business dealings, and is likely to have long-term implications for his political career.
The First Son purchased a .38-caliber Colt Cobra pistol in Delaware, a state where every buyer must answer a series of questions before they can get their hands on a gun.
A 2018 application asks whether the applicant uses drugs or is addicted to drugs. The box is clearly marked “No”.
Hunter has admitted that he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time of the gun purchase.
About two weeks later, Hallie Biden, his mistress and his brother’s widow, found it “unlocked” in his truck and threw it in a grocery store trash can. His discovery sparked a police investigation.
Additionally, now-President Biden appeared close to tears in the voicemail he left on Hunter’s abandoned laptop on October 15 – three days after Hunter bought the gun and lied about being a drug addict – pleading for help .
“It’s dad. I called to tell you that I love you. “I love you more than the world, buddy,” Joe said in the Oct. 15 message. “You need help. I know you don’t know what to do, neither do I.’