WILMINGTON, Del. – A federal judge is bated breathlessly awaiting a verdict in the historic United States v. Hunter Biden criminal case after jury verdicts began Monday afternoon.
“Choices have consequences, that’s why we’re here,” prosecutor Derek Hines said in court Monday afternoon.
Day six of Hunter Biden’s trial in connection with a 2018 gun purchase began with a brief rebuttal by the prosecution, followed by both the prosecution and defense discussing detailed jury instructions with presiding Judge Mary Ellen Noreika, closing arguments and, finally, the jury’s verdict.
The elder son faces three charges in connection with the Oct. 12, 2018, purchase of a Cobra Colt .38-caliber handgun: making a false statement when purchasing a firearm, making a false statement regarding information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance.
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A courtroom sketch depicts Hunter Biden’s federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, June 10, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
Hunter Biden, who has an extensive history of drug and alcohol abuse, is specifically accused of making a false statement on his federal firearms registration form, Form 4473, by checking the box that said “no” when asked if he was an illegal drug user or a person addicted to controlled substances.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in the case.
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Prosecutor Leo Wise delivered the government’s closing argument in the case, emphasizing a phrase previously used in the defense’s opening statement: “No one is above the law.”
Judge Wise told the jury that the evidence and testimony they’d heard in court since last Tuesday had been “personal,” “ugly” and “overwhelming,” but also “necessary.” Over the course of the trial, the court heard testimony from Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhl, his ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, his sister-in-law and girlfriend Hallie Biden, his daughter, Naomi Biden, and three gun store owners involved in the sales, as well as experts from the FBI and DEA.
Hunter Biden’s former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, leaves a federal courthouse after testifying at Biden’s trial on firearms-related criminal charges, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Judge Wise told the jury that the prosecution had presented ample evidence that Hunter Biden was a drug addict before, during and after he purchased the gun, and that he knew he was a drug addict before he filled out the ATF Form 4473.
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Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhl, leaves the federal courthouse after taking the stand at Hunter Biden’s trial on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
“The defendant knew that he was using and addicted to crack cocaine at the relevant time,” Wise said, noting that prosecutors do not have to prove to a jury that Hunter Biden was using and addicted to crack cocaine on any particular purchase date, only the time period relevant to the gun purchases.
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His eldest son’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” drew renewed attention on Monday, including anecdotes about Hunter Biden needing a crack cocaine every 20 minutes at the peak of his addiction, and an encounter with a female drug dealer 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.
Hunter Biden arrives at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware on June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
“After relapsing in California, I returned to Delaware in the fall of 2018 with the hopes of new treatment to help me get off drugs and reconcile with Harry,” Hunter Biden wrote in his memoir of returning to Delaware after a stay at a California rehab facility. Wise highlighted that part of the book, pointing to the phrase “hoping to get off.” Wise said the phrase indicates Hunter Biden was using drugs when he returned to Delaware, where he bought a gun.
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In his comments to the jury, Judge Wise argued that the book was “significant evidence of Hunter’s drug use.”
President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware on June 6, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Wise also rehashed text messages Hunter Biden sent to others in the month of the gun purchase: The day after he bought the gun, he told Hallie Biden he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie behind the stadium,” and the day after that he texted Hallie Biden “sleeping in my car smoking crack cocaine at 4th and Rodney Streets.”
“The central issue in this case is whether he was a drug addict and whether he knew he was a drug addict,” Wise said.
Attorney Abe Lowell arrives at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
“We held his life in our hands and now we cannot hand it over to you,” Judge Lowell told Hunter Biden’s jury on Monday afternoon.
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Lowell made his case to the jury on Monday that prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden knowingly lied about his crack cocaine addiction when he bought a gun from a Wilmington gun shop in October 2018.
Lowell accused the prosecution of playing a “magician’s trick” by failing to present photographic evidence of Hunter Biden’s drug purchases and use in October 2018 in an attempt to fill the jury with “speculation” about Hunter Biden’s drug abuse, by failing to show that the gun he purchased was loaded or carried in public, and by failing to show who put cocaine residue on the brown pouch the gun was in when police ultimately recovered it.
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Lowell and her defense team have not disputed that Hunter Biden has a long history of substance abuse — Lowell testified in court earlier in the trial that his eldest son began abusing alcohol as a teenager and turned to drugs as an adult — but instead, Lowell argued, Hunter Biden had checked into rehab in August and hired a “sobriety coach” to help him get sober before purchasing the gun in October.
Lowell argued that on the day Hunter Biden purchased the gun, his eldest son did not believe he was a habitual gun user and therefore did not lie on the federal gun control form.
Photo evidence submitted by the prosecution showed the gun purchased by Hunter Biden. (US Government exhibit)
“The statements were not ones that the defendant believed to be false at the time they were made,” Lowell told the jury. “The word ‘knowingly’ cannot be used to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Judge Lowell specifically briefed the jury on the series of questions that appeared on ATF Form 4473, including “Have you ever renounced your U.S. citizenship?” and “Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence offense?”
The question Hunter Biden allegedly lied about was, “Are you a legal user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any sedative, stimulant, narcotic, or other controlled substance? WARNING: Regardless of whether marijuana has been legalized or decriminalized for medical or recreational use in the state in which you reside, the use or possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law.”
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Lowell focused on the phrases “ever” and “have you,” arguing that the drug questions were asking Hunter Biden whether he uses drugs and is an illegal drug user in the present tense, not whether he has ever been addicted in the past.
“It’s time to put an end to this case,” Rowell said.
First Lady Jill Biden leaves the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Appearing in court with Hunter Biden on Monday were his stepmother and first lady Jill Biden, his sister Ashley Biden, his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, and President Biden’s brother Jim Biden. About two dozen members of the Biden family and associates were seated in three rows in the courtroom gallery.
Hunter Biden appeared more upbeat on Monday as the trial drew to a close, flashing several bright smiles for family and associates on Monday.
Jill Biden again sat in the front row, facing forward and barely glancing around the courtroom. During a break, Lowell briefly joined the first lady, and the two chatted. Jill Biden smiled and nodded as she spoke with her lawyers.
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Wise stressed to jurors that “the people sitting in the gallery are not evidence,” an apparent reference to the first lady and other members of the Biden family.
Ashley Biden arrives ahead of Hunter Biden’s trial at federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, Monday, June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
“With all due respect, that doesn’t matter,” he added, even if jurors recognized the audience “from the news.”
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Prosecutors instructed jurors to focus on whether Hunter Biden was an addict at the time of his gun purchases and whether he knew he was an addict when he bought them.
“You don’t have control over his life. Was he an addict? Did you know he was an addict when you filled out that paperwork?” prosecutor Derek Hines told jurors in the prosecution’s closing argument, denying earlier comments by defense attorney Lowell that the jury’s verdict put Hunter Biden’s life at risk.
“The defendant was a crack addict, a drug user and possessed a gun,” he said.
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If convicted, the three face maximum sentences of He could face up to 25 years in prison.Each charge carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years’ probation.
A verdict could come as early as Tuesday morning. Hunter Biden did not testify in the case after Lowell hinted at that possibility on Friday and said he would make a decision over the weekend.
