Joe Biden made a surprise visit to his daughter-in-law Hallie Biden’s Delaware home just days before she’s set to serve as a key witness in Hunter Biden’s trial for alleged gun crimes.
Biden made the visit at 8 p.m. for a private talk with Hallie, the widow of Beau Biden and ex-girlfriend of Hunter Biden, just a week before Hunter is set to stand trial on June 3, according to the White House pool report.
Biden tonight visited his daughter-in-law Hallie Biden who is set to testify in Hunter’s trial next week. pic.twitter.com/hHbok7xlOS
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 27, 2024
Hallie is just one of a dozen expected witnesses in the upcoming trial.
Biden’s unusual visit — he’s never visited Hallie at her residence before — sparked concerns on social media that he could be engaging in witness tampering, especially given the private nature of the conversation.
Witness intimidation and collusion is a crime. #BidenCrimeCartel
— Savannah (@BasedSavannah) May 27, 2024
That's pretty telling
— Jon Schaeffer (@jontxpp) May 27, 2024
Witness tampering.
—
Freedom Piper
Promises always come before threats.
— Based Joe Biden (Parody) (@BasedJoeBidenX) May 27, 2024
Others highlighted the legal double standard, noting the media and Democrats would have a much different reaction if Donald Trump visited a key witness in a hypothetical criminal trial for one of his own children.
A striking double standard, Trump and his associates muzzled by gag orders, while President Biden freely meets with a key witness against his own son, Hunter, raising ethical red flags and fueling perceptions of political favoritism and obstruction of justice, as the public…
— Station 24 (@VidsStation24) May 27, 2024
Two tiered system
— djbowzer (@djbowzer) May 27, 2024
Nah. This isn’t it. If Trump visited someone who was testifying in a trial involving his son a week before the trial you would be rightfully crying foul.
The appearance of impropriety is something the president of the United States needs to consider.
Even if there wasn’t…
— Oliver VanDervoort (@itmeolliev) May 27, 2024
Even’s X’s Grok AI suggested Biden’s visit with Hallie was not appropriate and could be interpreted as interference with the legal process.
This comes a week after a White House state dinner with Hunter and Attorney General Merrick Garland on the guest list — not the first time the pair attended such an event at the same time.
From National Review:
The president does not appear to be distancing himself from his son as the criminal trial is set to get underway. Joe Biden’s visit to Hallie Biden follows a state dinner held by the White House last week with Hunter Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland on the guest list.
Garland is responsible for appointing special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the prosecution of Hunter Biden. The younger Biden’s attorneys have unsuccessfully sought to dismiss his gun charges based on arguments that Weiss is unlawfully appointed and selectively prosecuting Biden, even though Weiss’s boss is an appointee of Biden’s father.
Three of Hunter Biden’s exes, including ex-wife Kathleen Buhle and Hallie Biden, are expected to testify about Hunter’s drug addiction at his gun trial beginning next week, the New York Post reported based on the prosecution’s trial brief filed last week. The women are not named in the court filings, but they are identifiable based on data from Biden’s abandoned laptop, Biden’s memoir, public reports, and other available records.
The encounter is reminiscent of Bill Clinton privately meeting with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the Phoenix airport tarmac just days before Hillary Clinton was to be interviewed by the FBI about her mishandling of classified emails in 2016.
Biden’s Justice Department last week admitted that Hunter Biden’s infamous “Laptop From Hell” is real when submitting it to the court as evidence to use against the First Son in his gun trial.
“The defendant’s laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and it contains significant evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Hunter pleaded not guilty to three felony counts on charges of lying on his gun purchase form in October 2018 about his drug use.
Joe Biden repeatedly defended Hunter as prosecutors were investigating him for tax fraud and as they were preparing to charge him on the gun-related crimes.
“First of all, my son has done nothing wrong,” Biden said last year. “I trust him. I have faith in him.”