Hunter Biden Convicted on Gun Charges: Jury Finds First Son Guilty After Trial

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, has been found guilty on all three federal gun charges he faced. The jury deliberated for a total of three hours between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has been found guilty on all charges in his historic criminal case focused on his purchase of a firearm in 2018.

The jury deliberated for a total of three hours between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Hunter Biden was found guilty of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

Hunter Biden purchased the gun from a store called StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Wilmington. Hunter Biden has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which walks readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes.

His defense team, led by Abbe Lowell, did not dispute Hunter Biden's long history with substance abuse, which also includes an addiction to alcohol, instead arguing that on the day Hunter Biden purchased the Cobra Colt .38, he did not consider himself an active drug addict.

Prosecutors, however, argued that Hunter Biden's addiction to crack cocaine occurred before, during and after the purchase of the handgun. Just one day after the gun purchase, prosecutors showed the court, Hunter Biden texted Hallie Biden that he was "waiting for a dealer named Mookie." A day after that text, he texted that he was "sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney" in Wilmington.

The verdict marks an end to the whirlwind and at times emotional trial. Last week, Hunter Biden's defense team called his daughter, Naomi Biden, to the witness stand, with the first son appearing to dab his eyes when his daughter first walked into the courtroom.

The first granddaughter, who told the court she was "nervous" amid the testimony, told the court that she was aware of her father's addiction to drugs but said she had never witnessed him use drugs, namely crack cocaine.

Naomi Biden walked the court through a California trip she took in August 2018 to visit her father amid his stint at a rehab facility. She said she met with Hunter Biden, his sober coach, alongside her then-boyfriend and eventual husband, Peter Neal, for lunch at a coffee shop, noting she was proud of her father for his work on getting sober.

The trial also included testimony from Hallie Biden, Beau Biden's widow, who began a romantic relationship with her brother-in-law, Hunter Biden, in 2015. Hallie Biden, who testified under immunity, walked the jury through the rise and fall of their relationship, including when she first discovered crack at her home and had to google what the substance was because she had never seen it before. Biden first introduced her to crack, which she also smoked before becoming sober in August 2018, she told the court.

"It was a terrible experience I went through, and I was embarrassed and ashamed.… I regret that period of my life," Hallie Biden told the court on Thursday about her use of crack cocaine.

Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, also delivered short testimony toward the start of the trial. She told the court that she first discovered her then-husband's crack cocaine addiction in 2015, when she found a crack pipe on the side porch of their home in Washington, D.C. The couple was married for more than 20 years — divorcing in 2017 — and share three adult daughters.

The first son was joined in court by family, friends and Biden family allies each day in court, most notably by his stepmother, first lady Jill Biden, as well as Biden's sister Ashley Biden and President Biden's sister, Valerie Biden. Hunter Biden was also joined by his second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, to whom he was drawn like a magnet when court broke for lunch or other pauses, often taking her hand as they left court.

Jill Biden skipped one day of the trial to fly to Normandy, France, to join President Biden for events commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day and also notably missed her former daughter-in-law Kathleen Buhle's testimony earlier in the week.

Biden was attentive and engaged throughout his trial, taking notes, examining evidence presented in court, and surveying jurors throughout the day, most notably when they walked in and out of court for breaks.

The trial focused on Biden's Oct. 12, 2018, purchase of the firearm at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, when prosecutors argued that Biden lied on the federal form that he was not using or addicted to drugs. The firearm remained in his possession for 11 days before Hallie Biden discovered it in the console of his Ford pickup truck and threw it away in a public trashcan outside a grocery market in Wilmington. Hallie Biden testified that she regretted tossing the firearm and did so when she was in a "panicked" state and worried that Biden would use the firearm to hurt himself or others.

In addition to family members, the court heard from the man who found the gun in the trash can, as well as experts from the FBI and DEA who testified on bank statements showing Biden withdrawing thousands of dollars in cash, how trace amounts of cocaine were discovered on a pouch containing the gun when Hallie Biden tossed it away, the meaning behind drug slang, and even how crack cocaine is cooked.

Amid the trial, the jury also heard extensive testimony from Biden's ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, who met the president's son at a gentleman's club in New York City when she was just three years out of college, and he was 48 years old.

Kestan, who also testified under immunity, described Hunter Biden as "charming and charismatic" when they first met in 2017 after he booked a private room at the strip club for 30 minutes. Noting that after they sparked a relationship, she didn't notice a drastic change in his behavior when he smoked crack cocaine.

Accompanying Kestan’s testimony were photos depicting crack pipes in hotel rooms often sitting next to bottles of liquor or beer, a photo of a bare-chested Hunter Biden in a bubble bath with Kestan and a screenshot of a FaceTime video showing Biden’s back tattoo that resembled claw marks. The jurors were told amid Kestan’s remarks that Biden learned how to cook crack cocaine, and they were shown a photo of baking soda in one hotel room used to cook cocaine into crack.

Witness testimony at times became tense, including when a former gun shop employee, Jason Turner, took the stand. Turner was working the day Hunter Biden purchased the gun and ran his background check. He delivered blunt answers to the defense team on Friday, appearing annoyed and defensive as Lowell peppered him with questions regarding the sequence of events surrounding when Hunter Biden picked out the firearm on Oct. 12.

The case marks the first in the nation's history that a sitting president's child was put on trial.

President Biden, last week, said he would not pardon his son if convicted. The president released a statement after his son was found guilty on all counts, saying that while he is the nation's commander in chief, he's "also a Dad."

"As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today," Biden said of his son, Hunter Biden, after the verdict. "So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery."

"Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support," Biden said. "Nothing will ever change that."