Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive for his gun crime trial in federal court on June 10, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
Hannah Beier | Reuters
This is breaking news and will be updated throughout the day.
Jurors in Hunter Biden’s gun crimes trial will hear closing arguments Monday afternoon after lawyers said President Joe Biden’s son will not testify in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.
Prosecutors rested their case after calling FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen back to the stand for brief counter-testimony.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating Biden’s fate in the afternoon after receiving final instructions from Judge Maryellen Noreika.
Biden is charged with three felonies related to possessing a handgun while a drug user.
Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, virtually said he would not take the witness stand during a morning hearing with Noreika on proposed jury instructions.
Lowell asked Noreika to leave the phrase “did not testify” – referring to Biden – in those instructions.
Noreika rejected a defense request to change the proposed jury instructions.
Biden’s lawyers wanted Noreika to tell jurors that “Mr. Biden’s response to the allegations is that he never ‘knowingly’ owned a gun when he considered himself a drug user or addict, and that he did not ‘knowingly’ lie.” ” a form that asked him, “Are you a drug user or an addict,” because at the time he did not believe he was either a drug user or an addict?
But the judge said that was an “argument” and it was not “appropriate” for her to tell the jury
The trial continues as former President Donald Trump is expected to conduct a virtual interview with a New York probation officer on Monday in preparation for his sentencing next month in a hush money trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
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Trump was convicted last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a payout to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
The Republican will face Hunter Biden’s father in the November presidential election.
President Biden said last week that he would not pardon his son if Hunter Biden is convicted in the case, one of two criminal cases the younger Biden faces.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to go on trial later this year in federal court in Los Angeles on criminal tax charges.
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2024-06-10 15:17:10
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