By Aaron Miller-
Joe Biden’s son has been found guilty of illegally buying a gun after hiding his drug use.Hunter Biden, 54, was convicted of three firearm charges in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting US president’s offspring.
Prosecutors said he lied on a form when buying a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018 by stating he was not a drug user or addict, despite a problem with crack cocaine.
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Hunter Biden and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the chief political rival of President Joe Biden, have been convicted by American jurors in an election year that has been as much about the courtroom as it has been about campaign events and rallies.
Joe Biden himself was not in the federal courtroom in Delaware where his son was convicted and has so far said nothing publicly about the case.
Hunter Biden also faces a trial in September in California on charges of failing to pay 1.4 million dollars in taxes and congressional Republicans have signalled they will keep going after him in their stalled impeachment effort into the president.
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The prosecution went to great lengths to point out the seriousness of Hunter Biden’s drug problem, through highly personal testimony and embarrassing evidence.
Jurors heard Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and a former girlfriend testify about his habitual crack use and their failed efforts to help him get clean. Jurors saw images of the president’s son bare-chested and dishevelled in a filthy room, and half-naked holding crack pipes. And jurors watched video of his crack cocaine weighed on a scale.
Prosecutors played audio excerpts of his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, in which he talks about hitting bottom after the death of his brother Beau in 2015, and his descent into drugs before his eventual sobriety.
Prosecutors felt the evidence was necessary to prove that the 54-year-old was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied when he checked “no” on the form that asked whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” drugs.
Defence lawyer Abbe Lowell had argued that Hunter Biden’s state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he bought the gun – when he did not believe he had an addiction.
Mr Lowell pointed out to jurors that some of the questions on the firearms transaction record are in the present tense, such as “are you an unlawful user of or addicted to” drugs.
And Mr Lowell suggested Hunter Biden might have felt he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse does not preclude a gun purchase.
Hunter Biden had hoped last year to resolve a long-running federal investigation under a deal with prosecutors that would avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Under the deal, he would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanour tax offences and avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the deal fell apart after Judge Noreika, who was nominated by Mr Trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter.
Attorney general Merrick Garland then appointed top investigator David Weiss, Delaware’s US attorney, as a special counsel last August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.
Hunter Biden has said he was charged because the Justice Department bowed to pressure from Republicans who argued the Democratic president’s son was getting special treatment.
The reason law enforcement raised any questions about the revolver is because Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow, found it unloaded in Hunter Biden’s truck on October 23 2018, panicked and threw it into a rubbish bin, where a man inadvertently fished it out. She testified about the episode in court.
Hallie Biden, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after Beau died, eventually called the police. Officers retrieved the gun from the man who inadvertently took the gun along with other recyclables from the bin. The case was eventually closed because of lack of co-operation from Hunter Biden, who was considered the victim.
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