Democrat President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been found guilty of illegally buying a gun after hiding his drug use.
Hunter Biden, 54, was convicted of three federal firearm charges.
The Wilmington, Delaware jury unanimously voted to convict Hunter Biden.
The jury returned the following verdicts:
- Count 1: False statement (firearms sale) – GUILTY
- Count 2: False statement (transaction record) – GUILTY
- Count 3: Illegal possession of a firearm – GUILTY
The case marks the first criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s offspring.
Prosecutors had said he lied on a form when buying a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018.
He stated that he was not a drug user or addict, despite a problem with crack cocaine.
Biden pleaded not guilty to felony charges.
The charges included lying about his addiction when he filled out a government screening document for the revolver.
He was also charged with illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
The verdicts came after the jury deliberated for about three hours.
His lawyer Abbe Lowell told jurors his client did not try to deceive as he had been clean when he bought the gun.
He argued that he did not consider himself a drug user then.
Hunter Biden did not testify at the trial.
The jury started its deliberations on Monday afternoon.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before returning the historic verdict.
He will now await Judge Maryellen Noreika to decide on a sentence for the crimes.
The first son could be facing up to 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
However, the typical sentence is much lower.
No sentencing date has been set.
President Biden has the power to pardon his son.
However, he recently told ABC News in an interview on June 6 that he would not do so.
The gun charge was initially going to be disposed of as part of a plea deal with special counsel David Weiss’ office last year.
Under the terms of the deal, Biden would have been sentenced to six months probation for pleading guilty to tax charges.
The gun charge would have been dismissed in two years if Biden honored the terms of what’s known as a diversion agreement.
As part of the plea deal, which was ultimately rejected by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika over concerns about its scope, Biden submitted a statement of facts in which he acknowledged he “was a user of and addicted to crack cocaine at the time” of the gun sale.
The court document, which jurors were prevented from seeing because it was part of the rejected plea agreement, also said that during the 11 days he possessed the gun “he purchased and used crack cocaine regularly.”
Plea negotiations fell apart following Noreika’s rejection, leading to the indictment on the gun charges in Delaware and another on tax charges in California.
That case is scheduled to go to trial in September.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
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🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: Hunter Biden has been found guilty of 3 felony gun charges and faces 25 years in prison.
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) June 11, 2024
Joe Biden did claim that he would not pardon his son if found guilty… pic.twitter.com/9szGGUy1li
The Russian media has been exposing Hunter Biden as a pedophile for years now, while in the United States they could barely convict him of a gun charge. pic.twitter.com/jTb2DsNkRg
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) June 10, 2024
