Jury begins deliberations in Hunter Biden’s criminal gun case
The 12 jurors deliberated for about an hour after hearing closing arguments. They will resume at 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT) on Tuesday, a court official said.

Jury began deliberations on Monday in the case of Hunter Biden, the US president’s son, who is accused of lying about his use of illegal drugs while purchasing a handgun in 2018.
The 12 jurors deliberated for about an hour after hearing closing arguments. They will resume at 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT) on Tuesday, a court official said.
“We ask that you apply the law to this defendant as it would apply to any other,” state prosecutor Derek Hines told the jury as the first criminal trial against a child of a sitting president reached its final stage.
“He violated the law when he decided to lie and purchase a gun,” Hines said. “We urge you to render the only verdict you can based on the evidence — guilty.”
Biden, 54, the son of President Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that include lying about his addiction while filling out government screening documents for a Colt Cobra revolver and illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell compared the government’s case to the work of a magician who focuses on drug use from months or years before a gun purchase to create the illusion that Hunter Biden was using crack cocaine when he purchased the gun.
“All the things before and after I came to Starquest Shooters became a blur,” Lovell told jurors, referring to the gun store where he bought the gun.
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika instructed jurors to be impartial. “You have to decide the case based on the evidence,” she said.
In four days of testimony last week, prosecutors provided intimate details about the younger Biden’s yearslong struggle with alcohol and crack cocaine abuse, which prosecutors say legally prevented him from purchasing a gun.
In the prosecution’s closing arguments, a government lawyer said the common understanding of Hunter Biden’s serious testimony about his frequent drug use filled in any gaps in the evidence about his behavior at the time of the gun purchase.
“It was personal, it was ugly and it was heavy,” federal prosecutor Leo Wise told the jury, referring to Hunter Biden’s testimony about his drug use. “But it was also necessary.”
The trial, being held in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, follows another historic event — the criminal conviction on May 30 of Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Trump is the Republican Party’s nominee in the November 5 presidential election, challenging Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump and some of his Republican allies in Congress have alleged that the case and three other criminal trials are politically motivated efforts to prevent him from regaining power.
Congressional Democrats cite the Hunter Biden prosecution as evidence that Joe Biden is not using the justice system for political or personal purposes.
Wise said it did not matter whether or not prominent figures appeared in court or how they reacted to the evidence, possibly referring to the presence of first lady Jill Biden. “None of that matters. What matters is what comes from the witnesses on the stand,” he said.
Last week, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, ex-girlfriend and sister-in-law testified to prosecutors about his drug use, telling jurors they often found drugs and other paraphernalia in his possession and sometimes worried about his growing addiction.
Wise read excerpts from Hunter Biden’s memoir about his failed attempt to stay sober and his subsequent relapse into addiction just before he bought the gun. “Believe the defendant. That is his truth,” Wise said.
Hunter Biden told the judge overseeing the case at a 2023 hearing that he had not drunk alcohol since 2019.
The sentencing guidelines for the charges against Biden are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in cases like his often receive shorter sentences and are less likely to be sent to prison if they comply with the conditions of their pretrial release.
#Jury #begins #deliberations #Hunter #Bidens #criminal #gun #case

