Hunter Biden is now a convicted liar. Donald Trump won't let his father forget it

As Hunter Biden stepped out of a Wilmington courtroom as a convicted felon, no-one spoke.

The president's son had just been found guilty on three charges related to his purchase of a revolver in October 2018 under laws meant to prevent addicts from holding firearms.

After just three hours of deliberations, the jury found he had lied to a gun store employee and on mandatory paperwork when he said he was not addicted to drugs.

The third charge related to possessing the gun illegally for 11 days, before his then-lover, his brother's widow, threw it away.

Many of the friends and family who had come to support Hunter Biden seemed stunned, some close to tears.

It was left to him to comfort them, kissing his wife, shaking hands and patting some on the back.

During the week-long trial, the prosecution played the court long sections of Hunter Biden's 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things — a tale of a years-long descent into the underworlds of crack cocaine dependency.

But the defence argued that none of the witnesses were able to testify that he was using at the exact time he bought the gun.

The stunned atmosphere in court suggested Hunter Biden's friends and family had hoped against hope that argument might fly.  

A painful week for the first family

The Bidens are big in Delaware.

In his almost implausibly long career, Joe Biden was a senator here for 36 years before he became vice-president in 2009.

The courthouse where the trial has been taking place is named after the Republican senator J Caleb Boggs, who candidate Joe Biden, then only 29 years old, defeated in an astounding upset in 1972.

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't have some anecdote about coming into contact with the family over the years.

One potential juror said he'd played in a squash tournament with Beau Biden, Joe Biden's eldest son, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Another said he'd served drinks to the defendant's uncle a few times. 

"Delaware's a small place," one said. 

It can only have been a painful and humbling experience for the first family to have to front up to court this past week.

First lady Jill Biden has been an almost constant presence, sitting quietly in the front row.

She shuttled back and forth twice to France at what seemed like warp speed in order to be present both at D-Day commemorations and in court. 

She didn't quite make it back in time to be in the courtroom as the verdict was read out, entering as the first journalists came running out with the news.

A short time later, she emerged holding her stepson's hand.

Hunter Biden was also flanked by his wife, a woman he credits with helping him become sober, whom he married in 2019 after knowing for less than a week.

The president wasn't in court, but you can be sure he was closely following the goings-on.

At the outset of the case, he released a statement that began, "I am the President, but I am also a Dad", in which he expressed love and support for his son.

I saw Jill Biden taking out some notepaper and jotting down a few things as the case opened last week. Perhaps these were notes for her husband? 

After his surviving son made history by becoming the first child of a sitting president to be criminally convicted, Joe Biden released another statement, echoing the first.

"As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad."

The brief statement talked again of his love for and pride in his son, and his recovery from addiction.

"So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery."

The president also reiterated that he would accept the outcome of the case and "continue to respect the judicial process".

Two guilty verdicts ripple through campaign

Joe Biden's response presents a stark contrast to his likely opponent in the November presidential election, who continues to rail against what he says is a rigged justice system.

Had Hunter Biden been acquitted, Donald Trump might have suggested it was proof that he, Trump, was being treated unfairly.

A conviction is in some ways harder for Republicans to spin.

They after all are the party of greater gun rights.

Some would argue that the right to bear arms is absolute.

Their line was soon clear from a statement promptly released by the Trump campaign in response to the guilty verdict.

"This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine."

Republican-led Congressional committees pursuing an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden have referred Hunter Biden and the president's brother James to the Department of Justice, recommending they be charged with making false statements during interviews earlier this year.

The impeachment drive has appeared to be running out of steam and has so far not produced any evidence that Joe Biden improperly profited from his son's overseas business dealings, but Hunter Biden's status as a convicted liar could breathe some life into it.

That in itself could be a distraction from Trump's conviction in New York less than two weeks ago.

Coining new pet names

Hunter Biden's conviction also potentially complicates the mileage that Joe Biden can get out of Trump's.

After saying he wouldn't comment on Trump's legal troubles, the president had begun to weigh in, teasing his opponent about the "stormy" times he was going through, a reference to one of the star witnesses in the hush money case.

When I spoke to longtime Republican consultant Jim Dornan ahead of the Hunter Biden verdict, he thought both candidates would try and make hay with the respective legal troubles.

"I do think that you're going to start hearing Biden use the term 'convicted felon' every time he refers to Trump."

Trump, he said, known for creating nicknames for his detractors, would "come up with a pet name for Hunter, and probably use that until November".

It's a delicate balance for a president already under fire over his age, the border and the war on Gaza.

And for the Dad in that equation, it can only be a huge worry.

Hours after the verdict, the president made an unscheduled visit to Delaware and was seen greeting his son with a hug just after his helicopter touched town.

Hunter Biden's legal troubles don't end here.

The next stop is California, where he's due to go on trial for tax evasion to the tune of $US1.4 million in September.

Wording a statement of support for those charges could be a lot harder for Joe Biden.