Hunter Biden showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was read in his federal gun trial.
The first child of a sitting U.S. president to stand trial in federal court patted members of his legal team on the back and hugged them after he was found guilty on three felony gun charges Tuesday morning.
Biden then kissed his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, as they left the Delaware courtroom.
It took the jury three hours to reach the unanimous decision finding the 54-year-old son of the President guilty of the gun charges stemming from his purchase of a firearm in October 2018.
Prosecutors allege he lied on a federal document when buying the gun, by failing to declare he was using or addicted to drugs at the time.
Biden denies the charges against him.
"We have had Hunter's life in our hands, but now we have to give it to you," Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell said to the jury during closing arguments on Monday.
The judge denied the defense team's pleas for more favorable language in jury instructions Monday before they were sent out to deliberate their verdict.
Judge Maryellen Noreika denied the petition, which would have instructed the jury to acquit Biden if he didn't know he was a drug user or addict when he bought and owned the gun in question in October 2018.
Court was adjourned Monday for deliberations at 3:35 pm. Monday, with the jury getting around an hour to start deliberating before being sent home for the day.
Highlights of the trial testimony
The five days of testimony included stories of Biden's rampant "cracking smoking" from his ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan and Haille Biden, his brother Beau's widow and former lover.
"It was a terrible experience that I went through and I'm embarrassed of that period of my life," Hallie Biden explained last week, speaking of her drug use during the time they were together.
Kestan described multiple occasions where she witnessed Hunter Biden smoke crack and drink alcohol at the same time, and said that she helped him purchase drugs and related paraphernalia.
His ex-wife Kathleen Buhle testified about their 20-year marriage which was torn apart by his drug use.
Much of her testimony related to her ex-husband's past drug use, including one instance where she described finding a pipe used to smoke crack cocaine at their house shortly after Beau Biden died from cancer.
The gun store owner Gordon Cleveland delivered a blow-by-blow account of Biden walking into his shop and purchasing the firearm.
Cleveland sold Hunter Biden the handgun in question, a Colt Cobra .38 revolver, in 2018 in Wilmington. He told jurors he saw Hunter Biden sign the application form, on which one question asked whether the buyer as "an unlawful user or addicted to" any controlled substances, to which the president's son wrote "no."
Hunter Biden reportedly paid $900 for the weapon.
The most emotional testimony was from his daughter Naomi Biden who nervously talked about her father's drug use and her own personal struggle with addiction.
The president's granddaughter, 31, faced questions about the truck where the weapon was found, which she had borrowed the same month her father bought said weapon.
She was also asked about her father's addiction, which she confirmed she was aware of and said was at its worst between 2015 and 2018.
The defense did not have Biden take the stand. His uncle, James Biden, was on the witness list and appeared in court Friday and Monday but did not take the stand either.
Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell slammed also used his closing argument to slam prosecutors for questioning Hunter's daughter Naomi Biden about her drug use during her testimony on Friday, calling it "extraordinarily cruel."
Lowell also told the jury that they now hold Hunter's life in their hands, which prosecutor David Hines took issue with during his closing arguments rebuttal, telling the jury their only responsibility is determining the facts and the judge can handle a sentencing.
During closing arguments, prosecutors said they did not have to prove Biden was using at the time he bought the gun, but added that the testimonies spoke for themselves.
"Anyone who holds a crack pipe to their mouth every 15 minutes knows they're a drug addict," federal prosecutor David Hines told the jury Monday afternoon.
The jury had to decide if Hunter knowingly lied about being a drug user on a document to purchase a gun in October 2018. During his closing arguments, the prosecution told the jury, "Anyone who holds a crack pipe to their mouth every 15 minutes knows they're a drug addict."
The defendant has been surrounded by family and friends throughout the hearing, with his wife by his side and the First Lady – his stepmother. But she was not in court Tuesday for the verdict.
Melissa Cohen Biden, 38, is Hunter Biden's current wife. The pair have been married for five years.
The South African filmmaker and activist met him in 2019 and he proposed to her just a week later. The pair had a son in 2020, who they named Beau in honor of Hunter Biden's late brother.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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