WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal jury convicted Hunter Biden Tuesday of three felony counts stemming from the purchase of a gun in October 2018 while in the throes of a crack addiction, making him the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.
The panel of six men and six women, all Delaware residents, deliberated for three hours over two days before rendering the guilty verdict which could have political implications for President Biden. Republicans have sought to tie his son’s legal problems to him in the midst of a tough reelection campaign against former President Donald Trump.
The defendant’s wife Melissa and his uncle, James Biden, were in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. First lady Jill Biden, who attended most of the weeklong trial, arrived at the courthouse after the verdict was read.
As cries of “guilty!” rang out in the courtroom, Hunter Biden stared straight ahead without expression. He later hugged members of his legal team after the verdict was read. Prosecutors Leo Wise and Derek Hines also did not display any emotion.
Hunter Biden, 54, left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika did not set a sentencing date, though typically sentencing occurs within 120 days of a guilty verdict.
Hunter Biden was found guilty of lying on a federal firearm paperwork, known as Form 4473, in October 2018 when he checked a box saying he was not an unlawful user of a firearm or addicted to controlled substances when he purchased the Cobra Colt .38 from StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, a gun shop in Wilmington.
He was also convicted of illegally possessing the firearm for 11 days while he was a drug addict.
Sentencing is scheduled for later this year, and Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. He is expected to be sentenced to little jail time, if any, because he is a first-time offender.
Hunter Biden had planned to resolve the long-running federal investigation into his business dealings with a plea bargain deal with prosecutors that would have avoided an embarrassing trial ahead of the presidential election. Under the deal, he would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses in California and avoided prosecution in the Delaware gun case, if he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the deal fell apart under scrutiny from Judge Noreika, who was nominated by Mr. Trump. She questioned several unusual stipulations in the proposed agreements, and neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors could agree to a new deal.
Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed David Weiss, the U.S. attorney from Delaware, as special counsel last August. He indicted Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges roughly a month later.
Under that deal, Hunter Biden would have received two years of probation.
Hunter Biden faces tax charges in California in September in a separate trial, where he stands accused of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes on time.
Hunter Biden declined to testify in his defense. Both sides took more than an hour to lay out their closing arguments to the jurors.
Mr. Hines suggested that Biden bought the gun for protection during drug deals. He quoted a passage in Hunter Biden’s book in which the defendant wrote about having guns shoved in his face while trying to buy crack.
The prosecutor said if the trial evidence didn’t show that Hunter Biden was a crack addict in 2018 when he bought the gun, “then no one is a crack addict.”
Earlier, Mr. Wise connected a series of text messages sent by Hunter Biden, witness testimony and the defendant’s own words in his memoir to show that President Biden’s son was deep into his crack addiction when he bought the firearm.
In his 90-minute closing argument, defense attorney Abbe Lowell compared the government’s case to a magician’s trick. He said the case was nothing more than “suspicion or conjecture.”
“It’s time to end this case,” he told the jury.
Mr. Lowell argued that Hunter Biden didn’t believe he was an addict when he filled out the federal form to purchase a firearm because he wasn’t actively using drugs at the time.
He said none of the prosecution’s witnesses had seen Hunter Biden use drugs in October 2018, when he bought the firearm, or during the 11 days he possessed it.
Mr. Lowell told the court that prosecutors didn’t prove that Hunter Biden’s repeated withdrawals of cash were used for drug purchases, nor did they connect to him the remnants of crack cocaine found in a leather pouch he owned.
“Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not suspicion or conjecture and hoping you won’t realize the difference,” he said.
Mr. Wise urged jurors not to leave behind their common sense. He pointed to text messages in which Biden told his ex-girlfriend and sister-in-law Hallie Biden that he was smoking crack two days after the gun purchase and that was his “truth.”
Defense attorneys argued that he was simply trying to avoid being with her.
Mr. Wise said jurors should “take the defendant’s word for it. That’s his truth.”
The prosecutor said nothing supported the defense’s suggestion that Hunter Biden was withdrawing large sums of money for rehabilitation or other purchases, because financial statements show rehabilitation payments were made with a credit card.
Mr. Wise also referred to a text message between Hunter Biden and his daughter Naomi during an October 2018 trip to New York. In the text, he asks whether her boyfriend could meet him around 2:45 a.m. to exchange cars.
“I’m really sorry Dad, I can’t take this,” she responded.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.