Closing Arguments Begin in Hunter Biden Gun Trial

Closing arguments began in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial on June 10 after defense lawyer Abbe Lowell confirmed that his client would not testify.

Mr. Lowell asked the judge to instruct the jury not to hold it against Mr. Biden for choosing not to testify. The first son is facing three felony charges related to a 2018 firearm purchase.

Authorities accuse Mr. Biden of lying to the federally licensed gun store by illegally claiming on his application that he was not a drug user at the time of purchase and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days.

Mr. Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his defense attorneys argue that if he was addicted to crack cocaine when he purchased the gun, he was in “denial” and, therefore, could not have lied on the form.

Prosecutors rested their case on June 7 after a week of testimony from Mr. Biden’s ex-partners and expert witnesses, probing into his years of drug and alcohol addiction.

The defense called three witnesses on June 7, including the gun store owner and the employee who sold Mr. Biden the gun. The defense also called his daughter, Naomi Biden, to the stand, who testified that her father appeared to be of sound mind in the weeks leading up to the gun purchase.

Prosecutors then pointed to text messages during October 2018, the month of the gun purchase, in which Mr. Biden refused to meet with his daughter for unknown reasons.

Jury Instructions

The judge resumed the trial on June 10 by discussing final jury instructions with the attorneys. This included the immunity granted to Mr. Biden’s sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, and former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, for their testimony in the trial.

Hallie Biden originally found the firearm in Mr. Biden’s car 11 days after he purchased it, on Oct. 23, 2018. She threw it in a public garbage can, prompting a police report and search for the discarded firearm.

Mr. Biden’s attorneys argued in their proposed jury instructions that certain words have “overly expansive and amorphous” definitions, such as what it means to be a drug “user” and to “possess” a firearm.

They suggested that the proposed definitions would deny Mr. Biden a fair trial and that if he is convicted with instructions containing those definitions, the verdict cannot be sustained on appeal.

FBI special agent Erika Jensen was called to the stand again to discuss text messages Mr. Biden allegedly sent to Hallie Biden at 4 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2023, four days after purchasing the gun.

Ms. Jensen told Mr. Lowell that she did not have location data for the texts, but authorities recovered the data, showing Mr. Biden was at a 7-Eleven convenience store an hour after sending the text. Prosecutors allege that Mr. Biden was waiting for a drug dealer, but Mr. Lowell suggested that he could have instead been buying a doughnut or coffee.

The judge then read instructions to the jury, telling them that if they believe the prosecutors “proved each and every element of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt,” then they should return a guilty verdict. On the contrary, if the jurors have any reasonable doubt regarding one or more elements of the offense, the judge said they must grant a not guilty verdict.

Closing Arguments Begin

Prosecutor Leo Wise told the jury, “No one is above the law” and that the evidence in the case came from witness testimony and physical and documentary evidence, such as Mr. Biden’s memoir, where he detailed his descent into crack cocaine addiction.

“The evidence was personal. It was ugly, and it was overwhelming,” Mr. Wise said, adding that, “It was also absolutely necessary.”

Mr. Wise also argued that the evidence shows that Mr. Biden “knowingly” made a false statement when he bought the gun and “knowingly” possessed it for 11 days before Hallie Biden found it and put it in a public garbage can.

He also said that prosecutors do not have to prove the defendant was using drugs the day he bought the gun or during the 11 days he owned it, just that he was using drugs around the time of the purchase.

“You can consider the defendant’s pattern of use,” Mr. Wise said, pointing to Ms. Kestan’s claims of Mr. Biden using drugs less than three weeks before buying the gun and the text messages to Hallie Biden where he said he was smoking crack days after he bought it.

Mr. Biden is facing up to 25 years in prison if convicted in the federal gun case, although first-time offenders typically receive less than the maximum sentence. It is also not clear if the judge will give Mr. Biden jail time if he is handed a guilty verdict.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.