Hunter Biden lands in California a felon heading to lunch

Hunter Biden has been spotted in California heading to lunch, just a day after he was found guilty of three felonies in his Delaware gun crimes trial. The president's son was seen heading to at Cholada Thai restaurant in Malibu with a friend, but without his wife Melissa. He sported jeans and an blue shirt, with a baseball cap with the state flag of Hawaii emblazoned on it.

Hunter also appeared to be carrying a fruit smoothie as he approached the restaurant to meet his companion. The first son looked strained and seemed barely able to crack a smile, even while embracing his dining partner.

The struggles of his trial appeared be showing, with Hunter's future now in the hands of District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika who will have to decide on a sentence for his crimes, which could be as high as 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She has said she will schedule sentencing within 120 days after also receiving sentencing memos from both the prosecution and defense attorneys.

As a first-time offender he is likely to get far less time or may even avoid prison entirely. The Wilmington, Delaware , jury unanimously voted to convict Joe Biden's son of two counts of lying on a federal form to buy a gun, and one count of possessing the firearm while abusing drugs.

His conviction marks the first time a current President's child has been found guilty of a felony - but he still has the protection of his Secret Service detail. ' Hunter Biden's Secret Service protection will remain unchanged despite his judicial outcome,' Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, told The Daily Beast.'

Hunter Biden's Secret Service protection will remain unchanged despite his judicial outcome,' Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, told The Daily Beast. Although the Secret Service is not required to protect the children of a sitting president who are over the age of 16, it has traditionally done so in the past.

Should he be given jail time as part of his sentence, the Secret Service will need to decide how best to protect him behind bars. If Biden were to lose November's election and son Hunter were in jail, he could very well lose his security detail.

The decision, however, would be made by the Trump Administration alone - should he win the presidency, may require him to put aside any grudges he may hold towards the Biden family. Hunter still faces a second trial in September in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Congressional Republicans have also signaled they will keep going after him in their stalled impeachment effort into the president. The president has not been accused or charged with any wrongdoing by prosecutors investigating his son. Biden definitively ruled out pardoning his son during an ABC News interview last week.

'Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that,' Biden said immediately after the verdict. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday did not rule out the president issuing a potential commutation that might reduce or erase a sentence while leaving the conviction intact. 

The charges against Hunter stem from a dark period in his life, during which he acknowledges a spiraling descent following the death of his brother, Beau Biden, to cancer in 2015. Jurors found him guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer when he bought a revolver in 2018, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.

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