Hunter Biden was found guilty of all three counts of federal firearm charges on Tuesday, concluding a six-year investigation into whether the first son had lied on a federal form for a background check and illegally possessed a firearm while under the influence of illicit drugs.
Hunter was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine in 2018 and had at least one stay in a rehab facility during the summer. However, as multiple witnesses testified during the trial, he had quickly relapsed by October 2018, the month that he purchased a gun. His ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, painted a picture of a deeply troubled man whose constant drug abuse led to the dissolution of their marriage.
Hallie Biden, Hunter’s sister-in-law turned paramour, said she repeatedly searched Hunter’s car to make sure it as safe for her kids to be inside, only to find the gun and drug paraphernalia. Hallie took the gun and the pouch it was kept in, which tested positive for cocaine residue, and tossed it in a grocery store dumpster. Prosecutors also revealed a series of texts in the days surrounding the gun purchase that showed Hunter making plans to meet up with his crack dealer and using veiled references to various illicit substances.
The defence hoped to make Hunter look more sympathetic by calling his daughter Naomi to the stand. But as Naomi testified that she had seen her father in October and that he seemed ‘great’ and ‘hopeful’, text messages in the days following the gun purchase revealed Hunter was quite erratic and often unreachable. As Axios put it, ‘probing questions and old text messages presented by the prosecution on Friday made the president’s son look more like an erratic dad than a good father who was getting sober in the week after he bought the gun.’
The defence ended up pulling one of its witnesses, presumably Hunter’s uncle James, in the aftermath of Naomi’s disastrous testimony.
The jury started deliberations on Monday and returned the guilty verdict late Tuesday morning. Hunter faces up to 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
Politically, the case all but nullifies the Democratic party and Biden campaign strategy of repeatedly reminding Americans that his opponent, Donald Trump, is a convicted felon. President Biden has said in interviews that he has ruled out pardoning his son if found guilty.
This article first appeared in The Spectator’s World edition.
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