WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) — Hunter Biden has been found guilty on all three counts related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. Prosecutors argued at the time that the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he would not operate drugs illegally or be addicted to drugs.
The jury found Hunter Biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer. He made false statements in his application, claiming he did not operate drugs and had illegally possessed the gun for 11 days.
He stared straight ahead and showed little emotion as the verdict was read. After the verdict was announced, he patted his defense attorney on the shoulder.
When Judge Maryellen Noreika issues his sentence, he faces up to 25 years in prison. First-time offenders, however, receive nowhere near the maximum sentence, and it is unclear whether she would sentence him to prison.
Now Hunter Biden and likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, President Joe Biden’s biggest political rival, have been convicted by American juries in an election year that was as much about the courtroom as it was about campaign events and rallies.
Joe Biden has stayed away from the federal courtroom in Delaware where his son was on trial and said little about the case, not wanting to appear to be interfering in a criminal case brought by his own Justice Department. But allies of the Democrat are concerned about the impact of the trial – and now the conviction – on the 81-year-old, who has long worried about the health and continued sobriety of his only living son.
Hunter Biden and Trump have both argued that they were victims of current politics. But while Trump continues to falsely claim that the verdict was “rigged,” Joe Biden has said he will accept the verdict and will not seek to pardon his son.
Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are not over yet. He faces trial in California in September for failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Republicans in Congress have signaled they will continue to press him in their stalled impeachment trial of the president. The president has not been accused of wrongdoing by prosecutors investigating his son.
The prosecution devoted much of the trial to emphasizing the severity of Hunter Biden’s drug problem, presenting highly personal testimony and embarrassing evidence.
Jurors heard testimony from Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend about his regular crack operate and their failed efforts to assist him get off it. Jurors saw images of the president’s son shirtless and unkempt in a muddy room and half-naked with crack pipes in his hands. And jurors saw a video of his crack cocaine being weighed on a scale.
Hunter Biden did not testify, but jurors heard his voice when prosecutors played audio clips from his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he talks about hitting rock bottom after the death of his brother Beau in 2015 and his descent into drug addiction before finally getting sober.
Prosecutors argued the evidence was necessary to prove that Hunter, 54, was addicted at the time he bought the gun and had therefore lied when he checked “no” on the form asking if he was an “illicit drug user or drug addict.”
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell had argued that Hunter Biden’s state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he bought the gun – when he did not believe he was addicted. Lowell pointed out to the jury that some of the questions in the gun transaction log were asked in the present tense, such as “Are you an illegal drug user or addicted to” drugs.
And Lowell said Hunter Biden may have felt at the time that he had a drinking problem, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse does not preclude the purchase of a gun.
Hunter Biden had hoped last year to end a lengthy federal investigation under a deal with prosecutors that would avoid the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Under the deal, he could have pleaded guilty to tax offenses and avoided prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years.
However, the deal fell through after Trump’s nominee Noreika questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement and lawyers were unable to resolve the matter.
In response, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed lead investigator David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, as special counsel last August, and charges were filed against Hunter Biden a month later.
Hunter Biden said he was charged because the Justice Department caved in to pressure from Republicans who argued that the Democratic president’s son was receiving special treatment.
The reason police even asked questions about the revolver is because Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow, found it unloaded in Hunter’s truck on October 23, 2018, panicked, and threw it into a trash can at Janssen’s Market, where a man accidentally caught it from the trash. She testified in court about the incident.
Hallie Biden, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter after Beau’s death, eventually called the police. Officers recovered the gun from the man, who had accidentally taken it out of the trash along with other recyclables. The case was eventually closed due to a lack of cooperation from Hunter Biden, who was considered the victim.
