Hunter Biden found guilty on 3 felony charges in gun trial

guilty verdict in Hunter Biden's Federal Gun trial in Wilmington Delaware the president's son facing three felony counts accused of lying at a Federal Form about drug use when he bought a gun in 2018 saying he was not a drug user and prosecutors arguing he illegally had that gun for 11 days after deliberating for about an hour on the first day about two hours today they have found him guilty on all three charges count one making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm guilty of count two making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal licensed Firearms dealer and guilty on count three possessing a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user or addicted to a controlled substance so again the breaking news at this hour Hunter Biden found guilty on all three felony charges let's get right to Terry Moran outside the courthouse Terry that's right David you've got it all three counts guilty as charged about 3 hours of deliberation 1 hour yesterday 2 hours today the jurors got to work and they came through with this verdict each of these counts required the ver required the jurors to take into account what Hunter's defense was here which was basically that while he had abused drugs as he confessed in his Memoir beautiful things as the jurors heard plenty of evidence about at that time Hunter Biden said he since he didn't testify but his lawyer presented evidence that he did not feel that he was actually abusing drugs at that time and therefore was not guilty of these crimes the jurors rejected that guilty on all three counts Hunter Biden arrived in court just before the jury was brought in and read the verdict Terry let me ask you about um the show of support in the front rows of that courtroom as we know the first lady Jill Biden they're supporting her son every day but one uh in this trial multiple members of the family and friends close to Hunter Biden all there we know in the closing arguments the prosecution well aware of that image right there in front of the juror saying of family members the first lady the friends who had gathered essentially that does not matter here that's exactly what they said David none of that matters pointing at the Biden family at the first lady who was here almost every day took a whirlwind trip to France to join the president for the D-Day commemorations and came right back to be with her son and yet uh was partly part of the closing argument of prosecutors there prosecutors saying no one is above the law no matter what their name is no matter who is in court and Terry the defense Hunter Biden's defense team had tried to argue in closing arguments that the prosecution while they had ample evidence that Hunter Biden was a drug user that the the window of time directly surrounding the purchase of the gun uh the defense had argued the prosecution had not made the case that he was using drugs in that you know that window of time that very small window of time but but apparently the jury didn't buy that they didn't buy it and in part David because of the law that the judge read to them the judge as his uh customary as his part of the process reads the jurors the law that they will apply to the facts that they heard in this case and part of that law was that drug use for the purpose of this law did not have to occur on the day that Hunter Biden bought the weapon and checked that Federal Form that it could be evid of a pattern of drug abuse or drug addiction around that and that certainly was clear in this case so the defense was fighting an uphill battle not only really against the facts but against the law as the judge gave it to the jurors here now I should say that in court the defense as is customary right after the conviction was announced uh renewed an appeal for an acquittal uh from the judge that in order to preserve an appeal and gave notice essentially that they will appeal this case so what happens now Terry lead to Hunter Biden sentencing next and these are very serious federal crimes these are crimes that carry very heavy prison sentences 10 years each for the false statement and five years for the illegal possession of the weapon now that is highly unlikely to be applied to Hunter Biden anything like that in this case experts tell us that for a first offender like him someone who did not use the gun at all he just kind of bought it and stuck it in his car there's no evidence that he was is going to use it in any kind of a crime it would be highly unlikely for Hunter Biden to see prison time but these are as I say very serious charges uh and and there it may well be that prosecutors uh will ask for some prison time given the nature of the charges and given what what others might face

Channel: ABC7

Views: 15,978

Keywords:

Id: 2TPLRQi4NjQ

Length: 4min 49sec (289 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2024