OAN’s James Meyers
9:07 AM – Tuesday, June 11, 2024
A jury in Delaware found Hunter Biden guilty on three federal gun charges.
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President Joe Biden’s son was charged in federal court in Wilmington, with three felony counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics, and had pleaded not guilty.
Two of the counts carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, and the third has a maximum of five years. Despite the maximum sentencing, under federal sentencing guideline recommendations, he could be sentenced to over a year in prison, but the judge could sentence him to more or less time.
Additionally, each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000. No sentencing date has been set.
The main focus of the trial was on Biden’s October 12, 2018 purchase of the firearm at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, when prosecutors argued that Biden lied on the federal form that he was not suing or addicted to drugs. The firearm remained in his possession for 11 days before Hallie Biden discovered it in the console of his Ford pickup truck and threw it away in a public trash can outside a grocery market in Wilmington. Hallie Biden testified that she regretted tossing the firearm and did so when she was in a “panicked” state and worried that Biden would use the firearm to hurt himself or others.
Furthermore, the court heard from the man who ended up finding the gun in the trash can, as well as experts from the FBI and DEA who testified on bank statements showing Biden withdrawing thousands of dollars in cash. As well as trace amounts of cocaine being discovered on a pouch containing the gun when Hallie Biden tossed it away, the meaning behind drug slang, and even how crack cocaine is cooked.
During the trial, the jury also heard more testimony from Biden’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, who met the president’s son at a gentleman’s club in New York City when he was 48-years-old.
“He would want to smoke the second he woke up,” Kestan testified last Wednesday.
Kestan described Hunter as “charming and charismatic” when they first met in 2017 after he booked a private room at the strip club for 30 minutes. Kestan noted that she didn’t notice a change in his behavior when he would smoke crack cocaine.
“I didn’t notice it. Sometimes I think that’s because I was catching feelings for him,” she told the court.
Photos revealed during the trial supported Kestan’s testimony that showed crack pipes in hotel rooms often sitting next to bottles of liquor or beer. The jurors were also told amid Kestan’s testimony that Biden learned how to cook crack cocaine, and they were shown a photo of baking soda in one hotel room used to cook cocaine into crack.
Testimonies in the trial became tense, especially when a former gun shop employee, Jason Turner, took the stand. Turner was working the day Hunter purchased the gun and ran his background check. Turner gave very blunt answers and gave off being annoyed as he was questioned regarding the sequence of events surrounding when Hunter Biden picked out the firearm on October 12th.
“You’re not understanding how gun shop life is,” Turner told Biden’s defense attorney Abbe Lowell at one point, referring to how people who frequently visit gun shops often spend time talking sports or just talk with employees.
Lowell and Turner during the trial spoke over each other frequently, with presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika jumping to tell Turner to let Lowell finish his questions before answering. Noreika joked that, otherwise, the court’s stenographer gets “mad” at her for the inability to record both parties’ comments.
“Be mad at me,” Turner quipped to the court stenographer, eliciting a few chuckles in court.
“He’s been mad at me the whole trial,” Lowell lightheartedly said in response.
Meanwhile, president Biden has the power to pardon his son, but told ABC News in an interview on June 6th he would not do so.
The case marks the first in the nation’s history that a sitting president’s child was put on trial.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
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