Hunter Biden’s legal team is likely “hoping” that jurors will disagree on a verdict in his oldest son’s historic gun crimes trial, legal experts told Fox News Digital.
“That’s exactly what Hunter Biden and his legal team are hoping for in this trial,” Zach Smith, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital when asked whether the trial could end in a mistrial or even an acquittal.
“Legally speaking, I do not believe that Hunter Biden has a defense to these charges,” Smith continued, “especially since some jurors may have family or friends who struggle with substance abuse issues and may sympathize with Hunter Biden and his substance abuse issues.”
Hunter Biden’s trial began last Monday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. He is charged with three felony firearms offenses in connection with his purchase of a .38-caliber revolver from a gun shop in the state in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Hunter Biden leaves the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Prosecutors are seeking to prove that Hunter Biden lied in October 2018 on a federal firearms declaration, known as ATF Form 4473, by checking a box that said “no” when asked if he was an unlawful firearm user or addicted to controlled substances.
This is the first time in U.S. history that the child of a sitting president has been put on trial.
Hunter Biden has a well-documented history of drug addiction, most famously in his autobiography, “Beautiful Things,” in which he explains that at the peak of his addiction, he needed a crack cocaine every 20 minutes, and that he hooked up with a female drug dealer whom he nicknamed “Bicycles,” who sold him crack. Washington DC streetsand how, as his addiction worsened, he was able to function as a “crack daddy” for his dealers.
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The lawyers don’t deny it Hunter Biden’s history of alcoholism and drug addiction. Instead, they are trying to build the case that Hunter Biden did not consider himself an addict on October 12, 2018, the day he purchased the gun, because he was not using crack cocaine and had recently checked into rehab.
Photo evidence submitted by the prosecution showed the gun purchased by Hunter Biden. (US Government exhibit)
Prosecutors are seeking to prove that Hunter Biden was addicted to crack cocaine before, after or while purchasing the handgun.
Smith went on to tell Fox News Digital that it’s possible the jury may disagree and not reach a unanimous verdict.
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“It is certainly possible to have a hung jury. It’s a very real possibility. It only takes one juror to disagree,” Smith explained.
“But even those who have some sympathy for Hunter Biden and his struggle with substance abuse, I found Hallie Biden’s testimony problematic for him.”
Hunter Biden arrives with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Hallie Biden is the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Hallie Biden dated Hunter Biden after her husband’s death and has been called as a witness in the case by the prosecution team.
Hallie Biden walked jurors through the ups and downs of their relationship, which focused on how Biden introduced her to crack cocaine before she eventually got sober. Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden have since ended their relationship, and Hallie Biden appeared in court with her husband, John Hopkins Anning, whom she married last weekend.
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A courtroom sketch shows Hallie Biden testifying on the witness stand during Hunter Biden’s trial, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
“I found [crack] “I didn’t know what it was so I Googled it,” Hallie Biden told the court about the first time she saw the drug at her home.[Hunter Biden] He told me what it was: crack cocaine.”
Hallie Biden, testifying under immunity, said she smoked crack cocaine and accompanied Hunter Biden on drug deals. Hallie Biden is also a key figure in the trial because she discovered Hunter Biden’s Colt in the console of his pickup truck 11 days after he bought the gun. She testified that she threw the gun in a public trash can outside an upscale grocery store in Wilmington because she feared Hunter Biden would hurt himself or others.
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Hunter Biden is charged with three counts of making a false statement when purchasing a firearm, making a false statement regarding information required to be kept by a federally licensed firearms dealer, and possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance.
The charges carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years. Each charge carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years probation.
A photograph submitted by the prosecution shows Hunter Biden on April 11, 2018. (US Government exhibit)
Smith noted that while a disagreement on the verdict was possible, the prosecution had presented strong evidence against the eldest son.
“Based on the charges brought and the evidence presented at trial, it appears that the prosecution did a good job and tried hard enough to persuade a jury to convict Hunter Biden,” he said.
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Prosecutors played excerpts from an audiobook version of Hunter’s memoir (narrated by his eldest son), presented evidence including a brown pouch containing a gun with traces of cocaine on it, and questioned witnesses to the gun purchase about Hunter’s drug use.
Prosecutors called Hunter’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, who met Hunter at a New York City strip club when she was 24 and she was 48. She testified that Hunter would “wake up and want a cigarette,” provided photos of his drug paraphernalia in a rundown hotel room, and even described how he would try to sober up by consuming frog venom, known as “kambo,” to flush the drugs from his system.
Hunter Biden’s former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, leaves federal court after testifying at her trial on firearms-related criminal charges in Wilmington on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Kestan knew Hunter Biden both before and after he purchased a Colt revolver from him in October 2018, but the two did not speak that month and their relationship was rekindled in November 2018 but then officially ended.
Jurors also heard testimony from Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhl, who was married to him for more than 20 years. Buhl told jurors she was “definitely concerned and scared” after she first discovered a crack pipe on the side porch of their Washington, D.C., home in 2015.
Buhle said he sought marital counseling before his marriage ended in 2015 after a crack pipe was discovered in his home.
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Jurors were also shown bank information showing thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals — a common form of payment in drug transactions — and numerous text messages that indicated Hunter was setting up drug deals, including using words like “party favors,” “baby powder” and “odds man” (a type of scouring pad used as a filter in crack pipes) to refer to drugs.
Hunter Biden’s federal court appearance is scheduled for Monday, June 3, 2024, in Wilmington. (AP Photo/Matt Luke)
The drug-related text messages were sent both before and after the gun purchase, but one day after the purchase, Hunter Biden texted Hallie Biden that he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie,” and the next day, he texted that he was “sleeping in his car smoking crack cocaine at 4th and Rodney Streets” in Wilmington.
The defense argues that Hallie Biden did not know for sure that Hunter Biden was conducting a drug deal on October 13 or smoking crack cocaine in his car on October 14, and may have simply been avoiding her.
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“One of the things Hunter Biden and his legal team seem to be arguing is that Hunter did not believe he was addicted to drugs,” Smith said, adding that the text messages “seem to undermine that argument.”
During jury selection last Monday, nearly all of the more than 60 potential jurors detailed to the court that they have family or friends who have struggled with addiction, which could lead jurors to sympathize with the president’s 54-year-old son. Delaware is also a small state where the Biden family roots run deep.
“You can’t underestimate Biden’s influence and power in the state, but I think the focus of Hunter Biden’s legal team is a matter of sympathy,” Smith said.
Hunter Biden arrives with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The trial follows the unprecedented New York v. Trump trial, in which former President Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. Following the verdict, President Biden stressed that “no one is above the law.”
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Hunter Biden is also facing a criminal tax trial starting in September in California, where he has been charged with three felony and six misdemeanor counts for $1.4 million in unpaid taxes. The taxes have already been paid. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in the case.
First Lady Jill Biden arrives ahead of Hunter Biden’s trial at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Monday, June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
“The only reason this case is going to Delaware and the tax case is going to California is because a federal judge in Delaware rejected a sweet plea deal. That’s the only reason this case is going to trial in the first place. That’s the only reason we, the American people, know so much about this information,” Smith continued.
“Most Americans would be right to question the disparate treatment in these two cases.”
Hunter Biden may testify at his criminal trial on Monday, his defense team said. Defense attorney Abe Lowell was quoted as saying after a lunch break on Friday that he would decide over the weekend whether to call Biden to testify and would notify special counsel David Weiss’s office of his decision.
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More details about the decision are expected to be made public after 8:15 a.m. Monday, when presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika asked both parties to appear at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.
