Associated Press
Hunter Biden has been convicted of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
Jurors found Hunter Biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
He stared straight ahead and showed little emotion as the verdict was read. After the verdict, he patted his defense attorney on the shoulder.
He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Maryellen Noreika, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it’s unclear whether she would give him time behind bars.
Now, Hunter Biden and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the chief political rival of President Joe Biden, have been convicted by American jurors in an election year that has been as much about the courtroom as it has been about campaign events and rallies.
Joe Biden has steered clear of the federal courtroom in Delaware where his son was tried and said little about the case, wary of creating an impression of interfering in a criminal matter brought by his own Justice Department. But allies of the Democrat have worried about the toll that the trial — and now the conviction — will take on the 81-year-old, who has long been concerned with his only living son’s health and sustained sobriety.
Hunter Biden and Trump have both argued they were victimized by the politics of the moment. But while Trump has continued to falsely claim the verdict was “rigged,” Joe Biden has said he would accept the results of the verdict and would not seek to pardon his son.
The prosecution devoted much of the trial to highlighting the seriousness of Hunter Biden’s drug problem, through highly personal testimony and embarrassing evidence.
Jurors heard Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and a former girlfriend testify about his habitual crack use and their failed efforts to help him get clean. Jurors saw images of the President’s son bare-chested and disheveled in a filthy room, and half-naked holding crack pipes. And jurors watched video of his crack cocaine weighed on a scale.
Hunter Biden did not testify but jurors heard his voice when prosecutors played audio excerpts of his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things,” in which he talks about hitting bottom after the death of his brother Beau in 2015, and his descent into drugs before his eventual sobriety.
Prosecutors felt the evidence was necessary to prove that Hunter, 54, was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied when he checked “no” on the form that asked whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” drugs.
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 didn’t believe he had an addiction. Lowell pointed out to jurors that some of the questions on the firearms transaction record are in the present tense, such as “are you an unlawful user of or addicted to” drugs.
And Lowell suggested Hunter Biden might have felt he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse does not preclude a gun purchase.
Hunter Biden had hoped last year to resolve a long-running investigation federal investigation under a deal with prosecutors that would avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Under the deal, he would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the deal fell apart after Noreika, who was nominated by Trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter.
Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed top investigator David Weiss, Delaware’s U.S. Attorney, as a Special Counsel last August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.
Hunter Biden has said he was charged because the Justice Department bowed to pressure from Republicans who argued the Democratic President’s son was getting special treatment.
The reason that law enforcement raised any questions about the revolver is because Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow, found it unloaded in Hunter’s truck on Oct. 23, 2018, panicked and tossed it into a garbage can at Janssen’s Market, where a man inadvertently fished it out of the trash. She testified about the episode in court.
Hallie Biden, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter after Beau died, eventually called the police. Officers retrieved the gun from the man who inadvertently took the gun along with other recyclables from the trash. The case was eventually closed because of lack of cooperation from Hunter Biden, who was considered the victim.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
17 comments
Elvis Pitts "The Big Voice On The Right" American
June 11, 2024 at 11:44 am
Good afternoon America,
Lets all pray Hunter becomes a Christian in prison and leaves his Dook 4 Brains Leftist Sinfull ways behind.
Thank you,
THE RIGHT REVERAND Elvis Pitts American
JD
June 11, 2024 at 12:05 pm
Hey Shitts, what makes you think Progressives cannot be Christians?
Bill
June 11, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Conservatives think they own Christianity and patriotism these days which is pretty funny when you see how they actually act. Go figure.
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rick whitaker
June 11, 2024 at 5:15 pm
EARL PITTS, you do know what they do to christians in prison don’t you? how could you wish constant raping as a thing you would want for someone. only a guy who loves anal sex would tell other prisoners he’s a christian. christians are hated in prison. so EARL PITTS, by saying what you did, you are wishing someone harm. shsme on you.
Dont Say FLA
June 11, 2024 at 11:48 am
How can somebody who is not an attorney or a medical doctor be convicted for lying with their answer to “are you an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs?” The question demands the respondent delivers an answer that is both legal opinion and a medical diagnosis which seems to be a bit much for charging any non-attorney, non-medical-doctor for answering incorrectly.
That said, the jury heard the evidence. I didn’t. Hunter was found guilty by the people who did hear the evidence. Lock him up.
Tjb
June 11, 2024 at 12:01 pm
Don Jr. ,the coke head, has guns. Does that make him quilty if he went to trial?
Dont Say FLA
June 13, 2024 at 1:16 pm
By the Hunter jury’s estimation, I suppose it would.
Jojo
June 11, 2024 at 11:51 am
So is the orange cretin going to decry this verdict as an unjust rigging of the judicial system?
Bill Pollard
June 11, 2024 at 12:02 pm
If Hunter Biden deserves to be locked up, then Donald Trump most certainly deserves the same.
Silly Wabbit
June 11, 2024 at 2:16 pm
Twue that!
Andrew Finn
June 12, 2024 at 10:51 am
Now that Hunter Biden has been found guilty on all three felonies, Joe Biden says that he will not pardon him. —- Okay —-That will be true at least until after the election !!!!!!
rick whitaker
June 12, 2024 at 7:29 pm
ANDREW FINN, biden will keep his word, it’s trump that can’t be trusted to do the right thing. your cynicism is distasteful in that biden is a fine person and your putting biden in the same catagory as not so fine people.
Dont Say FLA
June 13, 2024 at 1:25 pm
If Hunter is even sentenced to any prison time, he will probably have completed it by November.
Jojo
June 13, 2024 at 7:24 am
Right wing media and legislators can’t have it both ways- either the judicial system worked and Hunter Biden’s verdict was correct or the judicial system is rigged, in which case Biden would have been exonerated.
Their hypocrisy knows no bounds
Stop The DeSantards
June 13, 2024 at 1:06 pm
So is “the system” still “rigged” or….
Dont Say FLA
June 13, 2024 at 1:24 pm
The entire trial was supposed to launch Democrats into losing their mind and crying political persecution and saying the DoJ was rigged, but that did not happen. Not one bit.
As a result, the right has lost its own mind over these three guilty verdicts for Hunter Biden, claiming it’s part of a big conspiracy of some sort, like just the Taylor and Kelce Superbowl conspiracy (and that one sure turned out to be true, didn’t it, lols)
The right should probably stop trying now. Every time they try, they just dig themselves deeper into the hole their “Freedom” Caucus dug for them.
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