Hunter Biden’s chances of “not guilty” verdict, according to oddsmaker

Hunter Biden is more likely to face a fine or a “not guilty” verdict than be sentenced to any probation or more punitive legal penalties emanating from his criminal trial in Delaware, according to new odds from an international bookmaker.

The Panama-headquartered oddsmaker BetOnline showed as of Wednesday afternoon that the son of President Joe Biden has 1/2 odds (66.7 percent) to receive a fine, ahead of 3/1 odds (25 percent) for a jury letting him off.

Hunter Biden faces the following odds for these other potential outcomes:

• Probation—6/1 (14.3 percent)
• Community service—14/1 (6.7 percent)
• Custodial sentence—20/1 (4.8 percent)
• House arrest—33/1 (2.9 percent)

Newsweek reached out to BetOnline via email for comment on Wednesday.

Hunter Biden, the first child of a sitting president to be the subject of a criminal trial, has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements on a federal form while purchasing a firearm in October 2018. Charges include illegally possessing a gun while being a drug user, specifically crack cocaine.

Jury selection in Wilmington was completed on Monday, with evidence presented to jurors starting on Tuesday.

Hunter Biden‘s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, is expected to testify on Wednesday. The pair were married in 1993 before getting divorced in 2016. They have three children.

The odds of the president not testifying in his son’s trial are extremely high at 1/40 (97.6 percent), with odds of him appearing as a witness in his home state sitting at 10/1 (9.1 percent).

On Monday, as the trial was starting, President Biden said he and his wife, Jill, were “proud” of their son.

“Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean. As the President, I don’t and won’t comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him and respect for his strength.

“Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support,” he said in a statement.

The president is currently in France commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

If Hunter Biden is acquitted, BetOnline has equal 3/1 odds (25 percent) that former President Donald Trump or U.S. Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability who has continually investigated Hunter and the Biden family, will be the first to echo President Biden’s phrase “no one is above the law.”

The phrase is a nod to what the president said after Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, was found guilty by a Manhattan jury last week of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Trump has pledged to appeal the verdict, has denied any wrongdoing and has claimed the trial brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg was politically motivated.

Some legal analysts have questioned why the president’s son and his lawyers, which include Abbe Lowell—who in 2018 represented Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner—decided to go to trial when he could have just pleaded guilty.

Last summer, a guilty plea that Republicans coined a “sweetheart deal” was on the table but later pulled by Hunter Biden’s defense team. The deal, if accepted, was assumed to lead to two misdemeanor charges with no jail time.

His legal counsel rejected the deal on the basis that it would not cover all criminal investigations.

That was presumed to be due to prosecutor David Weiss, who was later appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel, not being in a position to preside over all of Hunter Biden’s federal legal cases—including his alleged tax violations in California and, as a lobbyist, accusations of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in Washington, D.C.