WILMINGTON, Delaware — Late Monday afternoon, a judge directed the jury in Hunter Biden’s gun trial to start their deliberations following closing arguments from both the prosecution and the defense team.
The jury can take as much time as necessary—whether minutes, hours, or days—to determine if the first son is guilty of the three felony charges related to a 2018 firearm purchase.
Special counsel David Weiss contends that Biden, a recovering drug and alcohol addict, lied on a federal form about his crack cocaine use when purchasing a revolver on Oct. 12 of that year. Weiss also claims Biden illegally possessed the firearm for 11 days while he was a drug user or addict.
During closing arguments, prosecutors urged the jurors to rely on their “common sense” and the substantial evidence presented throughout the six-day trial, which suggested Biden was using drugs from 2015 to early 2019 and thus was a drug user at the time of the gun acquisition.
Judge Maryellen Noreika, appointed by Donald Trump, ruled before the trial that the prosecution did not need to prove Biden was on drugs at the exact moment he completed the form and allegedly lied. Instead, they only needed to prove that he was on drugs “recently enough” to show he was “actively engaged in such conduct,” as explained by Leo Wise, a government prosecutor, in his closing argument.
The form in question asked, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, [controlled substances.]”
This story is developing.
