First lady Jill Biden apparently missed the verdict in her step son’s felony gun case after showing up late to the courthouse, according to an NBC News report.
A Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden on three felony gun charges on Tuesday. During the course of the trial, the first lady racked up a huge bill jetting back-and-forth from Paris, France, to Wilmington, Delaware, for the trial, according to the Daily Mail. After all the flying to be at the trial, the first lady apparently entered the courthouse late and missed the reading of the charges, NBC News reported.
“First lady Jill Biden missed the reading of the verdict. She re-entered the courthouse at 11:21 a.m.,” NBC News wrote in its live tracker of the trial.
Jill Biden was LATE to Hunter’s guilty verdict! pic.twitter.com/dGHpUAPhpx
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 11, 2024
Charges were brought against Special counsel David Weiss in September 2023 and included three counts which related to his purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. Weiss alleged that Hunter Biden knowingly possessed the gun while he had a drug addiction and made false statements on the purchase form. The trial circling around the charges began on June 3 and the defense rested its case on Monday. The trial featured testimonies from Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend and brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, as well as Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden.
The first lady made an effort to be at the trial, traveling about 3,600 miles to and from France to Delaware to do so, the Daily Mail reported. The trip is estimated to cost $345,400 in flight costs, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation told the outlet.
“In accordance with relevant regulations utilized across administrations, the government has reimbursed the value of a first-class fare for these flights to Wilmington and back to Paris,” Jill Biden’s office told the Daily Mail.
The reimbursement is expected to come from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a White House official told the Daily Mail, though the total was not provided.
“The White House should be more transparent about these costs so taxpayers aren’t taken for a ride,” Demian Brady, the Vice President of Research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told the Daily Mail.
