Biden aides worry about psychological torment as Hunter heads for trial

President Joe Biden will soon have to watch and wait as 12 jurors in his home state decide whether his son is guilty of felony gun charges — a case brought by his own Justice Department.

For the White House, the scenario of Hunter Biden’s first criminal trial, all but assured to start June 3, is an unprecedented event in American political history that they hoped never to face.

While aides insist that the White House will have no involvement in the case, brought by special counsel David Weiss, some fear it could dramatically impact the president himself, more psychologically than politically.

Three advisers granted anonymity to speak about private deliberations said they, and members of the First Family, are worried about the weight Hunter Biden’s trial will place on the president at an already difficult time for him politically. Biden has expressed fears to them about the possibility that his son will serve time in prison.

“He worries about Hunter every single day, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep,” said one of the three advisers. “That will only pick up during a trial.”

The possibility of a reprieve vanished Tuesday when a judge rejected a last-ditch request to postpone the case.

The president himself has long been kept apprised of his son’s legal fights. He checks on him every day — usually with a call, sometimes by a text. The advisers say that will continue through the trial.

But there is a gingerness among the president’s team about how to approach the matter. With few exceptions, White House aides don’t bring up the subject of Hunter Biden with the president, for fear of an angry rebuke or an icy stare, according to two of those people familiar with the president’s reactions. All spoke only on condition of anonymity to describe the personal elements of the presidency.

They anticipate that Biden will watch some of the media coverage of the trial. (The proceedings will not be televised.) But there is little-to-no appetite among his aides to discuss ways to politically manage it, even as the reelection campaign accelerates into a crucial phase. The president has told close allies that he is deeply proud of his son and confident in his sobriety.

But he has also expressed concern that a trial — on charges that the younger Biden illegally owned a gun while using drugs and lied on a form to purchase the firearm — could produce strain for his one surviving son. Hunter Biden is separately facing criminal tax charges in California, also brought by Weiss.

The younger Biden has, for years, argued that the charges against him are politically motivated. He has accused prosecutors of caving to pressure from congressional Republicans, who urged them to be more aggressive. A plea deal was reached last year that would have seen him receive a sentence of probation for the tax charges and a diversion agreement for the gun matter. But it fell apart in spectacular fashion. The president, according to the advisers, was left deeply frustrated by that development.

Hunter Biden’s legal team has pushed to postpone or derail the trials in both cases. The trial in the tax case is scheduled to begin June 20 — less than three weeks after the start of the gun trial, which is expected to last three to six days.

On Tuesday, in a federal courthouse in Delaware, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, revealed that he was struggling to prepare for the gun trial in time, saying his team was strapped for resources and that he had not yet signed on any expert witnesses.

“People are reluctant to become involved in this case,” Lowell added, citing “the noise” surrounding his high-profile client.

The judge overseeing the matter, Donald Trump-appointed Maryellen Noreika, was unmoved, stating that the trial would proceed as planned. And she predicted that Lowell’s next attempt at a delay — a request to an appellate court to issue an injunction ordering a pause in the case — would not succeed.

If it starts as planned, the White House will not have any sort of war room ready, according to the three officials. The president’s outside allies who rallied to defend him during House Republicans’ Hunter Biden-related impeachment hearings, also appear content to wait back during the trial. Instead, Democratic strategists and operatives say they are confident that Lowell, a seasoned defense lawyer, is more than capable of handling the fallout.

But one Biden ally said they could respond if Trump or House Republicans try to include the president in their attacks on his son.

Aides felt that would be unlikely. Trump has mentioned Hunter Biden far less of late. The House GOP’s impeachment bid of President Biden has faltered and years of Republican attacks on his son have been shown to have very little impact at the polls.

There is little sign that Trump’s allies are going to change that posture. One Republican strategist, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, told POLITICO that some conservatives feel they have extracted as much political benefit from the Hunter Biden saga as they are going to get.

Another person also granted anonymity, who works for a pro-Trump outside group, pointed out that the proceedings are wholly unrelated to the threads of the Biden family’s story that Republicans prefer to highlight. While the first trial will focus narrowly on Hunter Biden’s alleged purchase of a gun while in the throes of drug addiction, Republicans prefer to focus on accusations of corruption and influence-dealing — allegations the Justice Department has never leveled against the president’s son. Because the gun subject matter is so far from the corruption narrative, the person said they didn’t expect an aggressive effort from the right to highlight the trial.

That said, they won’t be entirely hands-off.

“It will be used as a pivot point to go into the main talking points about the Bidens,” that person said. “But him having a gun and snorting cocaine — that doesn’t go to the Biden Crime Family narrative and story.”