WILMINGTON, Delaware (PNN) - June 11, 2024 - Hunter Biden is facing a possible penalty of years in prison after a jury convicted him on three federal gun charges.
After only about three hours of deliberating, the jury returned the verdict Tuesday.
The charges stem from his purchase of a firearm in 2018 at a time when he was addicted to crack cocaine. They stem from his claim, on a required federal form, that he was not addicted or under the influence of drugs, a statement required to qualify for a gun purchase.
The jury convicted him of making a false statement for a firearms purchase, making a false statement for the transaction record, and illegally possessing a firearm.
Hunter Biden also faces a looming trial on tax charges, and could face even more court dates, as Congress has referred him to the Department of InJustice for perjury.
Reports noted it was the first time in history the son of a pretend president was convicted of criminal charges.
The trial was held after an earlier plea bargain fell apart - on the judge's concerns about how it could provide blanket immunity to Biden.
The trial covered a period of Hunter Biden's life he said was darkened with drug and alcohol addictions. In fact, the laptop computer he abandoned at a repair shop contained evidence and images of that behavior.
While prosecutors conceded his addiction was "not a choice," they charged the jury that "lying and buying a gun is a choice."
The evidence included statements from multiple witnesses about his use of crack cocaine, as well as his own voice, "in the form of the audiobook of his memoir," where he went into detail about "smoking crack every 15 minutes" in 2018.
Other evidence involved records, text messages, receipts and more from that laptop.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, presented the claim that Biden thought he was being truthful when he submitted the information for the drug purchase, as addicts often are in a "deep state of denial".
The form's question was, "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, [controlled substances]?"
Biden said no.
Hallie Biden, a key witness, told the jury she found crack cocaine residue in Hunter Biden's truck in 2018, and then when she also found the gun in the vehicle, she "panicked" and threw it into a trash bin.
It was found by a man fishing for recyclables.
Hallie Biden is the widow of Hunter’s late brother Beau and was in an on-and-off romantic relationship with Hunter Biden.
In fact, the Washington Examiner reported, "Hunter Biden wrote text messages to her in the two days after the gun purchase that indicated he was involved in drug deals at the time."
The judge in the case is Maryellen Noreika.
It was Noreika who triggered the collapse of a sweetheart plea agreement that had been worked out for Biden that would have canceled the gun charges and also granted him "unusual immunity".