A jury panel of 12 Delaware residents on Tuesday found Hunter Biden guilty of three federal gun charges, marking the first criminal conviction of a sitting president’s child.
President Biden’s son was convicted after roughly three hours of deliberation of three felony counts alleging he lied about his use of illicit drugs when obtaining a gun in 2018, and then unlawfully possessed the firearm for 11 days.
Hunter Biden’s trial which lasted just over a week, spotlighted his addiction to crack cocaine at the time he checked “no” on a federal gun purchase form questioning whether he unlawfully used or was addicted to narcotics or other drugs.
Several women from Hunter Biden’s past and present – including his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; his late brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, with whom he had a brief relationship; and an ex-girlfriend – took the stand to testify about his drug use.
Hallie Biden, who was married to Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau, before his 2015 death from brain cancer, testified that crack made Hunter Biden “agitated or high-strung, but at other times, functioning as well.”
She also described being “panicked” after discovering the firearm in question in Hunter Biden’s truck, deciding then to dump the gun outside a grocery store in Wilmington, Del. — a choice that precipitated the case against her brother-in-law.
In the defense case, Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden, testified that she knew her father was “struggling with addiction” months before the unlawful gun purchase but that he “still seemed good” in October, when the transaction was made. However, prosecutors showed a text she wrote to her father at the time: “I’m really sorry dad I can’t take this.”
During closing arguments Monday, prosecutors contended that Hunter Biden’s drug use started “years before” the gun purchase and “continued for months after,” according to CNN.
“He had lost control,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys emphasized that no one had witnessed “actual drug use” in the month that the president’s son bought the gun, seeking to undercut testimony from the three ex-lovers who testified in the government’s case.
The defense also purported that Hunter Biden, who had just completed a stint in rehab at the time he purchased the gun, did not believe he was lying when he answered “no” to the federal gun purchase form question asking if he presently was a drug user. The president’s son did not testify.
Hunter Biden faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, however, first-time offenders are rarely given the maximum penalty. His father, the president, said recently he would not pardon his son if convicted.
In California, Hunter Biden faces separate charges for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes and filing false returns, which could go to trial in September.
The Associated Press contributed.
