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Hunter
Biden
found
guilty
in gun
trial
that
exposed
dark
parts of
his life
By Perry
Stein,
David
Nakamura,
and
Devlin
Barrett
washingtonpost.com
WILMINGTON,
Del. —
Hunter
Biden
was
found
guilty
of
felony
gun
charges
in
federal
court
Tuesday,
ending a
trial
that
exposed
some of
the
ugliest
moments
in the
life of
the
president’s
son and
put on
national
display
the
first
family’s
pain,
heartache
and
regrets.
The jury
concluded
that
Hunter
Biden,
54, lied
about
his drug
use when
he
filled
out a
form to
purchase
a gun in
October
2018 and
then
illegally
owned
that
weapon
as a
drug
user for
11 days.
The jury
deliberated
for a
little
more
than
three
hours
before
finding
him
guilty
on all
three
counts.
Biden
nodded,
but
otherwise
showed
little
emotion
when the
verdict
was
read. He
then
hugged
each
member
of his
legal
team and
said
thank
you.
Biden
then
walked
out past
the
defendant’s
table,
hugged
and
kissed
his
wife,
Melissa
Cohen-Biden,
and left
the
courtroom,
shaking
the
hands of
friends
and
family
along
the way.
In a
written
statement
after he
left the
courthouse,
Biden
said he
was
“more
grateful
today
for the
love and
support
I
experienced
this
last
week
from
Melissa,
my
family,
my
friends,
and my
community
than I
am
disappointed
by the
outcome.
Recovery
is
possible
by the
grace of
God, and
I am
blessed
to
experience
that
gift one
day at a
time.”
Follow
Election
2024
The gun
trial,
which
lasted
just
over a
week,
showcased
years of
internal
behind-the-scenes
drama in
the
Biden
family,
with
relatives
and
former
family
members
taking
the
witness
stand.
The
proceedings
also
played
out
against
the
backdrop
of
President
Biden’s
reelection
campaign,
with
Republicans
seizing
on
Hunter
Biden’s
legal
troubles
to try
to
portray
the
entire
Biden
family
as
corrupt.
The
trial
also
showed
the
wrenching
reality
of
prosecuting
a drug
addict,
particularly
one who
has been
open
about
his
battles
and says
he has
been
sober
since
2019.
After
the
verdict,
one
juror
told The
Washington
Post
that he
didn’t
believe
Hunter
Biden
belonged
in
prison
and that
he felt
bad that
his
daughter
had to
testify
about
her
father’s
drug
use.
U.S.
District
Judge
Maryellen
Noreika
and
prosecutors
had
warned
the
jurors
that
“sympathy”
shouldn’t
play
into
their
verdict.
In the
end,
after a
trial
that
included
painful
testimony
from
Biden’s
romantic
partners
and
readings
of his
text
messages,
jurors
were
asked to
decide
if he
lied on
a form
when he
purchased
a gun
and then
illegally
owned it
as a
drug
addict.
President
Biden
said in
a
statement
that he
loves
Hunter
and is
“proud
of the
man he
is
today.”
Biden
said
earlier
that he
would
not
pardon
his son
if
convicted,
and he
repeated
that
Tuesday.
“I will
accept
the
outcome
of this
case and
will
continue
to
respect
the
judicial
process
as
Hunter
considers
an
appeal,”
the
president
said.
“Jill
and I
will
always
be there
for
Hunter
and the
rest of
our
family
with our
love and
support.
Nothing
will
ever
change
that.”
Special
counsel
David
Weiss,
who has
overseen
the
investigation
of
Hunter
Biden
for
years,
said the
gun
charges
case
“was not
just
about
addiction,
a
disease
that
haunts
families
across
the
United
States,
including
Hunter
Biden’s
family.
This
case was
about
the
legal
choices
the
defendant
made
while in
the
throes
of
addiction,”
Weiss
said in
a brief
address
to
reporters
after
the
verdict.
“It was
these
choices
and the
combination
of guns
and
drugs
that
made his
conduct
dangerous.”
Weiss,
who is
preparing
to put
Hunter
Biden on
trial
again in
September
on tax
charges,
said the
verdict
illustrated
a basic
principle
of
American
justice.
“No one
in this
country
is above
the law.
Everyone
must be
accountable
for
their
actions,
including
this
defendant,”
said
Weiss,
who also
signaled
that
when it
came to
Biden’s
sentence,
the
president’s
son
should
again be
treated
like
everyone
else.
The most
serious
charge
carries
a
maximum
penalty
of 10
years in
prison,
but as a
first-time
offender,
Biden
will
probably
get a
much
lighter
sentence
and may
not go
to jail.
Biden’s
defense
lawyers
argued
that
prosecutors
did not
offer a
drug
test or
other
concrete
evidence
that he
was on
drugs
when he
bought
the gun,
or that
he took
drugs
while
the gun
was in
his
possession.
Prosecutors
told the
jury in
closing
arguments
that
they did
not have
to prove
those
details
and that
their
responsibility
was to
show
Biden
knew he
was a
drug
user and
that he
was
addicted
to them
at the
time of
the
October
2018
purchase.
If the
trial
evidence
does not
conclusively
prove
Hunter
Biden
was a
crack
addict
in 2018,
“then no
one is a
crack
addict,”
prosecutor
Derek
Hines
told
jurors
in his
closing
argument
Monday.
Hines
mocked
the
defense
claim
that
Biden, a
Yale-educated
lawyer,
was
somehow
confused
by the
paperwork
questions
that
come
with
buying a
firearm.
“The
same
laws
apply to
the
defendant
just
like
they
would to
anyone
else,”
Hines
said.
His
fellow
prosecutor
Leo Wise
alluded
to the
frequent
courtroom
presence
of first
lady
Jill
Biden
and much
of the
Biden
family,
telling
the
jury:
“People
sitting
in the
gallery
are not
evidence.”
Defense
lawyer
Abbe
Lowell
accused
prosecutors
of
performing
a kind
of magic
trick
for the
jury —
trying
to get
them to
focus on
something
other
than the
most
critical
evidence.
Lowell
said
prosecutors
were
trying
to twist
Biden’s
words of
recovery
—
particularly
how he
described
his
once-frequent
drug use
in his
autobiography
— into
damning
admissions.
A 2018
text in
which
Hunter
Biden
called
himself
a
“liar,”
“thief,”
and
“addict,”
was not
an
admission
but a
“cry for
help,”
Lowell
said.
Prosecutors
“spent
hours,
literally
hours,
recounting
Hunter’s
terrible
journey
through
alcohol
and drug
abuse,”
Lowell
said.
Biden
never
used or
loaded
the gun,
Lowell
told the
jury.
President
Joe
Biden’s
son
Hunter
was
found
guilty
on all
charges
in a
criminal
case
centered
around
the
purchase
of a gun
in 2018.
(Video:
Jorge
Ribas/The
Washington
Post)
The gun
charges
Biden
faced
are
rarely
brought
as
stand-alone
counts
without
being
linked
to other
alleged
crimes.
The
charges
against
Biden
grew out
of a
long-running
federal
investigation
into his
taxes
and
business
deals in
a time
period
during
which
his
father
was vice
president
and
after he
left
that
office.
In an
interview
with The
Post,
Juror
No. 10,
a
68-year-old
White
man,
said the
jury did
not
discuss
politics.
Joe
Biden’s
name
“was
brought
up once
during
trial,
when it
sunk in
a little
bit: The
sitting
president’s
son on
trial...
That was
hard,
but you
kind of
put it
out of
your
mind. …
I don’t
think it
was
politicized,”
said the
juror,
who
declined
to give
his name
over
concerns
that he
could
face
public
recriminations.
The
juror
said
when the
panel
first
began
deliberating
its
members
were
evenly
divided
6-6 on
whether
to
convict,
but as
they
discussed
the
evidence
they
quickly
became
unanimous
for
conviction.
He also
said it
was sad
to hear
testimony
from
Hunter
Biden’s
daughter,
Naomi
Biden,
who was
called
as a
witness
by the
defense.
“No
daughter
should
ever
have to
testify
against
her
dad,”
the
juror
said.
“I
really
don’t
think
that
Hunter
belongs
in
jail,”
the
juror
said,
though
he added
that
Biden’s
own book
provided
much of
the
critical
evidence
against
him.
“Hunter
didn’t
testify,
but by
all
counts
he did
testify
through
the book
because
that was
his
words,”
the
juror
said.
“And he
chose to
have it
audio –
so when
you have
it
audio,
and he’s
writing
that
book and
he’s
telling
you,
‘I’m an
addict’
-- that
has to
play a
part.
You
can’t
help but
not
think of
him
admitting
to
himself
that he
was an
addict.”
Last
summer,
Hunter
Biden
agreed
to a
deal
with
prosecutors
that
would
have
involved
admitting
to the
facts of
the gun
case.
But the
deal
fell
apart
amid
scrutiny
from the
trial
judge
and
disagreement
over
whether
Biden
would
get
immunity
from
potential
additional
charges.
Prosecutors
called
witness
after
witness
to
testify
about
Hunter
Biden’s
rampant
use of
crack
cocaine
after
the
death of
his
brother,
Beau,
from
brain
cancer
in 2015.
The
witnesses
included
Hunter
Biden’s
ex-wife,
Kathleen
Buhle,
and Beau
Biden’s
widow,
Hallie
Biden,
with
whom
Hunter
Biden
had an
on-again,
off-again
romance
between
2016 and
2019.
They
offered
text
messages
and
anecdotes
detailing
Hunter
Biden’s
alleged
drug use
around
the time
of the
gun
purchase
and
failed
attempts
to help
him. In
one key
text
message
from
Hunter
Biden
days
after he
bought
the gun,
he told
Hallie
he was
“sleeping
on a car
smoking
crack.”
Hunter
Biden’s
personal
life by
all
accounts
has
become
more
stable
in the
last few
years —
with his
marriage
to
Cohen-Biden
and a
young
son
named
Beau
after
his late
brother.
But the
legal
threats
he faces
have
escalated.
He is
scheduled
to go to
trial in
Los
Angeles
on
federal
tax
evasion
charges
in
September,
two
months
before
Election
Day.
That
trial
involves
the same
federal
prosecutors,
who are
expected
to
outline
the
various
ways in
which
Biden
was
spending
his
money.
According
to the
indictment,
much of
it went
to
“drugs,
escorts
and
girlfriends,
luxury
hotels
and
rental
properties,
exotic
cars,
clothing,
and
other
items of
a
personal
nature,
in
short,
everything
but his
taxes.”
In
Delaware,
prosecutors
opened
their
case by
playing
a
recording
of
Hunter
Biden
reading
from his
revealing
memoir,
in which
he
disclosed
in great
detail
how he
would
buy
drugs
and use
them and
spoke of
various
women he
slept
with in
hotels
around
the
country.
Trial
exhibits
included
photos
displayed
on a
large
screen
in the
courtroom,
showing
him
passed
out from
drug use
or in a
bubble
bath
with a
woman.
Hunter
Biden
has said
he’s
been
sober
since
around
2019.
His book
was a
confessional
in some
ways,
and he
has
tried to
repair
relationships
that
were
broken
by his
years of
debauchery.
He has
also
tried to
adopt a
more
public
profile
and to
push
back
against
Republicans
in
Congress
and
elsewhere
who have
been his
most
vocal
critics.
Throughout
the
trial,
various
family
members
filled
the rows
behind
the
defense
table
where
Biden
sat. His
mother,
Jill
Biden,
tried to
be there
almost
every
day,
traveling
back and
forth
from
France
so she
could
attend
the
trial in
between
joining
her
husband
for
commemorations
of D-Day
and a
state
dinner
with
French
President
Emmanuel
Macron.
Almost
every
time
Hunter
Biden
entered
or left
the
courtroom,
he
kissed
Jill
Biden on
the
cheek,
then
kissed
his wife
and
walked
hand in
hand
with her
on the
way out.
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