Former President Donald Trump has frequently been accused of attempting to intimidate and tamper with witnesses in his several civil and criminal cases, so much so that he has even had gag orders imposed against him to guard against such alleged conduct.

Yet, an accusation of witness tampering has now been leveled against President Joe Biden after he paid a quiet weekend visit to his daughter-in-law Hallie Biden, who is set to testify in the upcoming federal gun trial against her ex-boyfriend, the president's son, Hunter Biden, according to Fox News.

The Biden White House swiftly brushed those accusations aside, however, and pointed out that the surprise visit had nothing to do with Hunter's imminent trial but instead was related to the approaching anniversary of the death of Beau Biden, the incumbent president's deceased eldest son, whom Hallie was married to before dating Hunter after she became a widow.

"Awkward optics" and timing of visit

The New York Post reported that President Biden paid a brief visit to Hallie Biden at her home in Delaware Sunday night, little more than a week ahead of the June 3 start of Hunter Biden's federal gun charges trial.

Hallie is one of around a dozen witnesses the prosecution is expected to call to testify about Hunter's admitted illicit drug addiction in 2018 when he lied about said drug use on the federal gun purchase form to obtain a revolver he was legally barred from possessing because of that addiction -- a revolver that Hallie threw away in a public dumpster after finding it in Hunter's vehicle.

In light of the suspicious timing, Newsweek reported that Biden's reported visit with Hallie led to numerous accusations of witness tampering from various conservative figures and media pundits.

In response, given the "awkward optics" of the president's visit with his daughter-in-law just days before she is scheduled to testify in his youngest son's criminal case, the Post noted that the White House was forced to dismiss the allegations raised by critics that he was attempting to tamper with a witness.

"No," White House spokesman Andrew Bates told the outlet when asked if Biden spoke to Hallie about the upcoming trial for Hunter. "He visited her because of the approaching 9th anniversary of Beau’s passing."

Hallie expected to testify about Hunter's admitted illicit drug use

According to National Review, and despite prior media reports that President Biden was "distancing himself" from his criminally charged son, this is not the first questionable meeting of key players in the run-up to Hunter's federal gun charges trial.

Just days before the president met with Hunter's ex-girlfriend -- Hallie began to date Hunter about a year after Beau died -- Hunter was on the guest list for the recent White House State Dinner that was also attended by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is the boss of the federal prosecutor leading the case against Hunter.

That prosecutor is Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration who's been investigating the incumbent president's son since 2018 on a host of alleged federal crimes and was elevated to special counsel status last year after a bogus plea deal for Hunter fell apart under scrutiny from a judge.

Hallie is expected to testify about her intimate knowledge of Hunter's illicit drug use at the time of the fraudulent 2018 gun purchase while, ironically, Hunter's defense team is expected to cite recent pro-Second Amendment court rulings that President Biden has vehemently opposed in their effort to keep their client out of trouble for violating multiple federal firearms laws.

Biden plans to be "deliberately low-key" during son Hunter's upcoming criminal trial

In the meantime, just days ahead of President Biden's meeting with Hallie, NBC News reported that the president and his advisers would be "closely following developments" in Hunter's case but planned to be "deliberately low-key" even as they weighed the possibility of speaking out publicly in response to what might be revealed in the trial.

There is a high likelihood that the president's name could come up during the trial, not to mention that the "family’s deeply personal dynamics" could be exposed via text messages from the time and Hallie's testimony on the stand, which run the risk of being politically damaging for the incumbent as he seeks re-election to another term in office.