Liam Conner
The jury made up of six men and six women who condemned Hunter Biden, charged with three felony gun charges, wanted Tuesday to review the evidence and didn’t want to “rush to judgment,” an anonymous juror said in an interview with CBS News. The juror also said that politics did not influence his decision.
“We never talked about the president during deliberation,” said anonymous Juror No. 10. “…Politics was not a factor in this case.”
The Delaware-based jury deliberated for about three hours after receiving the case Monday afternoon. When jurors initially voted to assess their position, the vote was 6-6, Juror No. 10 said.
“I may have been one of the six who pleaded not guilty,” the juror said. “It’s not that we believed he wasn’t guilty. We needed to look at the evidence. We didn’t want a rush to judgment. We didn’t want to ruin someone’s life.”
The jury reviewed the evidence and ultimately reached a unanimous conviction on all three counts, agreeing with the charge that Hunter Biden violated federal law by purchasing and possessing a gun as a drug addict.
Juror #10 explained his thinking in reaching a guilty verdict. The juror said the evidence in the case revolved around a form filled out by Hunter Biden to purchase the gun, in which he declared – falsely – that he was not an illegal user of any controlled substance. The juror said Hunter Biden was clearly “not clean” of drugs at the time of the purchase.
“He knew what he was doing when he was told he needed to fill out that application,” the juror said.
“When he checked that box, he knew he was an addict,” the juror added. “He knew he was using crack.”
The anonymous juror said it didn’t help the defense when self-recorded audio of Hunter Biden’s book, “Beautiful Things,” was read aloud in court. In the book, published in 2021, Hunter Biden openly admits his struggle with addiction.
“His book didn’t help him, especially being an audiobook and hearing his own voice,” the juror said. “He came out and admitted it: I’m a drug addict.”
The mood in the courtroom as the jury read the verdict was “solemn,” the anonymous juror said. There was little time between the announcement that a verdict had been reached and the reading of the verdict, and First Lady Jill Biden did not return to court in time.
“That’s when I felt sorry for his family,” the juror said.
President Biden, who stayed away from the trial, changed his schedule Tuesday to fly to Wilmington. The president issued a statement saying he will accept the outcome of the case and that he loves his son.
Biden Hunter could face up to 25 years in prison, but the sentence is out of the jury’s hands. That will be up to the judge. The sentencing date has not yet been set.
“He’s just like anyone else,” the anonymous juror said of Hunter Biden. “He needs more help than prison. Prison won’t help anyone.”
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