On June 11, Hunter Biden, son of sitting president Joe Biden, was convicted by a 12-person jury of three felonies, two counts of making false statements on a federal gun form and one count for owning a gun unlawfully.
The presiding judge, Maryellen Noreika, says Biden’s sentencing hearing will be scheduled within 120 days and experts are saying that the president’s son will most likely receive jail time.
Tom Dupree, a former principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, told CBS News that it’s likely Biden will be sentenced to prison, however the sentence is expected to be considerably shorter than the maximum possible sentence of 25 years and a fine of up to $750,000.
Dupree expects Biden to receive a sentence of a year, maybe two.
Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School, agrees, telling CBS News that although it was rare for the charges Biden was convicted on to be standalone charges, the president’s son will most likely face time behind bars.
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It is not expected that the junior Biden will be receiving any help from his presidential father, as last week, President Biden, who could theoretically pardon his son, told ABC News in an interview that he had ruled out that route.
President Biden said that he would accept the verdict of the trial regardless of the outcome.
In a statement, the president said that he “will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”
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Legal proceedings to continue
The convictions mark the first time in American history that a son of a president has been convicted of felony charges.
Legal proceedings are expected to continue, as Hunter Biden will most likely appeal his convictions. Experts expect his legal team to raise a defense on Second Amendment grounds.
Possible factors that could influence his sentence are the fact that he is a first-time, non-violent offender and was not accused of using the weapon in another crime.
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, someone convicted of the crimes Biden has been would typically receive a sentence of somewhere between 15 and 21 months.
According to the New York Times, citing data from the commission, “From 2019 to 2023, just 48 defendants were sentenced in a similar category as Mr. Biden, and 92 percent were sentenced to serve prison time with a median prison term of 15 months.”
Referencing the same data, comparable defendants to Hunter Biden would see a suggested sentence of between 10 and 16 months in prison, however 30 percent of people sentenced in a similar category from 2019 to 2023 were sentenced to probation, no prison time.
