Hunter Biden’s gun application turning point in case: Juror

(NewsNation) – The jury that convicted Hunter Biden of three felony gun charges was split when they returned to the Delaware courthouse Tuesday morning, before the 12 jurors finally returned and found President Joe Biden’s son guilty of all charges.

Juror 10, who is from Sussex County, Delaware, told reporters after the verdict was read that the six jurors who arrived Tuesday prepared to acquit the president’s son did not want to rush to trial.

Ultimately, however, the turning point came when jurors concluded that prosecutors had proven that Biden had falsely checked a box on his gun application indicating that he was not a drug addict or crack addict.

Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison on the charges, which include lying about his drug addiction on an application for a firearm, which he owned in Delaware for about 11 days. Biden now faces a September trial when he will contest misdemeanor tax charges after prosecutors say Biden failed to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016-19.

But in convicting Biden on Tuesday, the anonymous juror told reporters that Biden’s drug abuse around the time he purchased the gun was a major factor in changing the jury’s opinion.

Juror 10 said the lack of rush to judgment was “justice for Hunter” and that some of the six pleaded with other jurors to give the president’s son the benefit of the doubt. But one juror remained firm, saying, “You’re not going to change my mind,” the juror told reporters.

Prosecutors said they planned to use portions of Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he detailed his struggle with alcohol and drug abuse following the death of his brother Beau.

“When he bought the gun — the moment before he was buying the gun and the moment after he bought the gun, there was evidence of (drug) use,” the juror said.

However, while at least one juror who refused to budge on Biden’s guilt acknowledged that he found Biden’s daughter Hallie’s testimony “compelling,” Juror 10 said the same could not be said of Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell.

He indicated he did not agree with the defense’s assertion that Biden’s life was in the hands of the jury.

“He clearly didn’t have things under control like the prosecution did,” Juror 10 said, adding that he didn’t think Lowell provided a convincing case for his client’s innocence.

Lowell said in a statement Tuesday that it will pursue “all available legal challenges.”

Although Biden’s lawyers have argued that the gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden are politically motivated as President Biden seeks a second term in the White House, politics have rarely entered the picture when finding Hunter Biden guilty, Juror 10 said. .

The juror said he rarely watches the news and said he didn’t know what charges Hunter Biden faced when he was called to serve on the jury.

He said political motivations did not influence the final decision at any point during the jury’s nearly three hours of deliberation. President Biden was not present at either trial, which was attended by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and other members of the Biden family.

“You somehow try to block it out of your mind,” the juror said of the first lady’s presence in the courtroom. “When you say the sitting president, and this is his son on trial, I never thought he was the president’s son.”

He added: “Your father was not on trial.”