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 7, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
Hannah Beier | Reuters
Prosecutors rested their case Friday in the federal weapons trial of Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys will now present their case, which is expected to conclude next week in U.S. District Court in Delaware. It is unclear whether they plan to subpoena their client to testify in his own defense.
Hunter Biden, 54, is charged with three counts related to purchasing and possessing a Colt Cobra revolver while using illegal drugs.
Prosecutors said the evidence was “overwhelming” that Hunter was addicted to crack cocaine at the time he bought the gun and that he lied about it on a form used in a federal background check to purchase the gun.
Jurors heard testimony Thursday from Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s late brother Beau Biden.
In 2018, Hallie Biden discovered and disposed of the weapon at the center of the case.
She also had a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015. During her relationship with Hunter, she learned that he was using crack cocaine, telling the jury that she found out and then “Googled it because I didn’t know what it was.”
She testified that she found the revolver in Hunter’s truck on Oct. 23, 2018, and discarded it behind a convenience store.
“I didn’t want him to hurt himself or for my children to find it and hurt themselves,” she told the jury.
The president said in an interview with ABC News on Thursday that he would not pardon his son if convicted and that he would accept any verdict from the jury.
The trial of the sitting president’s only surviving son began just days after former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump has baselessly claimed that this case, filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and tried in New York state court, was initiated by Biden to harm Trump’s chances in the 2024 presidential election.
The presumptive Republican nominee and his allies have continued to spread that claim and raise funds even as Biden’s own son faces federal Justice Department charges in two separate courts.
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2024-06-07 14:54:23
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