Hunter Biden, the son of the sitting US president, was found guilty of guilty of three charges related to the illegal possession of a weapon, the Guardian reported.
The jury's verdict came after about three hours of deliberation at the week-long trial in the Biden family's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, which included harrowing testimony from some of his closest relatives about his drug addiction.
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Joe Biden's oldest living son was accused of making two false statements when filling out a form to purchase a Colt revolver in October 2018. First by falsely stating that he was not addicted to or using drugs, but after declaring the statement to be true. The third charge is that he illegally possessed the gun for 11 days before his sister-in-law and then-lover, Halle Biden, threw it in the trash in her panic.
Abe Lowell, Hunter's lead attorney, argued that the prosecution did not present evidence that he had taken crack cocaine – to which he later admitted in testimony that he was addicted before going to rehab – in the month he bought and owned the gun.
The defense attorney found that no one saw Hunter using the drug during that period.
But messages retrieved from Hunter's cell phone undermine the argument that he did not take drugs in the period before and after purchasing the gun. The day after he bought the gun, he texted Hallie Biden that he was meeting with a known drug dealer named Mookie. Then, a day later, he revealed in another message that he was sleeping on top of a car and smoking crack.
His daughter Naomi told the court her father had appeared sober in the weeks leading up to the purchase. But prosecutors have produced more text messages that reveal a strained and rocky relationship between the two, including one in which Naomi tells her father he drove her to breaking point.
Prosecutors called on other members of the Biden family, including his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, to whom he was married for 24 years, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, as they tried to prove that Hunter continued to use drugs through 2018 and 2019
Testimony portrayed Hunter Biden as falling deeper into addiction as he struggled to cope with the death of Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
After his marriage broke up, he became romantically involved with Halle Biden, who admitted to smoking crack with him.
Summing up Monday, prosecutor Leo Wise said Hunter Biden's text message showed he was trying to make drug deals before and after the gun purchase.
Calling the evidence against the defendant “personal, ugly and overwhelming”, he noted that Hunter Biden told Hallie Biden on Oct. 14, 2018, two days after buying the gun, that he smoked crack. “This is my truth”, he quotes Hunter.
“Take the word of the defendant. That's his truth,” Wise said, urging them to reject defense suggestions that Hunter Biden was simply trying to avoid being with Hallie Biden. “You don't leave your common sense behind when you sit in the jury box.
Evidence included testimony about Hunter Biden smoking crack pipes, supported by photos shown in court.
Zoe Kestan, Hunter's ex-girlfriend who met him at a gentlemen's club, told the court last week that he often withdrew money to finance drug purchases.
She said he smoked what she assumed was crack “every 20 minutes” and that she saw him smoking it for several days in Malibu, California, in September 2018, a month before she bought the gun.
The proceedings were overseen by Hunter's stepmother, Jill Biden, the first lady, who attended every day except last Thursday, when she flew to France to attend the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings with her husband.
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Weise pointed to the courtroom where Jill Biden sat with Hunter's wife, Melissa Cohen Biden and other family members, and urged the jury not to be swayed.
For the defense, Lowell took the opposite tack, telling jurors that just because Hunter Biden has a famous last name doesn't mean he has any less rights than any other defendant, and urging them to find him not guilty.
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He claims there is no evidence Hunter Biden ever removed the newly purchased gun from the locked box it was delivered in before Hallie Biden found it and tossed it in a bucket near a Wilmington grocery store.
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In a quote that illustrates how the trial has pitted members of the Biden family against each other, he said: “On October 23rd, Halle did something incredibly stupid.” Lowell said, referring to the disposal of the weapon.
“She may have done it out of love”, he added, or out of anger after suspecting Hunter Biden was with another woman.
He also disputed the allegation that large sums of cash withdrawn by Hunter Biden were used to buy drugs, saying prosecutors did not support that claim with detailed financial documentation.