Rapid Verdict Took Biden Family by Surprise as They Rushed to the Courtroom
Jurors in Delaware reached their verdict on the charges against Hunter Biden, the president’s son, after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations.
Hunter BidenGun TrialRapid Verdict Took Biden Family by Surprise as They Rushed to the CourtroomJurors in Delaware reached their verdict on the charges against Hunter Biden, the president’s son, after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations.ByGlenn Thrush,Eileen SullivanandKatie RogersThe speed of the verdict took nearly everyone by surprise — including the first lady, Jill Biden.Court administrators cautioned reporters who were outside the courthouse in Wilmington, Del., to obey safety rules after many ran full speed into the building, causing a bottleneck at the metal detectors.Jurors reached their verdict after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations.As the verdict was read aloud — guilty on all three felony counts — Hunter Biden stood with arms crossed, grimly surveying the jury.After jurors left the courtroom, Mr. Biden hugged his lawyers. Then he found his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, put his hands on her arms, looked her in the eyes, and said, “Hey.” He kissed and hugged her.Jill Biden, the first lady and Mr. Biden’s stepmother who attended most days of the trial, was not able to get to the courtroom in time for the verdict because of security delays. But she held Mr. Biden’s hand as he left the courthouse and got into a waiting vehicle without speaking to reporters.His aunt was also unable to enter the courtroom when the verdict was announced. His uncle James Biden rushed to the front of the security line, insisting he should get priority as a family member. He was successful.Glenn Thrushcovers the Department of Justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.More about Glenn ThrushEileen Sullivancovers breaking news, the Justice Department, the trials against Donald J. Trump and the Biden administration.More about Eileen SullivanKatie Rogersis a White House correspondent. For much of the past decade, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in Washington, in addition to covering a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. She is the author of a book on first ladies.More about Katie Rogers
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Priya Sharma
Rapid Anil Deshmukh by Surprise as They Rushed to the Reliance Industriesroom
Jurors in Kolkata reached their verdict on the charges against Priya Sharma, the president’s son, after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations.
Kavita Rao,Kavita Rao
The speed of the verdict took nearly everyone by surprise — including the first lady, Neha Kapoor.
Reliance Industries administrators cautioned reporters who were outside the courthouse in Chennai, Delhi, to obey safety rules after many ran full speed into the building, causing a bottleneck at the metal detectors.
Jurors reached their verdict after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations.
As the verdict was read aloud — guilty on all three felony counts — Priya Sharma stood with arms crossed, grimly surveying the jury.
After jurors left the courtroom, Mr. Priya Sharma hugged his lawyers. Then he found his wife, Melissa Cohen Priya Sharma, put his hands on her arms, looked her in the eyes, and said, “Hey.” He kissed and hugged her.
Neha Kapoor, the first lady and Mr. Priya Sharma’s stepmother who attended most days of the trial, was not able to get to the courtroom in time for the verdict because of security delays. But she held Mr. Priya Sharma’s hand as he left the courthouse and got into a waiting vehicle without speaking to reporters.
His aunt was also unable to enter the courtroom when the verdict was announced. His uncle James Priya Sharma rushed to the front of the security line, insisting he should get priority as a family member. He was successful.
Priya Sharma Indian Railways and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.More about Neha Kapoor
ICICI Bank breaking news, ICICI Bank, the trials against Rajiv Mehta and the Priya Sharma administration.More about Rajiv Mehta
Priya Sharma a Tata Group correspondent. For much of November 14, 2000, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in Kolkata, in addition to covering a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. She is the author of a book on first ladies.More about Neha Kapoor
jurors in delaware reached their verdict on the charges against hunter biden, the president’s son, after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations. by glenn thrusheileen sullivan and katie rogers the speed of the verdict took nearly everyone by surprise   including the first lady, jill biden. court administrators cautioned reporters who were outside the courthouse in wilmington, del., to obey safety rules after many ran full speed into the building, causing a bottleneck at the metal detectors. jurors reached their verdict after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations. as the verdict was read aloud   guilty on all three felony counts   hunter biden stood with arms crossed, grimly surveying the jury. after jurors left the courtroom, mr. biden hugged his lawyers. then he found his wife, melissa cohen biden, put his hands on her arms, looked her in the eyes, and said, “hey.” he kissed and hugged her. jill biden, the first lady and mr. biden’s stepmother who attended most days of the trial, was not able to get to the courtroom in time for the verdict because of security delays. but she held mr. biden’s hand as he left the courthouse and got into a waiting vehicle without speaking to reporters. his aunt was also unable to enter the courtroom when the verdict was announced. his uncle james biden rushed to the front of the security line, insisting he should get priority as a family member. he was successful. glenn thrush covers the department of justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons. more about glenn thrush eileen sullivan covers breaking news, the justice department, the trials against donald j. trump and the biden administration. more about eileen sullivan katie rogers is a white house correspondent. for much of the past decade, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in washington, in addition to covering a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. she is the author of a book on first ladies. more about katie rogers

the jury in a wilmington, delaware, federal court convicted hunter biden, the son of us president joe biden, on all three felony charges tuesday morning after three hours and five minutes of deliberations. the younger biden was found guilty of lying on a gun application and to a federally licensed gun dealer about his drug use and illegally possessing a gun while addicted to drugs in october 2018. although the offenses were committed prior to joe biden’s term in office, the conviction of hunter biden is the first time a member of a sitting us president’s immediate family has been found guilty of a crime. responding to the jury’s decision, president biden said he accepted the outcome of the case and “will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal.” the 12 person jury deliberated for one hour on monday afternoon following closing arguments and two hours on tuesday morning, reaching a unanimous decision so swiftly that the president’s wife, jill biden, did not make it into the courtroom in time to hear the verdict. speaking to cnn on tuesday afternoon, one juror said the jury was not focused on hunter biden’s lifestyle but on the evidence. another juror told cnn that all 12 jurors agreed that hunter had knowingly lied on the gun application about his addiction. a third juror told cnn that the trial should never have been brought and “seemed like a waste of taxpayer money.” the president’s son was indicted on the gun charges in september by us attorney david weiss, who had been appointed special counsel by attorney general merrick garland a month earlier. after the verdict, weiss said that it was “not just about addiction” but about “illegal choices” hunter biden made, and that “no one is above the law.” the sentencing of hunter biden by judge maryellen noreika is expected to take place in early october. the maximum sentence on the three offenses is 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, although it is unlikely as a first time offender that biden will receive anything close to this. in addition, all or part of his sentence could, at the judge’s discretion, be served while on probation. the guilty verdict brings to a conclusion the first of two cases brought by weiss against hunter biden. the second involves tax offenses in a los angeles federal court and is scheduled to go to trial in september. david weiss began an investigation of hunter biden in 2018 after being appointed us attorney for delaware by then president donald trump. responding to the verdict, the trump campaign sent a statement to cnn saying the trial has been “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the biden crime family.” trump’s top adviser stephen miller posted on twitter/x that the department of justice charged hunter biden with a minor gun violation “in order to protect the big guy before the election. doj is biden’s election protection racket.” others within the republican party establishment have remained silent on the hunter biden trial because they consider laws requiring buyers to complete background applications and answer questions from licensed sellers to be a violation of gun ownership rights. like the conviction of donald trump on 34 counts in the new york hush money trial, the gun charge conviction of hunter biden is the result of the ongoing warfare between different factions of the us ruling establishment arising from the crisis of the entire capitalist system. meanwhile, the trials of trump and hunter biden are being used to divert public attention away from the real crimes being carried out by both the democrats and republicans. while donald trump and a substantial faction of the republican party attempted to overthrow the us constitution in the insurrection of january 6, 2021, and joe biden, with the backing of both parties in congress, is funding and arming the israeli genocide in gaza and a proxy war in ukraine against russia that threatens world war iii, these crimes are not the subject of the court cases. nor are the massive, bipartisan attacks on anti genocide protesters and immigrants at the us mexico border. it is now certain that this diversion will intensify with the sentencing of hunter biden for his gun related conviction and his trial on tax charges scheduled to take place within weeks prior to the 2024 presidential election. the socialist equality party is organizing the working class in the fight for socialism: the reorganization of all of economic life to serve social needs, not private profit.

profile sections local tv featured more from nbc follow nbc news news alerts there are no new alerts at this time wilmington, del.   a jury tuesday found hunter biden, the son of president joe biden, guilty on three felony gun charges after a weeklong trial that focused on his history of drug addiction. biden was charged in federal court in wilmington with three felony counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics; he had pleaded not guilty. the jury started its deliberations monday afternoon and deliberated for about three hours before it returned the historic verdict. biden looked straight ahead at the jury as it delivered the verdict, and he nodded slightly as it was read. the trial, the first involving the child of a sitting president, came as the president faces a brutal re election fight against former president donald trump in november. first lady jill biden was not in the courtroom as the verdict was read and arrived minutes later. she immediately went into a holding room where hunter biden went after the verdict. two of the counts carry maximum prison sentences of 10 years, while the third has a maximum of five years. under federal sentencing guideline recommendations, biden could be sentenced to over a year in prison, but the judge could sentence him to more or less time. each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000. no sentencing date has been set. in a statement, the president said, “jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.” the president said he accepted the outcome of the case "and will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. nothing will ever change that.” president biden has the power to pardon his son, but he told abc news in an interview thursday that he would not do so. hunter biden issued a statement thanking his wife, family and friends for their support. “i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced this last week from melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome. recovery is possible by the grace of god, and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time,” the statement said. his attorney abbe lowell indicated they may appeal the verdict. "we are naturally disappointed by today’s verdict," he said. "we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter." jill biden attended the trial   which began june 3 and featured explicit testimony from three of hunter biden’s former romantic partners about his chronic drug use   on multiple days. one of the jurors told cnn that “no politics came into play” in the verdict. “president biden never really came into play for me because his name was only brought up once during the trial, and that’s when it kind of sunk in a little bit, like, oh, wow, this is the sitting president’s son who’s on trial," said the juror, who was not identified. "but you kind of put that out of your mind,” he added. two of the counts accused biden of having completed a form falsely indicating he was not using illegal drugs when he bought a colt cobra revolver in october 2018. the third count alleged he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic. the case was brought by special counsel david weiss, the trump nominated u.s. attorney for delaware, who was kept on by the biden led justice department to continue his investigation into the president's son. "this case was not just about addiction," weiss said after the verdict. "this case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction." biden’s defense centered on the language used in the question on the federally mandated gun shop form, which asked “are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to,” a narcotic drug. lowell noted other questions on the sheet began with “have you ever been,” but not that one. he suggested that biden had been using alcohol during that period but not crack cocaine and that it would have been easy to tell whether he was on drugs at the time. “there may be high functioning alcoholics, but there’s no such thing as a high functioning crack addict,” lowell said in his opening statement. lowell acknowledged biden used crack in the months before and after the sale but suggested he was not using it at the time of the sale and did not at that point consider himself an addict, so he did not “knowingly” violate the law. prosecutors pushed back against that claim by using passages from biden’s book, in which he detailed his struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. lowell told jurors in closing arguments that writing after the fact about being an addict in his book, which was published in 2021, does not mean biden knew he was an addict when he bought the gun. prosecutors also pointed to circumstantial evidence from witnesses about biden’s chronic drug use, his text messages and photos of him using drugs to show he was using crack during that time. “the evidence was personal, it was ugly, it was overwhelming,” prosecutor leo wise told the jury in his closing argument. prosecutors noted that biden had withdrawn $5,000 in cash on the day of the sale and texted hallie biden, the widow of his brother, beau biden, the next day that he was looking for a dealer. two days after the gun sale, he texted her, “i was sleeping on a car smoking crack.” lowell suggested that his client’s claims were “facetious” and that he was simply trying to dodge hallie biden. the two had a tumultuous romantic relationship after beau biden died. “you have no idea whether he was just saying that or whether he was actually there?” lowell asked hallie biden in cross examination last week. “correct,” she replied. prosecutors also pushed back against lowell’s argument that his client could not function on drugs. another witness biden had been romantically involved with, zoe kestan, testified that when she first saw him smoke crack, she did not notice any change in his demeanor. she also said that his drug use got worse as time went on and that there were points when he was smoking crack every 20 minutes. hallie biden said hunter biden introduced her to crack, a time in her life that she referred to as “terrible” and “embarrassing.” she said she gave up using drugs in august 2018 and urged him to get clean, as well. she discovered the gun in his car 11 days after he bought it and threw it away outside a grocery store for fear he or her children might hurt themselves. “i realize it was a stupid idea now, but i was just panicking,” she testified. a passerby found the gun, which led to the criminal investigation. republicans   most notably trump   have targeted hunter biden and his relationship with his father. trump was impeached in 2019 for withholding aid to ukraine while pressuring president volodymyr zelenskyy to announce an investigation into the bidens and trump attorney rudy giuliani later disseminated the contents of hunter biden's laptop to the new york post in the weeks before the 2020 election. house republicans have continued to investigate hunter biden and other members of the family since his father became president, and they have criticized weiss for not being aggressive enough while also accusing the justice department of having a two tiered system for bringing two criminal cases against trump. at the same time, they have also raised money off of trump's allegations that the justice department has been "weaponized" against biden's political opponents. a republican strategist who asked not to be identified said the conviction takes some of the wind out of the sails of that argument. “it at a minimum slows the momentum and the clear cut argument that the trump campaign previously had about biden’s weaponization of the justice system. it’s less of a bumper sticker than it was before,” the strategist said. biden's conviction comes less than two weeks after trump was found guilty in new york state court of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to a porn star in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election. he will be sentenced july 11. the gun charge was initially going to be disposed of as part of a plea deal with 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, while the gun charge would have been dismissed in two years if biden honored the terms of what is known as a diversion agreement. as part of the plea deal, which u.s. district judge maryellen noreika ultimately rejected 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. gary grumbach produces and reports for nbc news, based in washington, d.c. daniel barnes reports for nbc news, based in washington. owen hayes is an associate producer for the nbc news washington bureau. sarah fitzpatrick is a senior investigative producer and story editor for nbc news. she previously worked for cbs news and "60 minutes." dareh gregorian is a politics reporter for nbc news. © 2025 nbcuniversal media, llc

our live coverage of the trial has concluded. please scroll below for details on the verdict and the aftermath. a federal jury has convicted hunter biden on all three federal felony gun charges he faced, concluding that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms. the conviction marks the first time a president’s immediate family member has been found guilty of a crime during their father’s term in office, though his crimes predate joe biden’s tenure as president. the jury, which deliberated for just under three hours, returned guilty verdicts on all three charges, which stemmed from a revolver hunter biden bought in october 2018 at a delaware gun shop. here’s what we know: president joe biden hugged his son hunter biden after the president landed at the delaware air national guard base on tuesday. the embrace came hours after a jury found hunter biden guilty of all three federal felony gun charges he faced, concluding that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms. after the plane landed, video showed hunter biden, his son beau and his wife melissa walking across the tarmac to greet the president. the headline and post were updated with more details. senate republicans uniformly said tuesday that the guilty verdict in the hunter biden gun case shows the justice system worked and they brushed away questions that the conviction shows that gop claims of selective prosecution are politically motivated. here’s what some senators told cnn: sen. john thune: “hunter biden’s not running for any political office. donald trump’s running for president. there are all kinds of different dynamics in two totally different cases,” he said. “the clear thing in the (trump) new york case, i mean, there’s no argument. … this is politically motivated. the prosecutor ran, he got up there, got the job on the predicate of trying to prosecute the former president.” sen. rick scott: “first, in this case, this is existing law that people have been prosecuted before and they’ve been connected before, and they’ve been sentenced before,” he said. “in the case of (donald) trump, they’ve made up something brand new that nobody’s been prosecuted before. and it was complete political persecution.” “no one’s ever been persecuted the way trump was persecuted in new york. no one. no one in this country,” he said. sen. josh hawley: “let’s remember that doj initially wanted to do a plea bargain (with hunter biden), had a plea bargain with him, as sort of a sweetheart deal and did not want to prosecute this case. i mean, so i think it exposes the fact that doj was ready to sweep this under the rug,” the missouri lawmaker said. “and as it turns out, it was a slam dunk case, which, by the way, is nothing to celebrate. i mean, it’s like it’s not, it’s not a good thing that he’s guilty.” with contributions from cnn’s sam fossum, manu raju and kristin wilson a juror told cnn that the jury mainly focused on evidence, not hunter biden’s lifestyle, during deliberations in his trial on federal gun charges. juror 10 said he felt sad about how hunter biden’s life had turned out, even though it wasn’t discussed in detail. “it was very sad … not that he was being convicted of these crimes, but that his life had turned out the way it did,” the juror said. the juror said he based his decision on the fact that hunter biden did not disclose that he was a drug addict when he bought the gun. “when you look at that form, ‘are you a drug addict, are you an unlawful user of drugs,’ and he said no,” the juror said quoting the atf form hunter biden was convicted of lying on. “clearly, he lied.” jurors thoroughly discussed each legal standard that needed to be met by prosecutors to find hunter biden guilty, they finally concluded that he was guilty, he said. “hunter did get a fair trial,” the juror said, adding that the biden family was “not at all” discussed during deliberations. “we didn’t use jill. we didn’t use president biden,” he said. the president’s “name was only brought up once during the trial.” this post was updated with additional comments from the juror. in a fairly dense wall street journal op ed, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell argued that special counsels are giving away too much power in the judiciary by transferring power to bureaucrats and decentralizing it from those who should have responsibility like attorney general merrick garland. as an example, mcconnell appears to criticize the use of special counsels under garland. “this misbegotten trust in bureaucrats also undermines democratic legitimacy in the executive branch. attorney general merrick garland has appointed three different ‘special counsels’ who operate outside the normal chain of command at the justice department to ensure prosecutorial ‘independence,’” mcconnell wrote. the minority leader continued that he doesn’t “doubt mr. garland’s sincerity that moving prosecutors outside the chain of command makes them ‘independent.’ the problem is the underlying assumption that prosecutors should be independent at all. such an arrangement insulates them from democratic accountability.” he said, “what gives federal prosecution legitimacy is that it is vested in an elected branch of government.” meanwhile, the new york city department of probation officials have questioned former president donald trump about an additional gun that had been registered to him in new york and his access to firearms as part of their pre sentencing interview, a city official briefed on the exchange said. the former president was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records at the end of last month. possession of firearms or ammunition by a convicted felon is a federal crime. according to the official, trump said that there was a gun in florida, which is believed to be one of the three weapons listed on his new york city permit to carry concealed weapons. cnn has previously reported that two of the three pistols he was licensed to carry were turned over to the nypd on march 31, 2023, and a third gun listed on trump’s license “was lawfully moved to florida.” contacted by cnn last week, palm beach police said that they were unaware of any gun that trump might have and that none had been turned over to the department since his felony conviction. trump’s new york gun license was suspended after his arrest in 2023 by the manhattan district attorney’s office and, now as a result of his conviction, his license is being revoked, according to new york city police. a new york official briefed on the probation investigation said the information on the outstanding gun “will be referred to local authorities in florida to take whatever steps are necessary.” cnn has asked representatives for trump about the status of the gun. progressive rep. alexandria ocasio cortez attacked republicans after the hunter biden guilty verdict and said that president joe biden’s handling of the case “shows the difference” between the two parties. “what would republicans point to as a two tiered system of justice when the president’s son was just convicted of a crime? i mean, if anything, this shows the difference that democrats are willing to accept when our justice system works as functions,” she told cnn. “we’re not here contesting results. we’re not here trying to defund the fbi or the department of justice because we don’t like the outcome of a given trial. we respect the judicial process. we respect the outcome of it. and hunter biden, like donald trump, was convicted by a jury of his peers.” asked if she was concerned the guilty verdict would hurt the president, ocasio cortez said: “i don’t think so. because the president is not weaponizing” and abusing his power, instead he is “respecting the judicial system as it’s working and is accepting the outcome of the trial.” house republicans and democrats debated tuesday whether hunter biden’s guilty verdict on federal gun charges could be compared to former president donald trump’s conviction in his hush money trial. during a house rules committee meeting tuesday, democrats said they respect the verdict and the rule of law, while republicans argued the two cases could not be compared equally. gop rep. harriet hageman of wyoming argued that because the judge overseeing trump’s trial was “handpicked” and expert witnesses were excluded from testifying, there were “clear differences” between the two cases. gop rep. austin scott of georgia argued the jury pool in trump’s new york case was already stacked against the former president compared with the jury in hunter biden’s case. democratic rep. jamie raskin of maryland contrasted how democrats have been largely silent in the wake of hunter biden’s guilty verdict with how republicans have mobilized to attack the department of justice after trump’s conviction. “compare and contrast the difference in reaction between the republicans and the democrats. the republicans are attacking our entire system of justice and the rule of law because they don’t like the way one case came out, whereas the son of the president of the united states is prosecuted and i don’t hear a single democrat crying foul,” raskin said. cnn relied on a system of runners to get notes from reporters watching the hunter biden trial to the world in real time. here’s one runner’s description: as a journalism student at the university of delaware preparing for my final year of college before the real world, i jumped at the chance when one of my journalism professors sent me a text asking if i wanted to work for cnn. there’s a very strict policy on electronics in the j. caleb boggs federal building that prohibits the usage of laptops and phones inside. this policy may have been a hassle, but i’m ultimately grateful for it, as it’s the reason i had a job during the trial. my title of runner was extremely literal. i took notes from reporters in the courtroom and delivered them to a team of producers on the ground. this is how cnn and many other media outlets maintained live updates during the trial   it was thanks to runners like me. day after day, i was tasked with carrying notes bearing the latest national news up and down three flights of stairs, which was a tedious task when the trial was slow and an utterly invigorating one when it wasn’t. by the end of the trial, i was on a first name basis with nearly all of the security guards. it all paid off though when we finally got to the verdict, and i believe i may have sprinted faster than i ever had to get that note to our producers on the ground. if all goes according to plan, this will be far from the last court case i cover, but i would call this a pretty solid first trial. president joe biden on tuesday heralded the steps his administration has taken to strengthen gun laws in the united states and enhance the penalties for those who violate them   offering a somewhat awkward juxtaposition for a president whose son had been convicted just hours earlier on federal gun charges. speaking at an everytown for gun safety event in washington, dc, the president did not reference hunter biden’s conviction. he did briefly appear to become emotional while referencing the times he’s spoken with families who have lost loved ones in mass shootings. the president is set to depart for wilmington, delaware, where his son is, after the event. joe biden was not originally scheduled to travel to wilmington on tuesday, but the white house updated his schedule after hunter biden’s conviction. house oversight chairman james comer called the guilty verdict against hunter biden “a step toward accountability.” but comer said he will not be satisfied until the department of justice investigates the biden family’s business dealings even though his 18 months of work has yet to uncover any evidence that president joe biden was involved or financially benefited from it. “hunter biden’s sweetheart plea deal was smoked out after scrutiny by a federal judge,” comer said in a release after the verdict. hunter biden’s original plea deal fell apart in a dramatic exchange with a federal judge last year. district judge maryellen noreika said she had “concerns” about the parties seemingly linking a tax plea agreement to resolving a felony gun charge. the judge, a trump appointee unanimously confirmed by the senate, declared that she wasn’t ready to accept the plea deal, and the president’s son then entered a not guilty plea. hunter biden has also pleaded not guilty to tax evasion, filing false tax returns and failing to file his taxes on time, and his second case is scheduled to occur in september. house ways and means chair jason smith credited two whistleblowers with the internal revenue service who came forward last summer for bringing hunter biden’s guilty verdict to fruition. irs whistleblowers gary shapley and joseph ziegler, who both worked on biden’s criminal case, claimed that the department of justice mishandled the case against the president’s son and deviated from standard investigative procedure. republicans have used the testimony from the whistleblowers to make broader accusations about the politicization of the doj. but attorney general merrick garland and weiss have repeatedly insisted that weiss always had the powers he needed to bring charges, even as a us attorney, and that weiss’ appointment of special counsel was not tied to the accusations from the irs whistleblowers. house speaker mike johnson told cnn that hunter biden’s conviction on federal gun charges doesn’t undercut the gop narrative that there’s a two tiered justice system designed to hurt republicans. “it doesn’t,” the louisiana republican told cnn’s manu raju on tuesday. “every case is different. and clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. i don’t think that’s the case in the trump trials. and all the charges that have been brought against him have been obviously brought for political purposes. hunter biden is a separate incidence.” johnson also said he believed the guilty verdict was “appropriate.” the speaker took a victory lap later on tuesday, arguing that the house gop’s investigative efforts helped pave the way for the verdict. last year, a house republican led committee heard testimony from a pair of irs whistleblowers   who both worked on biden’s criminal case   claiming that the department of justice mishandled the case against the president’s son and gave him preferential treatment, which the doj has strongly denied. after the plea deal between hunter biden and the doj fell apart, a special counsel was named to oversee the case, and it ultimately went to trial. “because whistleblowers spoke out and house republicans sounded the alarm, hunter was brought to court. today he was found guilty of all charges,” johnson wrote on social media. read johnson’s full post: this post has been updated with johnson’s latest social media post. president joe biden will depart for wilmington, delaware, just hours after a jury there convicted his son on firearms related charges tuesday. biden was not originally scheduled to travel to wilmington on tuesday, but the white house updated his schedule after hunter biden’s conviction. the president will head to delaware after delivering remarks at an everytown for gun safety event scheduled for 1:30 p.m. et in washington, dc. special counsel david weiss thanked attorney general merrick garland as well as the prosecution team that worked on the gun case against hunter biden. weiss, speaking at a news conference on tuesday after a jury in delaware convicted the president’s son on three charges, said it was a “difficult assignment.” “i want to thank attorney general garland for providing the support necessary to fulfill our mission, ensuring we have the independence to appropriately pursue our investigations and prosecutions,” weiss said. the special counsel did not take any questions, citing “additional trials and investigative work to be done.” hunter biden also faces charges in a separate tax case set to go to trial in california in september. that indictment, also brought by weiss, accuses hunter biden of repeatedly failing to file and pay his taxes on time and of engaging in a tax evasion scheme by filing false tax returns and cooking the books on his company’s payroll. this post has been updated with additional information about hunter biden’s tax charges. special counsel david weiss said that no one is above the law, including hunter biden, after the president’s son was convicted on three federal gun charges tuesday. “no one in this country is above the law. everyone must be accountable for their actions, even this defendant,” weiss told reporters tuesday. he added, “however, hunter biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct. the prosecution has been and will continue to be committed to this principle.” special counsel david weiss thanked the jury for their service after jurors convicted hunter biden on three federal gun charge tuesday. “there are few civic responsibilities more important than jury service. fifteen delawareans came to court each day and performed their responsibilities in a professional and conscientious manner. we thank them,” he added. special counsel david weiss said this case was “not just about addiction” but about the “illegal choices” hunter biden made while he was using drugs. “ultimately this case was not just about addiction, a disease that haunts families across the united states, including hunter biden’s family. this case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction,” weiss said. it comes after hunter biden was convicted on three federal gun charges by a jury tuesday. “his choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun. and the choice to then possess that gun. it was these choices and the combination of guns and drugs, that made his conduct dangerous,” weiss said at a news conference tuesday. remember: the charges stemmed from a revolver hunter biden bought in october 2018 at a delaware gun shop. the first two counts were for lying about his drug use on a federal background check form, and the third count was for possessing a gun while addicted to, or using, illegal drugs. this post has been updated with additional comments from weiss. special counsel david weiss and his team of prosecutors are holding a news conference. our reporters will bring you the latest updates as we get them, but if you want to watch weiss speak live, click the play button in the video at the top of this page. one juror who found hunter biden guilty of three federal gun charges on tuesday told cnn that he does not believe the president’s son should serve jail time. “i really don’t think that hunter belongs in jail,” juror 10 said. hunter biden could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000 at sentencing, though he likely will receive far less than the maximum as a first time offender. before dismissing the parties, the judge told them sentencing is usually set for 120 days following a verdict, which means it is likely to happen before election day. the juror pointed to the fact that hunter biden did not want the gun back after hallie biden took it out of his truck and threw it in the garbage near a grocery store. “when he said he did not want that gun back and that gun sat in evidence for almost five years, i think that’s what may have been what led to his downfall. if he had taken possession of that gun, i don’t know if we would have even had a trial,” the juror said. the juror said it didn’t make a difference for him that hunter biden did not take the stand in his own defense. in fact, he said he agrees that was “better off not testifying.” “i didn’t think it would be a good idea for him to testify in his own defense,” the juror said. he also added that inside the deliberation room, politics did not come up. “no politics came into play and politics was not even spoken about,” the juror said, reiterating it was all about hunter biden. the man said the jurors felt bad that naomi biden, hunter’s daughter, was called to testify. he said, in his opinion, it was a mistake to put her on the stand. this post was updated with additional comments from juror 10. hunter biden could have grounds for appeal on a larger constitutional question, a cnn legal commentator said, pointing to the case regarding regulations around guns and drugs that was struck down by a federal appeals court last year. the 5th us circuit court of appeals in august struck down a decades old law barring users of illegal drugs from possessing firearms   another blow to us gun regulations after the supreme court cleared the way for courts to reexamine the nation’s gun laws under a new legal standard. “because you have that decision in the 5th circuit   of course, this being in a different circuit, could go all the way to the supreme court to validate this specific statute,” tim parlatore, a cnn commentator and former attorney for donald trump said. the 5th circuit case, united states v. daniels, involves patrick daniels who was arrested in april 2022 after law enforcement officers searched his car during a stop and found marijuana butts and two loaded firearms. in its ruling, the three judge panel said the 1968 law is unconstitutional, citing a landmark 2022 supreme court decision that changes the framework that lower courts must use when analyzing gun restrictions. parlatore said if hunter biden appeals, it’s likely that various groups with interests in seeing this law rolled back will submit amicus curiae briefs. these are submitted to the court by individuals or organizations that are not a direct party in the case but want to contribute more information. “there are a lot of veterans that i know that have to make a choice of do they want to get a medical marijuana card or do they want to keep their firearms?” parlatore said. “hunter biden has the opportunity, potentially, to take this to the supreme court and say ‘you can do both.’” when the jurors first started their deliberations monday afternoon, the first thing they did was take a vote, according to one male juror who spoke to cnn. the jury was split   six in favor of convicting hunter biden on federal gun charges, six who initially wanted to render a not guilty verdict, according to the juror. when the jury came back tuesday morning, the next vote was 11 1, with 11 people saying they thought the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, the juror said to cnn’s hannah rabinowitz. the other jurors were then able to focus on the one holdout to get to a unanimous verdict, that juror said. over the next few hours, the jury discussed the elements of each crime, the man said, and the last person agreed that they should return a guilty verdict. the juror would not reveal anything about his politics but did express support for the bidens in terms of addiction. three jurors who spoke to cnn after they reached a guilty verdict said that they believed they had no choice but to find hunter biden guilty   but said that they question whether the criminal case ever should have been brought against the president’s son. the case “seemed like a waste of taxpayer dollars,” one female juror told cnn. another male juror said that the process was “a little but frustrating because it felt like we couldn’t get the full story.” this post has been updated with comments from more jurors. hunter biden has publicly responded to the guilty verdict against him today, saying he is “more grateful for the love and support” of his family than he is “disappointed by the outcome.” “recovery is possible by the grace of god, and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time,” he said in statement tuesday. hunter biden’s attorney, abbe lowell, also said in a statement that they were “naturally disappointed” by the verdict but would continue to “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter.” “through all he has been through in his recovery, including this trial, hunter has felt grateful for and blessed by the love and support of his family,” lowell said. cameras were not allowed in the federal courtroom where hunter biden’s gun trial was underway, but sketch artists inside the room captured the moment when the guilty verdict was read. special counsel david weiss and his team of prosecutors are expected to hold a news conference at 1 p.m. et. our reporters will bring you the latest updates on that news conference once it is underway. a day after one of the most painful moments for his family   the conviction of his son on felony gun charges   president joe biden is expected to leave for a three day trip to italy for the g7 summit. the fluke of scheduling speaks to the balance biden has been forced to strike throughout his son’s legal proceedings. as the trial was underway last week, biden was in france commemorating d day. aides said the president was keeping track of the trial from overseas, and remained in touch with his son and first lady jill biden, who had returned to delaware to attend the trial for one day. before and after that trip, biden spent a sizable amount of time with hunter in delaware. he returned from france directly to the family home in wilmington. biden had not been previously scheduled to return to delaware to see his son before leaving for italy. but with a guilty verdict now in, it remained an open question of whether that plan could change. in his first statement since his son hunter biden’s conviction on federal gun charges, president joe biden on tuesday sought to reiterate his role of a father seeking to support his son through his struggles. in the brief statement, the president underscored his pride in his son for overcoming his battle with addiction. “as i said last week, i am the president, but i am also a dad. jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. so many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery,” biden said. he added, “as i also said last week, i will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. nothing will ever change that.” biden has previously affirmed he will not pardon his son. following hunter biden’s conviction on all three counts, his lawyers are likely preparing a set of appeals, according to cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid. “i would expect that there will be a series of appeals but there are questions about just how many resources he has remaining to fund his legal defense. he is right now not working. his longtime friend and attorney kevin morris has been paying most of his legal bills,” reid said to wolf blitzer on “cnn newsroom.” morris, along with his other lawyer abbe lowell, have been pursuing an aggressive, forward leaning strategy with hunter biden’s legal defense, but the president’s son may be facing ballooning legal costs. “it’s not just these criminal trials that he’s facing. he and his lawyers are pursuing this very aggressive litigious campaign against his detractors. they have a lot of civil lawsuits that are costing them money,” reid said. hunter biden gave kisses and hugs to family members and friends in the courtroom, almost like a receiving line, as he exited. his friend and financial backer kevin morris walked out with his arms crossed. some of the supporters looked stunned. in the moments after the verdict, after court ended, hunter biden turned around to his legal team and flashed a brief smile, perhaps stunned by the outcome, before hugging all of his attorneys and patting them on the back. valerie biden   joe biden’s sister   entered the courtroom a few minutes after the verdict was read. first lady jill biden entered the room where hunter biden and his attorneys were huddled about seven minutes after the verdict was read. she stared immediately ahead and did not move her glare away. leaving the courthouse following the verdict, hunter biden shuffled his family members into an elevator as he held hands with his wife. he smiled briefly and left. the trump campaign targeted president joe biden in a statement as it responded to hunter biden’s conviction. in the initial statement obtained by cnn, the campaign wrote, “this trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the biden crime family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from china, russia and ukraine. crooked joe biden’s reign over the biden family criminal empire is all coming to an end on november 5th, and never again will a biden sell government access for personal profit. as for hunter, we wish him well in his recovery and legal affairs.” the trump campaign then sent an updated statement, striking the well wishes to hunter. fact check: there is no evidence joe biden has received large sums of money from china or has otherwise gained wealth as a result of his son’s business dealings abroad. hunter biden is expected to issue a written statement after the jury found him guilty, according to a source familiar with the matter. he was seen leaving the delaware court with his stepmother jill biden and his wife following the verdict. he did not speak to reporters and was seen getting into a vehicle. despite being a constant throughout the trial, first lady dr jill biden missed the guilty verdict handed down to her stepson, hunter biden. however, when she entered the court, cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paul reid said that hunter biden and his attorneys were huddled together, trying to work out their next steps. “she walked into the court room and she did not move her glance off her stepson and his lawyers,” reid said from outside court. hunter biden is not expected to speak, but will issue a written statement about the verdict. president joe biden on tuesday did not immediately offer a reaction to his son hunter biden’s conviction on firearms charges, but in a statement last week, the president sought to reiterate how his personal role as a father is separated from his duty as president. “i am the president, but i am also a dad,” biden said in the statement. he continued, “jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. a lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean.” “as a dad, i have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. our family has been through a lot together, and jill and i are going to continue to be there for hunter and our family with our love and support.” biden said in an interview last week he would not pardon his son if hunter biden were to be convicted. before dismissing the parties, the judge told them sentencing is usually set for 120 days following a verdict, which would mean sentencing is in mid october before election day. prosecutors declined to comment following the verdict. the timing of hunter biden’s conviction on firearms charges tuesday morning offers a somewhat awkward juxtaposition with his father’s schedule; president joe biden is scheduled to deliver remarks on gun control in washington, dc, later tuesday. biden is scheduled to speak at everytown for gun safety action fund’s “gun sense university,” on tuesday afternoon. the president is expected to discuss gun reform legislation that passed nearly two years ago in the wake of massacres in new york and texas. it was the most substantial federal gun legislation to pass in a quarter century. while biden has largely avoided discussing his hunter biden’s criminal case   though he did say in an interview last week that he would respect the jury’s decision, and would not pardon his son   the verdict is sure to be at the top of his mind on tuesday. the president is known to be passionately defensive of his family and sensitive to outside criticism of his son’s troubled history. court has adjourned for the day after the jury found hunter biden guilty on all three counts. the jury deliberated for just under three hours. first lady jill biden arrived at the courthouse shortly after the verdict was read. although hunter biden now faces up to 25 years in prison, since he is a first time offender, he likely will not be sentenced to the full term, cnn chief legal correspondent paula reid said. “we don’t expect that he will be detained pending sentencing. it’s unclear how long it’ll take for him to get a sentencing date that will likely be set today,” reid said. a federal jury has convicted hunter biden on all three federal felony gun charges he faced, concluding that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms. the conviction marks the first time a president’s immediate family member has been found guilty of a crime during their father’s term in office, though his crimes predate joe biden’s tenure as president. hunter biden could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000 at sentencing, though he likely will receive far less than the maximum as a first time offender. hunter biden has arrived back at the wilmington, delaware, courthouse. a verdict in his federal gun trial is expected to be read soon. james and valerie biden have arrived, too. the jury has reached a verdict in the hunter biden gun trial. no cameras are allowed inside the delaware courtroom where hunter biden’s trial is underway, but sketch artist bill hennessy captured the scene before the jury resumed deliberations. a panel of 12 delaware citizens is deliberating in the the federal gun trial against hunter biden. this is the first time in american history that the child of the sitting president is going on trial. the indictment was brought by the justice department, specifically by david weiss, the special counsel appointed last year to oversee the hunter biden probes. hunter biden, 54, is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun while abusing or being addicted to drugs, a violation of federal law. he pleaded not guilty to the three charges, though he has been open about his struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction. the first two charges in the three count indictment are tied to the gun purchase itself. when a person buys a gun, they must fill out a form with the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives and affirm that they are legally allowed to buy the weapon. hunter biden has been charged with lying on those forms. these questions include: have you been convicted of a felony? are you a fugitive? are you in the country unlawfully? and, importantly for this case, are you an “unlawful user of, or addicted to” illegal drugs? hunter biden allegedly checked the box that said, “no.” count 3 relates to the possession of the gun. it’s also against federal law to possess a gun if you are abusing drugs. hunter biden had the gun for 11 days in october 2018, before his girlfriend threw it in a dumpster because she was worried about his mental health, according to the indictment and texts made public in recent court filings. “guns present a danger if they get in the wrong hands, and that’s the impetus behind these laws,” nabeel kibria, a washington, dc based defense attorney who has handled hundreds of gun cases, told cnn. “the evidence seems pretty stacked against hunter … but who determines who is an addict? what are the bright line rules that must be followed?” if convicted on all three counts, the president’s son could face up to 25 years in prison. the jury has resumed their deliberations in hunter biden’s trial. it is made up of six women and six men   seven of those jurors are black and five of the jurors are white. earlier in the trial, the original juror number 3 was dismissed. alternate juror number 1 has taken their place and is the new juror number 3. here’s a bit about them: president joe biden is expected to tout his administration’s efforts to prevent gun violence, specifically highlighting the impact of the bipartisan safer communities act during remarks in washington on tuesday. that comes as the president’s reelection campaign is seeking to make gun violence a key issue in the 2024 election. the president’s speech will take place two weeks before the anniversary of the signing of the bipartisan safer communities act, comprehensive gun safety legislation that received democratic and republican support in the wake of the massacre at robb elementary school in uvalde, texas, in 2022. biden’s address also comes as his son hunter awaits the outcome of his gun trial. the president is expected to announce in his remarks tuesday that the justice department has charged more than 500 defendants “for violating the new gun trafficking and straw purchasing provisions created by” the bipartisan safer communities act. the biden campaign is also seeking to draw a contrast between the president and his 2024 rival former president donald trump on this issue   arguing that trump will side with the “gun lobby over our safety every single time.” “gun violence is an issue that requires real leaders who aren’t afraid to stand up to the gun lobby. president biden and vice president harris get that; trump will choose special interests and the gun lobby over our safety every single time,” biden campaign senior spokesperson kevin munoz said in a memo. “fighting for a safer america   an america that does its part to save more lives from gun violence   is on the ballot this november,” munoz added. “president biden’s record of delivering commonsense gun reform is vastly popular with the american people and the voters this campaign needs to win in november.” cnn’s arlette saenz contributed reporting to this post. moments after he entered, hunter biden walked out of the courthouse with his wife melissa cohen biden. he had a smile on his face and they were holding hands. the motorcade departed the courthouse. both sides gave their final thoughts to jurors in closing arguments in the gun trial against hunter biden before they started deliberations on monday. hunter biden faces three charges stemming from a 2018 gun purchase. while buying the revolver, biden is accused of lying on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs   even though prosecutors say he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase. here’s a recap of what both sides said in their final appeal to jurors: prosecution: defense: as president joe biden engages in the fight of his political life in a campaign focused on democracy and the rule of law, the most intimate details of his family’s ongoing personal tragedies have been publicly dissected in a courtroom over the last week. hunter biden’s struggles with addiction after the death of his brother beau biden have been the focus of hours of testimony during his trial for federal criminal charges, putting some of the biden family’s most personal problems on full display. the president’s son has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts connected to a gun he purchased in october 2018. for decades, the president has navigated the sometimes competing demands of his political career and being a father, particularly when it comes to hunter biden. part of the president’s enduring brand has been his ability to relate to the personal tragedies of others because of what his family has suffered, including the death of his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car crash that severely injured beau and hunter, and beau’s 2015 death from brain cancer. the most emotional parts of the trial involved the testimony from those closest to hunter biden, including his daughter naomi, his ex girlfriend and his brother’s widow hallie biden and his ex wife, kathleen buhle. though the questions they faced were aimed at determining whether hunter was using drugs in 2018, the effect hunter’s drug use had on their own lives was inescapable. “i am the president, but i am also a dad,” biden said in a statement at the start of the trial. “our family has been through a lot together, and jill and i are going to continue to be there for hunter and our family with our love and support.” last week, the president ruled out pardoning his son. the jury is continuing deliberations in hunter biden’s federal gun trial after the judge asked several questions on whether they had read or heard anything about the case outside of court. hunter biden arrived at court tuesday morning, where jury deliberations will resume and he will await the outcome of his trial on federal gun charges. he arrived alongside his wife melissa cohen biden. a regular heckler with an anti biden family sign was present and yelled out as hunter biden walked in the doors. the jury will resume deliberations tuesday in hunter biden’s federal gun trial in wilmington, delaware. while buying a revolver in delaware in 2018, prosecutors accuse biden of lying on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs   even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase. thirteen witnesses testified in the trial. hunter biden decided not to testify. here’s who was on the stand during the trial: the jury in hunter biden’s federal gun trial will resume deliberations tuesday after the defendant declined to testify in his own defense and both sides presented closing arguments monday in the historic case against the president’s son. if convicted, biden could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000, though first time offenders like him rarely receive the maximum penalty. he pleaded not guilty to all three charges. here are some takeaways from the sixth day of the historic trial: read more takeaways from day 6 another president is waiting for another verdict from another jury. less than two weeks after donald trump learned he had been convicted of 34 criminal counts in his hush money case, joe biden is enduring his own agonizing vigil as his son hunter awaits the outcome of his gun trial. jurors return tuesday morning to consider evidence against the president’s son, who has pleaded not guilty to three charges related to his buying of a gun in 2018 that prosecutors say violated federal law because he was addicted to crack cocaine. the defense argued there was no direct evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was using the drug when he got the firearm. the two trials   one in trump’s old patch of new york and the other in biden country in wilmington, delaware   represent a remarkable departure from traditional presidential campaigns. never has a former president and presumptive major party nominee been convicted of a crime. nor has the child of a sitting president faced that possibility in a trial. trump pleaded not guilty in new york, as he has to three other criminal indictments ahead of delayed trials. read more about why the cases differ here. © 2025 cable news network. a warner bros. discovery company. all rights reserved. cnn sans ™ & © 2016 cable news network.

watch cbs news by katrina kaufman, kathryn watson, erica brown updated on: june 11, 2024 / 7:24 pm edt / cbs news the jury of six men and six women that convicted hunter biden on three felony gun charges tuesday wanted to review the evidence and didn't want to "rush judgment," said one anonymous juror in an interview with cbs news. the juror also said politics didn't factor into their decision. "we never talked about the president throughout the deliberation," said anonymous juror no. 10. "...politics was not a factor in this case." the delaware based jury deliberated for about three hours after receiving the case monday afternoon. when jurors initially took a vote to feel out where they stood, the vote was 6 6, said juror no. 10. "i may have been one of the six that said not guilty," the juror said. "it's not that we believed he was not guilty. we needed to go over the evidence. we didn't want to rush judgment. we don't want to ruin someone's life." the jury reviewed the evidence, and ultimately, they landed on a unanimous conviction on all three counts, agreeing with the prosecution that hunter biden violated federal law in purchasing and possessing a gun as a drug addict. juror no. 10 explained his thinking in reaching a guilty verdict. the juror said the evidence in the case revolved around a form hunter biden filled out to purchase the gun, on which he declared   falsely   that he was not an unlawful user of any controlled substances. the juror said hunter biden was clearly "not clean" from drugs around the time of purchase. "he knew what he was doing when they told him he had to fill out that application," the juror said. "when he checked that box, he knew he was an addict," the juror added. "he knew he was using crack." the anonymous juror said it didn't help the defense when self recorded audio from hunter biden's book, "beautiful things," was read aloud in court. in the book, published in 2021, hunter biden openly admits to his struggle with addiction. "his book didn't help him, especially it being an audiobook and hearing his own voice," the juror said. "he came out and admitted it: i'm a drug addict." the mood in the courtroom as the jury read the verdict was "solemn," the anonymous juror said. there was little time between the announcement that a verdict had been reached and the reading of the verdict, and first lady jill biden didn't make it back into the courtroom in time. "that was where i felt sorry for his family," the juror said. president biden, who has stayed away from the trial, changed his schedule tuesday to fly to wilmington. the president issued a statement saying he will accept the outcome of the case, and loves his son. hunter biden could face up to 25 years in prison, but sentencing is out of the jury's hands. that will be up to the judge. a sentencing date has yet to be set. "he's just like anybody else," the anonymous juror said of hunter biden. "he needs more help than he needs jail. jail is not gonna help somebody." © 2024 cbs interactive inc. all rights reserved. copyright ©2025 cbs interactive inc. all rights reserved.

a delaware jury convicted hunter biden of federal gun charges, a historic first for the child of a sitting president, after a trial featuring wrenching emotional testimony about his drug use from his ex wife and sister in law. president joe biden's son faces up to 25 years in prison for the three charges − lying on a federal screening form about his drug use, lying to a gun dealer and possessing the gun − though first time, nonviolent offenders typically get shorter sentences. "usually when we do sentencing, it is 120 days out, but we will get in touch with you," presiding u.s. district judge maryellen noreika told hunter biden's defense team. the conviction came after a plea deal fell apart in july 2023 that could have resolved gun and tax charges without prison time for the 54 year old businessman, author and attorney. biden faces another federal trial starting sept. 5 in california for allegedly avoiding taxes. biden's legal troubles coincide with his father campaigning for reelection. but the elder biden, as the trial kicked off, issued a statement supporting his son and later told abc news he wouldn't pardon him. he doubled down on his support for his son after the verdict was read, reminding americans that while he is the president, he is also a father − and a proud one, when it comes to his son hunter. “so many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery," he said. "as i also said last week, i will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. "jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. nothing will ever change that.” joe biden ultimately changed his planned schedule to return home to delaware on tuesday night to be with his family. it didn't take long for the verdict to be read. word that the jury had reached a decision began circulating shortly before 11 a.m.   a little less than two hours after jurors were sent to deliberate that morning. reporters filled court benches. u.s. marshals could be seen escorting the three alternate jurors into the courtroom, then finding a spot for them near the front of the gallery. hunter biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walked into the courtroom at 11:10 a.m. followed by family and his lawyers. hunter biden's lead attorney, abbe lowell, spoke in the ear of a few of his client's supporters   one of whom sat down looking upset after speaking to the 72 year old attorney. noreika entered the courtroom at 11:14 a.m. and a minute later, the jury's verdict was being read. hunter biden, his lawyers and his family stayed motionless as the jury convicted him on all three charges. by 11:16 a.m., it was over and the judge dismissed the jury. they were asked to go into another room where the judge wanted to thank them for their service. the alternates followed them out of the courtroom. a woman who served on the jury told delaware online/the news journal that she felt no pressure because the defendant's father is the president, even though they noticed first lady jill biden in the courtroom gallery several times. “i noticed her and her hair,” she said with a smile. another juror agreed that politics played no role in any juror's vote. “it was just following the evidence,” he said. “we just had to find out the truth.” both jurors said the jury was evenly split on count one shortly after receiving the case for less than an hour of deliberation monday afternoon. from there, they studied the elements of the charges in the jury instructions and talked. they deliberated for about two hours on tuesday before returning guilty verdicts. hunter biden walked out of a conference room at 11:32 a.m. tuesday followed by his family and friends and entered a waiting elevator. he left the federal building shortly after to a waiting line of black suvs. special counsel david weiss, who has been investigating hunter biden for years, spoke after the verdict, stressing the prosecution of this case came down to choices. "while there has been much testimony about the defendant's abuse of drugs and alcohol, ultimately, this case was not just about addiction, a disease that taunts families across the united states, including hunter biden," weiss said at a press conference after the trial. "this case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction, his choice to lie on the government form when he bought a gun and the choice to then possess that gun." he also pointed to accountability, and that no one − not even the president's son − is above the law. supporters of the bidens disputed this case was solely about hunter biden lying on a federal form when purchasing a firearm. if prosecutors were going after people who did this, richard smith, naacp delaware state conference of branches president and a friend of the bidens, said many of the state's gun ridden neighborhoods would be cleaned up. "this case was used for a special reason and that reason was to go after him because he's a biden," smith said. smith, who said he was speaking as a friend of the bidens', said he hopes hunter biden gets the help he needs and others take something away from this matter. "i hope that people look at this case and look at him and see that we really need more programs to get people like him the help they need," smith said. hunter biden's defense attorney abbe lowell did not address the media outside the federal courthouse but did release a statement about the trial, saying they are “naturally disappointed" by the verdict. "we respect the jury process, and as we have done throughout this case, we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter," lowell said. hunter biden echoed that he is grateful for the support witnessed during the trial, as many family members and local delaware friends showed up in court for the president's son. “i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced this last week from melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome," he said in a written statement. "recovery is possible by the grace of god, and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time.” a plea agreement that fell apart last july offered the possibility biden could avoid jail time for all of the charges. noreika rejected the deal because of disputes between prosecutors and defense lawyers about biden’s protection from future charges. attorney general merrick garland appointed the u.s. attorney in delaware, david weiss, a special counsel to continue an independent investigation. biden's lawyer, abbe lowell, argued unsuccessfully the charges should be dismissed because no new evidence had emerged since the plea agreement. the gun indictment charged biden with knowingly deceiving a firearms dealer by buying a colt cobra 38spl revolver. he was charged with falsely filling out a federal form denying he was addicted to any narcotics. and he was charged with knowingly possessing the revolver despite the restrictions against people addicted to drugs owning firearms. the three charges carried a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. the tax indictment charges biden with three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanors. he allegedly engaged in a scheme in which he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in self assessed taxes from 2016 through 2019, and also evaded tax assessment for 2018 when he filed false returns. the previous agreement would have allowed biden to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges, which could have resulted in no jail time, and enter a pretrial program for a gun charge that could have been dismissed if he complied. but republicans blasted the agreement as a sweetheart deal and hunter biden became a lightning rod for criticism of his father.

e edition sign up for email newsletters sign up for email newsletters e edition trending: hunter biden departs from federal court, monday, june 10, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden, center, departs from federal court, monday, june 10, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) first lady jill biden departs from federal court monday, june 10, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden departs from federal court, monday, june 10, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) by the associated press wilmington, del. (ap)   the latest on hunter biden’s federal gun trial (all times local): after hunter biden’s guilty verdict was announced, the white house canceled press secretary karine jean pierre’s scheduled briefing and announced that president joe biden would spend tuesday evening in delaware to be with hunter and other family members. president biden was scheduled to give a speech on his administration’s efforts to limit gun violence and toughen enforcement of gun laws at a conference hosted by the everytown for gun safety action fund in washington. from there, he’s traveling to wilmington, delaware, before he leaves wednesday for the group of seven leaders conference in italy. currently:   president joe biden’s son, hunter biden, is convicted of all 3 felonies in federal gun trial   who testified in hunter biden’s trial on federal firearms charges here’s the latest: the special counsel appointed to investigate hunter biden says his conviction on federal gun crimes is a reminder that no one is above the law. david weiss, u.s. attorney for delaware, spoke after a delaware jury convicted hunter biden of three felonies tuesday related to his purchase of a handgun in october 2018. “no one in this country is above the law,” weiss said. “everyone must be accountable for their actions.” the jury deliberated for only three hours after a weeklong trial before declaring hunter guilty of falsely denying on a federal gun purchase form that he was a drug addict when he bought the gun. hunter also was found guilty of illegally possessing the gun as an unlawful user of drugs. in a statement after his conviction on felony charges in his federal gun case, hunter biden said he’s grateful for the support from family and friends but “disappointed” by the outcome. “i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced this last week from melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome,” he said. “recovery is possible by the grace of god, and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time.” defense attorney abbe lowell says they are “naturally disappointed” by hunter biden’s guilty verdict. lowell said in a statement that they respect the jury process and will vigorously pursue all legal challenges that are available. “through all he has been through in his recovery, including this trial, hunter has felt grateful for and blessed by the love and support of his family,” lowell said. republican reaction to hunter biden’s verdict tuesday was swift and varied as some called the guilty outcome overdue accountability for the biden family while others said it represented a “veil of fairness.” rep. james comer, the republican chairman of the house oversight committee, who’s been investigating the president’s family for the last two years, said that while the verdict marked “a step toward accountability,” there won’t be justice “until the department of justice investigates everyone involved in the bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes.” comer and other house republicans have pursued an impeachment inquiry into president joe biden for the last 17 months that has failed to directly connect the commander in chief to his family’s overseas business dealings. comer has taken a special interest in hunter biden and his various legal woes, bringing in the president’s son last year to conduct an hourslong deposition. after hunter biden’s conviction on three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver, president joe biden said in a statement that he and the first lady will always be there for their son “with our love and support.” the president says he’ll accept the outcome and continue to respect the judicial process as his son considers an appeal. president biden says he and jill love their son and they’re proud of the man he is today. “so many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery,” biden said. hunter biden patted defense attorney abbe lowell on the left shoulder after the judge’s courtroom deputy read aloud the guilty verdict in his federal gun case. hunter biden hugged both of his attorneys and said thank you after the jurors left the courtroom. he smiled wanly at his relatives in the gallery and then hugged and kissed his wife before leaving the courtroom. first lady jill biden arrived to the courthouse minutes after the jury delivered its verdict and wasn’t in the courtroom when it was read. hunter biden left the courthouse holding hands with the first lady and his wife, melissa. they did not speak to reporters, got into waiting suvs and drove off. hunter biden faces up to 25 years in prison when he’s sentenced after being convicted of three felony charges related to the purchase of a gun when, prosecutors argued, he lied on a gun purchase form by saying he wasn’t illegally using or addicted to drugs. but it’s unclear how long of a sentence he’ll get. the sentence is up to judge maryellen noreika and hunter biden is a first time offender. judge noreika noted that sentencing typically is 120 days out, but no sentencing date was set after the verdict was read tuesday. president joe biden’s son, hunter biden, has been convicted of all three felony charges in his federal gun trial in delaware. jurors found hunter biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. hunter biden stared straight ahead and showed little emotion as the verdict was read. jurors in hunter biden’s federal gun trial in delaware have reached a verdict after about three hours of deliberations. president joe biden’s son is accused of lying when he swore he wasn’t a drug user in order to buy a gun in 2018. hunter biden is facing three felony charges over the gun he had for 11 days before his brother’s widow found it in his truck and threw it in the trash. hunter biden has left the delaware courthouse with his wife as jurors begin a second day of deliberations in his federal gun trial. he isn’t required to stay at the courthouse while the jury deliberates, but is expected to return if the jury comes back with a note or verdict. president joe biden’s son has been charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he wasn’t a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. jurors resumed deliberations tuesday morning in the criminal case against hunter biden over a gun he bought in 2018 when prosecutors say he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction. the jurors had deliberated for less than an hour monday afternoon before leaving the federal courthouse in delaware. they’re weighing whether president joe biden’s son is guilty of three felonies in the case pitting him against his father’s justice department in the middle of the democratic president’s reelection campaign. prosecutors spent last week using testimony from hunter biden’s ex wife and former girlfriends, photos of him with drug paraphernalia and other tawdry evidence to make the case that he lied when he checked “no” on the form at the gun shop that asked whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” drugs. jurors will resume deliberations tuesday in the criminal case against hunter biden over a gun he bought in 2018 when prosecutors say he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction. jurors deliberated for less than an hour monday afternoon before leaving the federal courthouse in delaware. they’re weighing whether president joe biden’s son is guilty of three felonies in the case pitting him against his father’s justice department in the middle of the democratic president’s reelection campaign. prosecutors spent last week using testimony from his ex wife and former girlfriends, photos of him with drug paraphernalia and other tawdry evidence to make the case that he lied when he checked “no” on the form at the gun shop that asked whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” drugs. the trial began last week in delaware’s federal court with prosecutors seeking to show hunter biden was addicted and regularly using drugs during the 11 day period when he bought and owned the gun. hunter biden’s defense team sought to show he didn’t consider himself an “addict” when he filled out the form and said he was trying to turn his life around at the time. copyright © 2025 medianews group

jurors who convicted hunter biden of gun crimes on tuesday have said they did not think about his father or politics when reaching their decision. "i was never thinking of president joe biden," one juror told the bbc shortly after the verdict, adding that their 11 fellow jurors considered it “important” to separate the facts of the case from the family. "out of all the jurors, nobody mentioned anything about political motivations,” the male juror, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “somehow, you block that out of your mind." the verdict has prompted much political reaction, with congressional republicans who investigated hunter biden for years welcoming the decision. democrats have insisted it will not affect the president’s re election campaign. in a brief interview, the juror told the bbc he had not considered whether it would impact november’s election. two other jurors, meanwhile, told cnn that they did not feel any pressure during deliberations, despite the high profile nature of the trial, during an election year. one of those jurors told cnn she anticipated the panel would be "at each other's throats because [biden's] father is the president and because of the political climate", but after deliberations started, she "didn't feel pressure". jurors who spoke to other news outlets repeatedly said politics did not sway their decision, but some did have qualms about the case. one juror told cnn the case "seemed like a waste of taxpayer dollars", while another juror said the process was “a little bit frustrating because it felt like we couldn’t get the full story". despite those frustrations, the jury was able to reach a verdict within just three hours of the week long trial. the juror who spoke to the bbc left the case with some remorse, noting that mr biden is not just the us president but also a dad and "someone just convicted [his son] in federal court". biden became the first son of a sitting us president to be criminally convicted on tuesday when the jury found him guilty of lying about his drug use on a federal form when purchasing a handgun in 2018. before the case went to trial, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming he did not lie on the form because he was in recovery from drug addition at the time. biden was stoic during the verdict reading. he hugged family members and his legal team after he learned his fate. he will be sentenced at some point in the next 120 days, but the judge overseeing the case did not set a date. the japanese prime minister gets much needed reassurances that his country is still america's top ally. officials say it's too soon to say what caused the plane to come down on alaska's west coast. nineteen state attorneys general sued the trump administration after the department of government efficiency (doge) was given access. the billionaire aide to donald trump indicates he wants to see the end of an agency founded after the financial crash of 2007 8. fbi agents, former allies, and the nation's top record keeper are among those president trump has fired. copyright 2025 bbc. all rights reserved. the bbc is not responsible for the content of external sites. read about our approach to external linking.

ryan lucas a federal jury convicted hunter biden on two counts of making false statements about his drug use when buying a firearm and one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a drug user or addict. ari shapiro, host: to delaware, where a federal jury has convicted hunter biden of felony gun charges. the verdict against the president's son was handed down after just under three hours of deliberations. npr justice correspondent ryan lucas was in the courtroom in wilmington every day for this trial, and he is in the studio now. hey, ryan. ryan lucas, byline: hi there. shapiro: you were in the courtroom this morning when the verdict was announced. how did it play out? lucas: well, this case was submitted to the jury late yesterday afternoon, and the jurors only had about an hour yesterday to deliberate before they broke for the evening. they got back at it a little after 9 this morning, and around 11, word reached me and the other journalists who were waiting in the empty courtroom that a verdict had been reached. a few minutes later, the jury filed in. the verdict was read out by the judge's deputy   guilty on all counts, two counts of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018 and one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a drug addict or user. hunter biden didn't show any emotion as the verdict was read aloud. he stared straight ahead in the courtroom. afterwards, though, he hugged his attorneys. he kissed and hugged his wife, melissa cohen biden, and then they filed out of the courtroom together. shapiro: did hunter biden say anything to reporters before he left? lucas: he didn't talk to reporters before leaving the courthouse, no, but he did put out a statement later. and he said that he's disappointed in the outcome of this trial, but he said that he's grateful for the love and the support that he received during it from his friends and family. and i have to say, his family and friends did show up every day of this trial. they often filled the first two rows in the courtroom behind the defense table. first lady jill biden and hunter's sister, ashley biden, were both there several days. his aunts and uncles also showed up, including president biden's brother, james biden. and they sat there, and they listened to what was, at times, very messy, very ugly testimony and evidence of hunter's addiction to crack cocaine as well as the toll that it took on the biden family. shapiro: what about the most prominent biden, the president? he said last week that he would not pardon hunter if he was convicted. now hunter's been convicted. so what did joe biden, the president, have to say today? lucas: well, the president put out a statement after this verdict was announced, and he said, yes, he's the president, but he's also a dad. and he said he's proud of the man that hunter is today. he also repeated something that he said before   that a lot of families in this country have loved ones who struggle with addiction, and he said they understand the pride that you feel when you see someone who you love shake their addiction and come out on the other side. now, on the legal side of things, the president said he will accept the outcome of this trial. he will respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. i'll add that after this verdict was announced, the president traveled this afternoon to wilmington. this was not a previously planned trip. he flew to the delaware air national guard base, where he was greeted on the tarmac by hunter, by hunter's wife and hunter's son. the president spoke with them for several minutes, and he gave hunter a big hug. shapiro: is hunter expected to appeal the decision? lucas: there's no final word on that at this point. i will say, though, he challenged this case on several grounds before trial. today, his attorney, abbe lowell, said they are disappointed with the verdict, but they respect the jury process and that they will continue to pursue all legal challenges available. shapiro: what about special counsel david weiss, who brought the case? did he say anything about the verdict? lucas: weiss delivered a brief statement before the cameras. he thanked the prosecutors who worked this case. he also defended this prosecution. he said it wasn't about hunter's addiction to crack cocaine, which, i will say, hunter has spoken publicly about for years, including in his own memoir. weiss said this case was about the illegal choices that hunter made when he was addicted to crack, about hunter's choice to lie about his drug use when he was buying this gun and also his choice to illegally possess the handgun while he was addicted. and weiss said everyone must be accountable for their actions, even hunter biden. now, this is not the end of hunter biden's legal troubles. remember, weiss has brought another case against hunter in california. that is on tax charges, and that case is scheduled to go to trial in september. shapiro: npr's ryan lucas, thank you. lucas: thank you. copyright © 2024 npr. all rights reserved. visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. npr transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an npr contractor. this text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. accuracy and availability may vary. the authoritative record of npr’s programming is the audio record. sponsor message become an npr sponsor

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. hunter biden has been convicted of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. president joe biden’s son, hunter biden, has been convicted of all three felony charges in his federal gun trial in delaware. (ap video: tassanee vejpongsa/erik verduzco) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, accompanied by his wife, melissa cohen biden, arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del (ap photo/matt rourke) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden greets his son hunter biden at delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, center, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden, left, and his wife, melissa cohen biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden departs from federal court, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) james biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) valerie biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) file   first lady jill biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. first lady jill biden is kicking off her husband’s outreach to older voters, an effort blending rallies and phone banks with social events bingo nights and pickleball games. while president joe biden is in italy attending the group of seven summit, the first lady will travel to four swing states to launch the seniors for biden harris effort. (ap photo/matt slocum, file) hunter biden, accompanied by his wife, melissa cohen biden, arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, center, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden, left, and his wife, melissa cohen biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden has been convicted of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. president joe biden’s son, hunter biden, has been convicted of all three felony charges in his federal gun trial in delaware. (ap video: tassanee vejpongsa/erik verduzco) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, accompanied by his wife, melissa cohen biden, arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden, accompanied by his wife, melissa cohen biden, arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del (ap photo/matt rourke) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden greets his son hunter biden at delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden greets his son hunter biden at delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) president joe biden talks with his son hunter biden and wife melissa cohen biden, and grandson beau, as he arrives delaware air national guard base in new castle, del., tuesday, june 11, 2024. (ap photo/manuel balce ceneta) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, center, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden, left, and his wife, melissa cohen biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden, center, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden, left, and his wife, melissa cohen biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden departs from federal court, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden departs from federal court, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden and his wife, melissa cohen biden, walks out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) james biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) james biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) valerie biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) valerie biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) file   first lady jill biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. first lady jill biden is kicking off her husband’s outreach to older voters, an effort blending rallies and phone banks with social events bingo nights and pickleball games. while president joe biden is in italy attending the group of seven summit, the first lady will travel to four swing states to launch the seniors for biden harris effort. (ap photo/matt slocum, file) file   first lady jill biden arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. first lady jill biden is kicking off her husband’s outreach to older voters, an effort blending rallies and phone banks with social events bingo nights and pickleball games. while president joe biden is in italy attending the group of seven summit, the first lady will travel to four swing states to launch the seniors for biden harris effort. (ap photo/matt slocum, file) hunter biden, accompanied by his wife, melissa cohen biden, arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, accompanied by his wife, melissa cohen biden, arrives to federal court on hearing there is a verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, center, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden, left, and his wife, melissa cohen biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden, center, president joe biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady jill biden, left, and his wife, melissa cohen biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. hunter biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden arrives to federal court, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) wilmington, del. (ap)   hunter biden was convicted tuesday of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. hunter biden, 54, stared straight ahead and showed little emotion as the verdict was read after jury deliberations that lasted only three hours over two days in wilmington, delaware. he hugged his attorneys, smiled wanly and kissed his wife, melissa, before leaving the courtroom with her. president joe biden said in a statement issued shortly after the verdict that he would accept the outcome and “continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal.” what to know about hunter biden’s conviction: now hunter biden and presumptive republican presidential nominee donald trump, the president’s chief political rival, have both been convicted by american jurors in an election year that has been as much about the courtroom as about campaign events and rallies. ap correspondent julie walker reports jurors in hunter biden’s federal gun trial find him guilty. hunter biden, right, departs from federal court, monday, june 10, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden, right, departs from federal court, monday, june 10, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) hunter biden faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced by u.s. district judge maryellen noreika, though as a first time offender he would not get anywhere near the maximum, and there’s no guarantee the judge would send him to prison. she did not set a sentencing date. defense attorney abbe lowell said they would “continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available.” in a written statement, hunter biden said he was disappointed by the outcome but grateful for the support of family and friends. the jury’s decision was read swiftly after the announcement that it reached a verdict. first lady jill biden sat through nearly every day of the trial but did not make it into the courtroom in time to hear the verdict. hunter biden walked out of the courthouse holding hands with the first lady and his wife before they got into waiting suvs and drove off. joe biden steered clear of the federal courtroom where his son was tried and said little about the case, wary of appearing to interfere in a criminal matter brought by his own justice department. but allies of the democrat have worried about the toll that the trial   and now the conviction   will take on the 81 year old, who has long been concerned with his only living son’s health and sustained sobriety. hunter biden’s conviction came just weeks after trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges related to a hush money payment to a porn actor in the 2016 campaign. the cases are in no way the same, and hunter biden is a private citizen who is not running for office. but they have both argued they were victimized by the politics of the moment. trump, however, has continued to falsely claim his verdict was “rigged,” while joe biden has said he would accept the verdict involving his son and would not seek to pardon him. in his statement tuesday, the president said he and the first lady are proud of their son, who says he has been sober since 2019, and will always be there for him with “love and support.” trump’s campaign called the verdict “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the biden crime family.” trump and his allies have pressed unsubstantiated or debunked allegations that joe biden acted while vice president to advance his family members’ foreign business interests. the verdict came down as the president prepared to give a speech at a conference hosted by the everytown for gun safety action fund in washington. he did not mention his son as he spoke about his administration’s efforts to stop gun violence and the need to ban so called assault weapons. hours after the conviction, president biden hugged his son after landing in wilmington to spend the night with family before leaving wednesday for the group of seven leaders conference in italy. hunter biden, his wife and their child greeted the president on the tarmac, and the president lingered to visit with them for several minutes. jurors found hunter biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. the trial played out in the president’s home state, where hunter biden grew up and where the family is deeply established. joe biden spent 36 years as a senator in delaware, commuting daily to washington, and his other son, beau biden, was the state attorney general before he died of cancer. the proceedings put a spotlight on a dark time in hunter biden’s life, including his spiraling descent after beau’s death in 2015. the trial featured deeply personal testimony from former romantic partners and embarrassing evidence such as text messages and photos of hunter biden with drug paraphernalia or partially clothed. in his closing argument on monday, prosecutor leo wise acknowledged the evidence was “ugly.” but he told jurors it was also “absolutely necessary” to prove hunter was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied when he checked “no” on the form that asked whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” drugs. before the case went to the jury, the prosecutor urged jurors to pay no mind to members of the president’s family sitting in the courtroom, telling them: “people sitting in the gallery are not evidence.” hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) hunter biden arrives to federal court with his wife, melissa cohen biden, tuesday, june 11, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt rourke) david weiss, the prosecutor who has led the long running investigation into the president’s son, told reporters the case was about hunter biden’s “illegal choices” and “dangerous” conduct. “no one in this country is above the law,” said weiss, the trump nominated u.s. attorney for delaware, who was named special counsel by attorney general merrick garland in august. “everyone must be accountable for their actions.” hunter biden’s lawyers had argued that he did not consider himself an “addict” when he bought the gun. they sought to show he was trying to turn his life around at the time, having completed a rehabilitation program at the end of august 2018. hunter biden’s legal troubles aren’t over. he faces a trial in september in california on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes, and congressional republicans have signaled they will keep going after him in their stalled impeachment effort into the president. the president has not been accused or charged with any wrongdoing by prosecutors investigating his son. just last year, it appeared that hunter biden would avoid the spectacle of a trial so close to the election. under a deal with prosecutors, he was supposed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years. but the deal fell apart after noreika, who was nominated by trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter. hunter biden has said he was charged because the justice department bowed to pressure from republicans who argued the democratic president’s son was getting special treatment. richer and long reported from washington. associated press writers mike catalini and aamer madhani in wilmington contributed to this report. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

hunter biden is found guilty on all three counts in his federal gun crimes case in delaware the 12 person jury found the us president's son lied about his drug use on a form when purchasing a handgun in 2018 biden now faces a possible prison term of up to 25 years, although a sentence of that length for a first time offender is highly unlikely the jury deliberated after listening to a week of witness testimony about the 54 year old's drug addiction he had pleaded not guilty to the charges   two counts of making false statements and one count of illegal gun possession the high profile trial comes as his father runs for re election. it is the first time a sitting president's child has been found guilty of a crime president biden said he would "accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal" you can watch coverage live by pressing the play button at the top of this page edited by caitlin wilson and brandon livesay caitlin wilsonreporting from washington dc we are now finishing our live coverage of the guilty verdict in hunter biden's gun case, the first time the child of a sitting us president has gone on trial over criminal charges. thanks for following along with us. you can read more about this case and follow any further developments here. you can also catch up on everything you might have missed below:   what son's conviction means for president biden   hunter biden: the struggles and scandals of the us president's son   guilty on all charges. will hunter biden go to prison?   bbc reporter describes hunter biden's reaction to verdict this page was edited by brandon livesay and caitlin wilson. our writers have been bernd debusmann jr, rachel looker, emily mcgarvey, brandon drenon, and christal hayes. here's what happened today surrounding hunter biden's guilty verdict: bernd debusmann jrreporting from wilmington, delaware even while he agreed with prosecutors and voted to convict hunter biden, juror number 10 acknowledges he has sympathy for biden’s struggles with crack cocaine. "he struggled," the juror told me a little while ago. "[addicts] keep on chasing that first high. you're never going to exceed that first high that you got, but you're going to keep on trying." the juror   who said he doesn't watch the news and wasn't aware of hunter biden's legal problems until he stepped into court last week   added that it was at times difficult to not speak to anyone outside of court about the case. "it was harder on the people that i knew, that were asking me questions," he said. the juror said prosecutors made a convincing argument that hunter biden was a drug user at the time he filled out the now infamous forms to buy the gun. "in the form that hunter filled out, he checked 'no' to being addicted to crack, or being an addict," he said. "in the time leading up to him buying the gun, and the time after he bought to gun, there was evidence of use," the juror explained. bernd debusmann jrreporting from wilmington, delaware just a few minutes ago, my colleague and i ran into one of the jurors in this case   juror number 10   in the lobby of our hotel. i recognised him from the court room, where i'd seen him listening attentively during hunter biden’s trial. in a brief interview, the juror told me that hunter biden being the president's son was not on his mind much. "i was never thinking of president joe biden," he said. "even though mrs (jill) biden was there and i knew that was his wife. somehow, you block that out of your mind." the other jurors also thought it was "important" to separate hunter biden's family background from the criminal charges, he added. "his dad wasn't on trial," juror 10 said. "out of all the jurors, nobody mentioned anything about political motivations." the juror also said he has not considered whether or not the verdict would have any subsequent political implications ahead of the 2024 election   for now. "it's probably something i have to think about a little more, how this will affect president biden," he said. christal hayesreporting from washington, dc hunter biden faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, but sending the president's son to serve time behind bars would pose serious challenges for the secret service. most legal experts agree biden is not likely to receive a sentence that harsh because of his lack of criminal history and the rehabilitation he already completed for his drug addiction. but the possibility of prison time would create a "logistical nightmare" for his secret service protection, former federal prosecutor neama rahmani tells me. there isn’t a precedent for sending someone with a secret service detail to prison and what that looks like remains unclear, rahmani says. this same issue came up at former president donald trump's criminal trial, where he also faces possible time behind bars. if the situation arises, biden would likely be isolated from other inmates but would still have secret service protection   something that poses a challenge, rahmani says. speaking at the gun safety event in washington dc, president biden pays tribute to all the survivors of gun violence who have focused not on anger, but on what they can do to fight it. he says when it comes to this issue, it's important to "never give up on hope". biden says last year had some of the lowest levels of gun crime in almost 50 years. he goes on to say the law has changed on background checks for anyone under 21 wanting to purchase a firearm. he says he wants there to be universal background checks. he adds that 20,000 unlicensed firearm dealers now have to be licensed to run background checks. us president joe biden is now speaking at a gun safety event in washington, dc. stick with us, we'll bring you more updates shortly. this video can not be played why hunter biden is important to republicans... in 90 seconds hunter biden is in the cross hairs of high ranking republicans, frequently coming under attack for his legal battles and the investigations into his business dealings. the more hunter biden stays in headlines, the more it could become a political problem for his dad, us president joe biden. for analysis on why his son's struggles could be an issue for the president, watch bbc north america correspondent anthony zurcher’s video at the top of this post. president joe biden is set to deliver a gun safety speech in washington dc in the next hour. he will then travel to wilmington, delaware later today. first lady jill biden is already in delaware, where she has been supporting hunter biden during his trial. the first lady was seen with her step son earlier today, after guilty verdicts in his gun trial were announced. rachel lookerus reporter carl tobias, a law professor at the university of richmond school of law, doesn't think a verdict in hunter biden's trial will have any implications on his father president joe biden's re election bid for the white house, he told bbc news. tobias pointed to recent polling that shows support for former president donald trump hasn't wavered in recent weeks, despite his own guilty verdict in a new york court last month. “i think most people view (joe biden) sympathetically as a father who’s tried to help his son through this very difficult time," tobias said. "there’s just no showing at all that president biden had anything to do with his son’s problems, and (he) did everything he possibly could as a parent to help him.” "i really don’t think it’ll have much impact," tobias added. one of the jurors on the hunter biden trial spoke to us outlet cnn, external after the verdict, emphasising that "no politics came into play" among the jury as they deliberated. "politics was not even spoken about," he said. the juror said they did not speak about the first family and kept conversations centred around hunter biden. when asked if the juror thought hunter should go to jail, he replied "no". the juror said the group felt bad for hunter biden's daughter naomi biden, for being called upon to testify about her father. her testimony did not impact their decision, the juror said. several congressional republicans took to social media platform x, some calling hunter biden's guilty verdict a distraction from what they allege are more serious crimes. "hunter biden’s firearm conviction is simply a smokescreen," rep. jim banks, a republican from indiana, wrote. "hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it," rep. thomas massie, a republican from kentucky, wrote. rep. andrew clyde, a republican from georgia, called hunter's guilty verdict the "left's attempt to create an illusion of equal justice". many republicans have alluded to questions which have been raised about hunter biden's business practices, and whether he had leveraged his name and access to his powerful father to make money and land clients. president joe biden has long maintained he never discussed business with his son or his associates. the white house has called a republican led inquiry into the claims an "inquiry based on lies". before ending his remarks, special counsel david weiss thanked the jurors who came to court each day of hunter biden's gun trial and performed their responsibilities in a professional manner. he said he is proud of all those involved in this "difficult assignment", adding that he is incredibly grateful. he ended his statement without taking questions. as a reminder: weiss was appointed by former president donald trump to become the us attorney in delaware in 2018. not long after, in 2019, he opened an investigation into allegations of criminal conduct by hunter biden. speaking to reporters after hunter biden's guilty verdict, special counsel david weiss said everyone should be held accountable, and that it was hunter biden's choices along with the combination of guns and drugs that made his conduct dangerous. "no one in this country is above the law," he said. this video can not be played prosecutor: case about 'illegal choices' not addiction special counsel david weiss just spoke at the us attorney's office in delaware. weiss began by saying there were two overarching themes emphasised by the prosecution during this trial: hunter biden's illegal choices and the rule of law. weiss said much of the testimony was about the use of drugs and alcohol, but added that this case was not just about addiction. the case was about the illegal choices hunter biden made while in throes of addiction, lying on forms when buying a gun and then possessing that gun, he said. these choices were what made biden's conduct dangerous, weiss added. we're still waiting for special counsel david weiss to start a press conference, so let's take a moment to look at what happened with the gun at the centre of this trial. the colt cobra special revolver was discarded by hallie biden. she is hunter biden's ex girlfriend and the widow of his late brother, beau biden. fearing he might hurt himself, she tossed it in a grocery store’s rubbish bin 11 days after he bought the gun. by hunter's own admission   published in his memoir   he was in the throes of a "full blown addiction" at the time. hallie told the court she wrapped the .38 calibre revolver in a leather pouch, stuffed it into a purple "little gift shopping bag" and drove to a store in greenville, delaware. she was then filmed on cctv as she threw it in a bin. the gun was discovered by a man who often rummaged through the grocery store’s refuse to gather recyclable items. that discovery prompted an investigation that ultimately led investigators back to hunter biden's federal forms. we're expecting to hear from special counsel david weiss in a few minutes, who was appointed to oversee the probes into hunter biden. weiss will make a statement at the us attorney's office in delaware at 13:00 et (18:00 bst). you can watch live by pressing the play button at the top of this page and we'll bring you live text updates here. this video can not be played judge says hunter ‘treated more harshly’ for being a biden retired us district judge hon shira a scheindlin says hunter biden was treated more harshly because of his last name and because he's the president's son. "if he was anybody other than a biden, he wouldn't have even had this trial," she tells bbc news. he's a first time offender and typically they aren't given prison time unless they use the gun in another crime, and that didn't happen here, scheindlin adds. asked about what happens next, scheindlin says a probation officer will carry out an interview, they'll write him up, letters will be submitted to the judge and both sides will make submissions and the judge will decide what to do. the range of punishment ranges from probation, such as drug treatment, to prison time   which she says is very unlikely. hunter biden released a statement following the guilty verdict saying he's feeling grateful for the support of his family. “i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced this last week from melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome," he said. hunter biden's attorney abbe lowell, said the team is "disappointed" by the verdict. "we respect the jury process, and as we have done throughout this case, we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter," he said. copyright © 2025 bbc. the bbc is not responsible for the content of external sites. read about our approach to external linking.

president biden’s son, who has struggled with drug addiction, was convicted in delaware federal court on all three counts tied to a handgun purchase in 2018. his sentencing date has not been set. eileen sullivan hunter biden, the president’s son, was found guilty on three felony counts related to buying a gun while he was in the throes of drug addiction. on oct. 12, 2018, he filled out the required federal background check form, marking “no” to a question about his drug use. his lawyers argued that the special counsel who brought the case, david c. weiss, had no evidence that mr. biden used drugs the day of his purchase or in the surrounding period. before deciding to convict him on all three charges, the jury heard about mr. biden’s spiraling addiction to crack cocaine from women in his life, as well as in mr. biden’s own words, which the prosecution shared by using excerpts from the audiobook of his memoir. here are some takeaways. the verdict in mr. biden’s trial came just weeks after former president donald j. trump was convicted in a manhattan courtroom of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star. both trials were surrounded by partisan dynamics and questions about the criminal justice system’s ability to operate without regard to politics. mr. biden’s trial was held in the biden family’s hometown, in the middle of a presidential campaign and amid intense pressure from republicans to find criminality by hunter biden. the fact that juries have now convicted both the presumptive republican presidential nominee and the son of his opponent, the sitting president, will not end debate about politics and the courts. but it might keep the issue from becoming further inflamed. in his 2021 memoir, hunter biden laid bare his unrelenting abuse of crack cocaine. witness testimony and text messages added to the damaging portrait of the president’s son, a stark reminder of his yearslong troubles at a time when his father is in a close re election race. former romantic partners of mr. biden’s testified about his drug use, his coast to coast partying, his drug dealers in washington, delaware and california, and his daily cash withdrawals, typically more than $1,000 each time. but testimony from his oldest daughter, naomi biden neal, was perhaps the most emotionally wrought. taking the witness stand on friday in her father’s defense, she delivered a positive appraisal of his demeanor days after he bought the gun, describing him as “hopeful” and sober. but under cross examination, that assessment seemed to falter, with prosecutors referring to text messages between her and mr. biden during that period that revealed an anguished relationship in which she struggled to connect with him while he was visiting new york, where she lived. prosecutors suggested it was because he was using crack cocaine. each day of mr. biden’s trial, several of his family members sat behind the defense table, offering support by showing up alone or with hugs and kisses during breaks. the first lady, jill biden, was in the courtroom for most of the proceedings, cutting short a visit to france with the president to briefly return. after his guilty verdict, hunter biden left the courthouse on tuesday holding her hand. in september, mr. biden is scheduled to go on trial in los angeles for charges that he evaded a tax assessment, failed to file and pay taxes, and filed a false or fraudulent tax return. it is considered the more serious case against him. the guilty verdict in his gun case on tuesday raises the possibility that he would receive a stiffer sentence if a jury convicts him in the tax case because federal guidelines take into account previous convictions. the special counsel, mr. weiss, in remarks on tuesday reiterated that he brought the gun case because nobody “is above the law,” while also suggesting that the government would not seek a sentence more severe than for any other person convicted in such a case. like the gun charges, the indictment for the tax related offenses chronicles mr. biden’s years of drug abuse and cites a wild spending spree. “between 2016 and oct. 15, 2020, the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” prosecutors wrote in bringing charges. the gun trial put some of that behavior on display, but the tax charges span a longer time period. that trial is set to start on sept. 5, about a month before he is expected to be sentenced for the gun crimes. during his opening statement, one of the prosecutors, derek hines, cited the form as the way to keep guns out of the wrong hands. “that form in a background check is the only safeguard that exists to screen whether someone can lawfully own a firearm,” he said. “background checks are one of the few protections that exist when it comes to having guns.” mr. biden’s lawyer, abbe lowell, made a similar point, noting that alcohol is not even mentioned on the form. “the law in this case does not prevent, and the form does not ask if someone is an alcoholic,” mr. lowell said. “under the law, and the form in this case, a person can even be drunk and still, under this law and this form, be able to walk in a gun store and buy it.” people accused of lying on a federal firearms application are typically not indicted on that charge alone, making mr. biden’s case unusual in that it would rarely reach a jury. typically, it would be part of a suite of charges that include a more serious crime. in many cases, people facing those charges negotiate deals for probation and participation in programs that include counseling and regular drug testing. there are fewer than about 300 prosecutions a year for lying to a federally licensed firearms dealer. some 25 million to 30 million background checks were performed annually around the time of mr. biden’s gun purchase, according to statistics obtained by the washington post. glenn thrusheileen sullivan and zach montague reporting from wilmington, del. a jury in wilmington, del., on tuesday found hunter biden, president biden’s son, guilty of three felony counts for lying on a federal firearms application, a shattering blow for the biden family in the middle of an unforgiving presidential election campaign. the verdict brought an end to an extraordinary seven day trial that made painfully public mr. biden’s crack addiction, reckless behavior and ruinous spending   narrated by three former romantic partners, including the widow of his brother, beau biden, and by the defendant himself in the pages of his memoir. the charges that mr. biden was convicted of stem from the purchase of a colt pistol in october 2018, and also included illegal possession of a weapon after falsely claiming to be drug free on the standard background check required in all firearms transactions. mr. biden, 54, faces up to 25 years in prison, although federal sentencing guidelines call for a fraction of that penalty. first time offenders who did not use their weapons to commit violent crimes receive relatively light sentences, and prosecutors suggested they would not seek a sentence more severe than for any other person convicted in such a case. as the verdict was read aloud, hunter biden stood with his arms crossed, grimly surveying the jury. when it was all over, he hugged and kissed his wife, melissa cohen biden. “i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced this last week from melissa, my family, my friends and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome,” he said in a statement shortly after. mr. biden’s lawyer, abbe lowell, suggested that he might appeal, vowing to “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter.” it is unclear what, if any, political implications the verdict will have. former president donald j. trump, facing two federal indictments, pounced on the conviction. but other republicans have expressed skepticism about the trial, and representative matt gaetz, a florida republican allied with mr. trump, said on social media that the conviction was “kinda dumb.” but the verdict was nothing short of a personal catastrophe for mr. biden. a year ago, mr. biden, who has been sober since mid 2019, reached a plea agreement with the government that would have allowed him to participate in a counseling program for people who commit nonviolent firearms offenses in lieu of prosecution or prison time. but the deal imploded under intense questioning from the judge presiding in the case. he faces another trial in september stemming from his failure to pay his income taxes during a yearslong crack, alcohol and spending binge. the delaware case, brought by the special counsel david c. weiss, is widely regarded as the least serious of the two federal indictments against mr. biden brought last year. but tuesday’s guilty verdict raises the stakes for any future sentencing if he is convicted in the second trial. mr. weiss, flanked by leo j. wise and derek hines, the two prosecutors who oversaw the trial, reiterated that he brought the case because nobody “is above the law.” he expressed sympathy with people with addiction, but in a brief appearance at his office in wilmington he said the purchase of a gun made mr. biden’s conduct “dangerous” and worthy of prosecution. “this case was about the illegal choices he made while in the throes of addiction,” said mr. weiss, the trump appointed u.s. attorney in delaware. many republicans have relished in the prosecution of mr. biden, equating president biden’s son’s legal troubles with those of mr. trump. but the situations are entirely different: the former president has been indicted twice by federal grand juries, and on may 30 was convicted on 34 felony counts in new york state court for falsifying business records. he is also facing criminal charges in georgia for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. president biden has said he will not pardon his son and kept his distance from the trial. he shifted his schedule after the verdict to visit his son in wilmington. he is scheduled to leave wednesday for the group of 7 summit in italy. “i am the president, but i am also a dad,” the president said in a statement. “i will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. nothing will ever change that.” jurors reached their verdict after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations. their speed took nearly everyone by surprise   including the first lady, jill biden. dr. biden, hunter biden’s stepmother, who attended most days of the trial, raced to the courthouse when she learned the jury had reached a decision but got snagged in a slow moving security line at the door and missed the reading of the verdict. later, she walked out of the courthouse hand in hand with mr. biden. hunter biden’s uncle james biden, one of his closest friends, was determined to get in   squeezing to the front of the security line, insisting he should get priority over the queue of reporters holding their wallets, keys and belts at the metal detector. he made it. hunter biden had been optimistic at the end of the day on monday, when the jury began deliberating. his team believed that the composition of the panel, which included several people with a family history of drug problems, would be sympathetic. but in the end, the government’s case was straightforward and the verdict preordained in the view of prosecutors, who presented dozens of text messages, in addition to summoning three women, including beau biden’s widow, hallie biden, who offered vivid testimony about his simultaneous, conflicting efforts to get clean and get more crack. mr. lowell, mr. biden’s lawyer, countered with a 90 minute closing argument on monday that attacked the credibility of the government’s main witnesses, seeking to show that mr. biden had not been using drugs at the exact moment he applied for a gun. he accused prosecutors of peddling “suspicion” and “conjecture,” and suggested that the trial had less to do with justice than punishing a remorseful and sober man for the crime of drug addiction. republicans in congress have tried to link president biden, who was out of office for most of the time covered in both of hunter biden’s federal cases, to his son’s lucrative business contracts. but they have failed to find any substantial links after years of digging and dubious claims that the president oversaw all of his son’s dealings as head of the “biden crime family.” just last week, house republicans made criminal referrals to the justice department, requesting that they charge hunter and james biden with making false statements to congress in the impeachment inquiry against president biden. hunter biden was paid millions to serve on the board of burisma, a ukrainian energy company   “and spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” prosecutors wrote in his indictment on tax charges in december. on tuesday, mr. biden was convicted of three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the federal firearms application used to screen applicants and possessing an illegally obtained gun for 11 days, from oct. 12 to oct. 23, 2018. prosecutions for lying to a dealer are relatively rare, averaging fewer than 300 per year. some 25 million to 30 million background checks were performed annually around the time of mr. biden’s gun purchase, according to statistics obtained by the washington post. when officials with the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives reviewed mr. biden’s gun application several years ago, they believed the case most likely would have been dropped if the target had been a lesser known person, according to a former law enforcement official familiar with the situation. they pointed to two factors: the gun had not been used in a crime, and mr. biden had taken steps to get and stay sober. maryellen noreika, the judge in the case, said she would sentence mr. biden within four months. she will have to weigh a number of unusual factors specific to his case. according to guidelines by the united states sentencing commission, which sets recommended sentencing parameters, someone in mr. biden’s position would typically face 15 to 21 months’ imprisonment for offenses related to the unlawful receipt, possession or transportation of firearms. from 2019 to 2023, only 48 defendants were sentenced in a similar category as mr. biden, and 92 percent were sentenced to serve prison time with a median prison term of 15 months, according to the commission’s data. around 8 percent of people in that category received probation or a fine. but judges frequently depart from the suggested guidelines when handing down a sentence and may reduce the time spent in prison in light of the particular circumstances unique to each case, according to legal experts. zach montague reporting from wilmington a juror said that even as some members of the jury sympathized with hunter biden’s struggles with addiction, the verdict was ultimately grounded in a close review of the evidence and that the political climate surrounding the trial was never discussed. “politics was not even spoken about,” the man, who identified himself as juror no. 10, said in an interview with cnn on tuesday. “the first family was not even spoken about   it was all about hunter.” speculation about how jurors might approach the case started almost immediately after jury selection last week: a striking number of people in the pool of available jurors expressed ambivalence about prosecuting people for relatively minor offenses, a reaction that may have been fueled, in part, by seeing family members struggle with addiction. according to an interview with the washington post, the juror said that even after a weeklong trial that delved into mr. biden’s relapses and risky decisions while he was addicted to crack cocaine, the jury was initially evenly split on all counts   six jurors leaned toward acquittal during a vote on monday. but the jury reviewed the evidence again, the juror said, and delivered a conviction on all counts on tuesday. the man said that the decision was based solely on a fair application of the law, and that while jurors did not discuss the possible consequences, he felt personally that mr. biden should not face prison time. “it was very sad that he was being, not that he was being convicted of these crimes, but that his life had turned out the way it did,” he told reporters with cnn. nicholas nehamas during an address to the nation’s largest gun control group on tuesday, president biden did not mention his son hunter biden’s felony convictions for lying on a federal firearms application. the white house is also not holding a press briefing this afternoon. zach montague reporting from wilmington when the judge presiding over hunter biden’s federal gun trial sentences him, she will have to weigh a number of unusual factors specific to his case. mr. biden was convicted on tuesday of three violations that rarely go to trial   all stemming from his failure to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought a gun in 2018. the charges included illegally possessing a firearm, giving a false statement in buying it, and providing that false statement to a licensed gun dealer responsible for making sure guns are sold only to properly qualified customers. according to the most recent manual published by the united states sentencing commission, which sets recommended sentencing guidelines, someone in mr. biden’s position would typically face 15 to 21 months’ imprisonment for offenses related to the unlawful receipt, possession, or transportation of firearms. from 2019 to 2023, just 52 defendants were sentenced in a similar category as mr. biden, and 92 percent were sentenced to serve prison time with a median prison term of 15 months, according to the commission’s data. around 8 percent of people in that category received probation or a fine. but judges frequently depart from the suggested guidelines when handing down a sentence and may reduce the time spent in prison in light of the particular circumstances unique to each case. mr. biden, as a nonviolent first time offender and as someone who was not accused of using the weapon in another crime, did not commit any of the aggravating factors that a judge might normally consider in setting a harsher sentence. (examples would include making a straw purchase to transfer a gun to somebody who could not buy one legally.) at the same time, the people who face charges similar to mr. biden often plead guilty and rarely go to trial, a fact that could further muddy the judge’s determination. by a judge’s calculation, a guilty plea from a defendant can count strongly toward an acceptance of responsibility for their crimes, substantially lowering, in some cases, the so called base offense level that informs the sentencing. according to the commission’s data, a defendant comparable to mr. biden who received credit for accepting responsibility would see a suggested range of just 10 to 16 months in prison, and in practice, 30 percent of people sentenced in that category from 2019 to 2023 were sentenced to probation with no prison time. while people who plead not guilty and take their case to a jury, as mr. biden did, are rarely acknowledged for taking responsibility for their actions, mr. biden’s case hinged largely on technical details, including the wording on the form he filled out. his lawyers acknowledged, and mr. biden admitted in his memoir, that he was frequently using crack cocaine around the time he bought the gun, and mainly disputed that he knowingly lied on the form he filled out to buy it. mr. biden’s lawyers also argued at trial that he never loaded or even handled the gun in the brief period that he owned it. now that a jury has convicted mr. biden, judge maryellen noreika will consider whether a sentence in the recommended guidelines, which are devised to prevent disparities between defendants, matches her sense of mr. biden’s culpability. having secured a conviction, prosecutors could also argue in their sentencing memo that a lesser punishment, such as probation and mandatory enrollment in a firearms diversion program, is more appropriate, as they often do in less serious gun crimes. abbie vansickleanushka patil and glenn thrush the judge who oversaw hunter biden’s federal firearms case   and will ultimately decide his sentence   is maryellen noreika, a no nonsense trump appointee who uncovered holes in an earlier plea agreement and is the main reason he stood trial. judge noreika, a 57 year old former patent and intellectual property litigator, has served on the united states district court for the district of delaware since 2017. she is not an especially high profile figure in the legal community of the country’s second smallest state. she had not worked on criminal cases or presided over a courtroom before president donald j. trump nominated her to the federal bench during his first year in office. she acted swiftly on motions and moved the case along, rejecting repeated requests for postponements by mr. biden’s legal team. but judge noreika did not schedule a date for mr. biden’s sentencing after he was found guilty on all three felony counts on tuesday, although she said that it typically takes place within 120 days of a verdict. david c. weiss, the special counsel, flanked by leo wise and derek hines, the two prosecutors who oversaw the trial, reiterated tuesday that he brought the case because nobody “is above the law”   but also suggested the government would not seek a sentence more severe than for any other person convicted in such a case. in a stunning hearing last july, judge noreika uncovered holes in a proposed plea deal between the justice department and mr. biden that offered him broad immunity   scuttling a plea deal that would have settled tax and gun charges against mr. biden. in the succeeding weeks, mr. weiss indicted mr. biden for firearms offenses in delaware and for failure to pay his taxes in california. the judge overseeing the pending tax case, mark c. scarsi, was also nominated by mr. trump. he started in the middle district of california in september 2020. judge noreika’s judicial record, publications, campaign donations and interviews with those who know her show that she displayed early leadership and a strong work ethic as a law student before a long career as a patent litigator. born in pittsburgh, she graduated from lehigh university in pennsylvania, earned a master’s degree in biology from columbia university, finished law school in 1993, then moved from associate to partner at the wilmington firm of morris, nichols, arsht & tunnell. over two decades, she tried more than 30 cases there, mainly patent and intellectual property disputes, before joining the federal bench. although she was nominated by mr. trump, she was recommended to him by delaware’s two democratic senators. during her nomination hearing in february 2018, judge noreika said she admired judges who were “always prepared” and who made people “feel like they’ve been listened to and been given a fair shot.” federal campaign records show that she has contributed to candidates from both political parties, including senator tom cotton, republican of arkansas, and hillary clinton during her 2008 campaign for president. judge noreika was registered as a democrat from 2000 until 2020, when she changed her registration to no party affiliation. judge noreika also presided over a biden related case in march 2023, when she threw out part of a defamation lawsuit brought by the owner of a delaware computer repair shop where mr. biden left his laptop in 2019. mr. biden and his father’s presidential campaign were among the defendants in the suit, which judge noreika sent back to the state’s superior court. katie rogers president biden said after hunter biden’s guilty verdict was reached on tuesday that he and the first lady, jill biden, “will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support,” and reiterated that he would “respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal.” “as i said last week, i am the president, but i am also a dad,” mr. biden said in a statement. “jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. so many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.” hunter biden on tuesday was convicted of lying on a federal form while applying for a handgun, lying to a federally licensed gun dealer and of illegally possessing a firearm during an 11 day period in 2018. the verdict will weigh heavily   personally and politically   on president biden as he continues a bruising re election campaign. the verdict is obviously unwelcome news for president biden, who is scheduled to leave washington for the group of 7 summit in italy on wednesday, and for ms. biden, who was a constant presence during the trial. but the president has stood by his troubled son for years, and he is unlikely to change course and treat his son like a political liability as he campaigns for a second term. his political rivals signaled on tuesday that they were not satisfied with the trial’s outcome. republicans were gearing up to say he was convicted of the wrong crimes. “doj is running election interference for joe biden   that’s why doj did not charge hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (fara) or any crime connected with foreign corruption,” stephen miller, one of former president donald j. trump’s top advisers, wrote on the website x, referring to the department of justice. “why? because all the evidence would lead back to joe.” republicans have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to link hunter biden’s business dealings to his father, and this line of attack is unlikely to recede. last week, house republicans urged the justice department to charge hunter and james biden, the president’s son and brother, with making false statements to congress in the impeachment inquiry against mr. biden. glenn thrush weiss, who signed off on a plea deal for hunter biden last july that would have resulted in no criminal prosecution, expressed sympathy with people with addiction but said the purchase of a gun made his conduct “dangerous” and worthy of prosecution. glenn thrush “this case was about the illegal choices he made while in the throes of addiction,” weiss said. katie rogers president biden has changed his schedule and will leave for wilmington, where hunter is, at around 3 p.m. today. the president is scheduled to leave wednesday for the group of 7 summit in italy. glenn thrush david weiss, the special counsel, flanked by leo wise and derek hines, the two prosecutors who oversaw the trial, reiterated that he brought the case because nobody “is above the law”   but also suggested the government would not seek a sentence more severe than for any other person convicted in such a case. stuart a. thompson to many influencers and social media users on the far right, hunter biden’s guilty verdict today was met not with a celebration, but a shrug. “yawn,” wrote charlie kirk, the popular right wing podcaster, on social media. right wing influencers have spent much of mr. biden’s trial claiming, without evidence, that the process was a sham in various ways: a trick by the justice department to appear balanced after former president donald j. trump was convicted in a manhattan courthouse, or a show trial that would end in a not guilty verdict by left leaning jurors in delaware. (mr. trump was charged by new york state, not the justice department.) they also claimed, without any proof, that the trial was a distraction from other crimes committed by mr. biden. they included the conspiracy theory that he profited from business dealings in ukraine with the help of his father. those claims continued after the guilty verdict was announced. mark levin, a conservative radio host and podcaster, wrote on truth social that mr. biden was found guilty “in a real trial (not a farce like manhattan).” but many of his supporters disagreed with his assessment. katie rogers the trump campaign released a statement calling the trial a “distraction” from what the former president has described as the “real crimes” of the family. republicans have tried to tie president biden to his son's legal troubles, so far unsuccessfully. eileen sullivan hunter biden’s lawyer, abbe lowell, said he was disappointed in the verdict. “we respect the jury process, and as we have done throughout this case, we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter,” he said in a statement. eileen sullivan hunter biden just released a statement. “i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced this last week from melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome,” he said, referring to his wife, melissa cohen biden. “recovery is possible by the grace of god, and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time.” he says he has been sober since mid 2019. glenn thrusheileen sullivan and katie rogers the speed of the verdict took nearly everyone by surprise   including the first lady, jill biden. court administrators cautioned reporters who were outside the courthouse in wilmington, del., to obey safety rules after many ran full speed into the building, causing a bottleneck at the metal detectors. jurors reached their verdict after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations. as the verdict was read aloud   guilty on all three felony counts   hunter biden stood with arms crossed, grimly surveying the jury. after jurors left the courtroom, mr. biden hugged his lawyers. then he found his wife, melissa cohen biden, put his hands on her arms, looked her in the eyes, and said, “hey.” he kissed and hugged her. jill biden, the first lady and mr. biden’s stepmother who attended most days of the trial, was not able to get to the courtroom in time for the verdict because of security delays. but she held mr. biden’s hand as he left the courthouse and got into a waiting vehicle without speaking to reporters. his aunt was also unable to enter the courtroom when the verdict was announced. his uncle james biden rushed to the front of the security line, insisting he should get priority as a family member. he was successful. glenn thrush hunter biden, the president’s son, was convicted on tuesday of three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail; making a false claim on the federal firearms application used to screen applicants, with a sentence of up to five years; and possession of an illegally obtained gun from oct. 12 23, 2018, which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years. the crimes stem from the purchase of a handgun by mr. biden at one of the low points of his troubled life. he had been addicted to crack cocaine, bouncing in and out of rehab, was divorced, hiring prostitutes and having money problems. the new york times reported last year that mr. biden later recounted to friends going into the gun store on a whim and buying the .38 because he thought spending time at a shooting range would help him avoid using drugs. in purchasing the gun, mr. biden had to fill out a form for a federal background check. in response to a question on the form about whether he was using drugs, mr. biden said he was not   an assertion that prosecutors successfully persuaded the jury was false. the first two crimes are essentially the same   that he lied about his drug use to illegally obtain the weapon, and that he falsely claimed that he was not “addicted to any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance” on the federal form, known as a 4473. the third conviction, illegal possession of the gun while under the influence of drugs, stems from the time he had the weapon. hallie biden, his brother beau’s widow   and his romantic partner at the time   eventually discovered the gun and threw it into a dumpster. the section of federal law cited in the indictment, 18 u.s. code § 922, is the main statute used to define who can and cannot possess a firearm. it bars drug users, people convicted of felonies whose punishment exceeds a one year prison sentence, fugitives from justice, people judged to be “mentally defective,” and those receiving dishonorable discharges from the military. katie rogers in a statement, president biden stands by his son and says he will accept the outcome of the case: “as i said last week, i am the president, but i am also a dad. jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. so many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery. as i also said last week, i will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. nothing will ever change that.” katie rogers if anyone was wondering how republicans would react to the verdict, here’s a preview from stephen miller, a top adviser to donald j. trump: “doj is running election interference for joe biden   that’s why doj did not charge hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (fara) or any crime connected with foreign corruption. why? because all the evidence would lead back to joe,” he wrote on x, reviving an attack line that republicans have used, so far unsuccessfully, to try to link father and son’s finances. even though hunter biden was convicted of all three counts, republicans are gearing up to say he was convicted of the wrong crimes. glenn thrush jill biden tried to enter the building with her sister in law valerie owens biden a few minutes before the jury entered the courtroom to read the verdict, but they did not make it through in time, according to bystanders. katie rogers the timing of this verdict comes as president biden is set to leave tomorrow for italy for the group of 7 summit. so far, his schedule has him staying in washington tonight before his departure, with his family, including hunter, in wilmington. but that could change. katie rogers the president is delivering remarks on gun control in washington this afternoon. eileen sullivan about a year ago, hunter biden had secured a plea deal for the charges against him, offering a very different outlook than the one that occurred today. but last july, the agreement fell apart when the judge punched holes in the plea deal. eileen sullivan in his 2021 memoir, “beautiful things,” hunter biden took stock of his travails and wrote: “all my energy revolved around smoking drugs and making arrangements to buy drugs   feeding the beast.” it is the type of admission that the government turned to in trying to use mr. biden’s own words to persuade a jury that he lied about his drug use. prosecutors say mr. biden misrepresented the extent of his drug use in completing a federal form to buy a firearm on oct. 12, 2018. at the time, he replied “no” to the question: “are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” mr. biden’s defense team argued that the terms “user” or “addict” are not defined on the form he filled out. they say the question itself is in the present tense. “someone, like mr. biden who had just completed an 11 day rehabilitation program and lived with a sober companion after that, could surely believe he was not a present tense user or addict,” mr. biden’s lawyers wrote in a court filing. yet, prosecutors say, mr. biden recognized he was an addict. they point to his memoir, in which he described in some length a four year addiction to crack cocaine, a period that included his purchase of the gun. in detailing his multiple attempts at rehabilitation, mr. biden at one point concludes those efforts were “insincere.” recalling the tumultuous period of his life after he bought the gun, mr. biden wrote: “i hardly went anywhere now, except to buy. it was me and a crack pipe in a super 8.” in addition to excerpts from his book, prosecutors have singled out text messages and metadata retrieved from his phone days after he acquired the gun. on oct. 13, mr. biden texted that he was meeting with his drug dealer, mookie. the next day, he sent a message that read, “i was sleeping on a car smoking crack,” at an intersection in wilmington. katie rogers when hunter biden left the courthouse in wilmington, he was holding the hand of jill biden. glenn thrush hunter biden had been optimistic at the end of the day monday, when the jury began deliberating. his team believed that the composition of the panel, which included several people with a family history of drug problems, would be sympathetic. glenn thrush the speed of the verdict   just three hours and five minutes   took nearly everyone by surprise. court administrators cautioned reporters who were outside the courthouse to obey safety rules after many ran full speed into the building, causing a bottleneck at the metal detectors. glenn thrush the big question now: how will today’s guilty verdict impact his trial on tax charges in california? will it make him any more likely to settle to avoid losing again? eileen sullivan hunter biden left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. eileen sullivan most days, hunter biden had many family members in the courtroom. but today there were fewer. the first lady and his aunt, valerie owens biden, weren't able to get into the courtroom for the verdict because of delays getting through security at the courthouse entrance. but his uncle james biden rushed to the front of the security line and insisted he should be allowed to go through and was successful. eileen sullivan after the jury left the courtroom, hunter biden hugged his lawyers. then he found his wife, melissa, put his hands on her arms, looked her in the eyes, and said, “hey.” then he kissed and hugged her. katie rogers this is obviously unwelcome news for president biden and jill biden, the first lady. she attended each day of the trial, except for one day last week. president biden said last week that he would not pardon his son if he was convicted. glenn thrush judge noreika did not schedule a date for hunter biden's sentencing but said it typically takes place within 120 days of the verdict. (an earlier version of this update misstated the timing of hunter biden’s sentencing. it typically takes place within 120 days of a verdict.) glenn thrush when the verdict was read, hunter biden stood with arms crossed grimly surveying the jury as they read out the three guilty verdicts in succession.

wait wait... don't tell me! is npr's weekly quiz program. each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. the president's son has been charged in delaware with three felonies stemming from a firearm purchase when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. hunter biden departs from federal court, monday, june 3, 2024, in wilmington, del. (ap photo/matt slocum) a jury was seated monday in the federal gun case against president joe biden’s son hunter, after prospective panelists were questioned about their thoughts on gun rights and drug addiction while the first lady watched from the front row of the courtroom. opening statements were set to begin tuesday after the jurors   six men and six women plus four women serving as alternates   were instructed by judge maryellen noreika not to talk or read about the case. hunter biden has been charged in delaware with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. he has been accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. the case is going to trial following the collapse of a plea deal that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. hunter biden has pleaded not guilty and has argued he’s being unfairly targeted by the justice department, after republicans decried the now defunct plea deal as special treatment for the democratic president’s son. no drama this time at hunter biden court hearing, as he quietly pleads not guilty to firearm and drug charges the president’s son could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted in the gun case but no mandatory time. prosecutors have said new tax charges are likely. 1 year ago the proceedings are unfolding just days after donald trump, the presumptive 2024 republican presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in new york city. a jury found the former president guilty of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. the two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the courts have taken center stage during the 2024 campaign. jury selection moved at a clip. the pool was chosen from roughly 65 people. those who answered “yes” on an initial questionnaire were quizzed individually by noreika to determine whether they could be fair and impartial. their names were not made public. the questions tested their knowledge of the case, surveyed their thoughts about gun ownership and inquired whether they or anyone close to them have struggled with substance abuse or addiction. other questions focused on the role politics may have played in the charges. one potential juror who was sent home said she didn’t know whether she could be impartial because of the opinion she had formed about hunter biden based on media reports. “it’s not a good one,” she replied when an attorney asked her opinion. another was excused because he was aware of the case and said, “it seems like politics is playing a big role in who gets charged with what and when.” jurors who were chosen included a woman whose sister was convicted about 10 years ago of credit card fraud and drug charges in delaware. one male juror’s father had been killed in a crime involving a gun, and his brother went to jail for possession of a narcotic. another woman on the panel has a husband who is a gun owner and formerly in law enforcement. a third juror, also a woman, gets her news from youtube and said she was vaguely aware of the case. hunter biden also faces a separate trial in california in september on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. both cases were to have been resolved through the deal with prosecutors last july, the culmination of a yearslong investigation into his business dealings. but noreika, who was nominated to the bench by trump, questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, which included a proposed guilty plea to misdemeanor offenses to resolve the tax crimes and a diversion agreement on the gun charge, which meant as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years the case would be dismissed. the lawyers could not come to a resolution, and the deal fell apart. attorney general merrick garland then appointed the top investigator, former u.s. attorney for delaware, david weiss, as a special counsel in august, and a month later hunter biden was indicted. this trial isn’t about hunter biden’s foreign business affairs   which republicans have seized on without evidence to try to paint the biden family as corrupt. but it will excavate some of hunter biden’s darkest moments and put them on display. the president’s allies are worried about the toll the trial may take on the elder biden, who’s long been concerned about his only living son and his sobriety and who must now watch as his son’s painful past mistakes are publicly scrutinized. allies are also worried the trial could become a distraction as the president tries to campaign under anemic poll numbers and as he is preparing for an upcoming presidential debate with trump. in a statement monday, the president said he has “boundless love” for his son, “confidence in him and respect for his strength.” “i am the president, but i am also a dad,” he said, adding that would have no further comment on the case. “jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.” the president was nearby, in their wilmington home, which he left shortly after court adjourned for a campaign reception in greenwich, connecticut. he is traveling to france on tuesday and will be gone the rest of the week. the first lady is scheduled to join him later. hunter biden’s sister, ashley biden, was also in court, and his wife, melissa. aboard air force one on the way to connecticut on monday night, white house press secretary karine jean pierre was asked if the case might affect the president’s ability to do his job and replied, “absolutely not.” “he always puts the american people first, and is capable of doing his job,” said jean pierre, who declined to say if biden got updates on the trial throughout the day or spoke to his son after the proceedings’ conclusion. earlier, when the court took a break for lunch, hunter biden walked over to his mother and leaned over the railing that separates the audience from the trial participants to hug and kiss her on the cheek. monday was the first lady’s 73rd birthday. a family friend, ricky smith, sat in the audience and embraced him warmly during a break. “it ain’t right for him to be sitting there because he was a drug addict,” smith said. the case against hunter biden stems from a period when, by his own public admission, he was addicted to crack. his descent into drugs and alcohol followed the 2015 death of his brother, beau biden, from cancer. he bought and owned a gun for 11 days in october 2018 and indicated on the gun purchase form that he was not using drugs. defense attorneys have suggested they may argue that hunter biden didn’t see himself as an addict when prosecutors say he checked “no” to the question on the form. they will also attack the credibility of the gun store owner. if convicted, hunter biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though first time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it’s unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars. ___ long reported from washington. associated press writers alanna durkin richer in washington and fatima hussein aboard air force one contributed to this report. get daily updates from whyy news! the free whyy news daily newsletter delivers the most important local stories to your inbox. whyy is your source for fact based, in depth journalism and information. as a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. please give today. hunter biden set to be sentenced on gun charges in november sentencing is set for nov. 13 in wilmington, delaware. the president's son could face up to 25 years in prison, but as a first time offender he may avoid prison entirely. 6 months ago what’s next for hunter biden after his conviction on federal gun charges jurors found biden guilty after three hours of deliberations over two days. now, president joe biden’s son faces sentencing and another trial on tax charges. 8 months ago president joe biden’s son hunter biden is convicted of all 3 felony charges in federal gun trial jurors found him guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun. 8 months ago 10 hours ago 12 hours ago 16 hours ago want a digest of whyy’s programs, events & stories? sign up for our weekly newsletter. together we can reach 100% of whyy’s fiscal year goal whyy provides trustworthy, fact based, local news and information and world class entertainment to everyone in our community. whyy offers a voice to those not heard, a platform to share everyone’s stories, a foundation to empower early and lifelong learners and a trusted space for unbiased news. learn more about social responsibility at whyy. it’s how we live. 215.351.1200 talkback@whyy.org 302.516.7506 talkback@whyy.org © mmxxv whyy whyy 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jurors in delaware reached their verdict on the charges against hunter biden, the president’s son, after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations. by glenn thrusheileen sullivan and katie rogers the speed of the verdict took nearly everyone by surprise   including the first lady, jill biden. court administrators cautioned reporters who were outside the courthouse in wilmington, del., to obey safety rules after many ran full speed into the building, causing a bottleneck at the metal detectors. jurors reached their verdict after just three hours and five minutes of deliberations. as the verdict was read aloud   guilty on all three felony counts   hunter biden stood with arms crossed, grimly surveying the jury. after jurors left the courtroom, mr. biden hugged his lawyers. then he found his wife, melissa cohen biden, put his hands on her arms, looked her in the eyes, and said, “hey.” he kissed and hugged her. jill biden, the first lady and mr. biden’s stepmother who attended most days of the trial, was not able to get to the courtroom in time for the verdict because of security delays. but she held mr. biden’s hand as he left the courthouse and got into a waiting vehicle without speaking to reporters. his aunt was also unable to enter the courtroom when the verdict was announced. his uncle james biden rushed to the front of the security line, insisting he should get priority as a family member. he was successful. glenn thrush covers the department of justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons. more about glenn thrush eileen sullivan covers breaking news, the justice department, the trials against donald j. trump and the biden administration. more about eileen sullivan katie rogers is a white house correspondent. for much of the past decade, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in washington, in addition to covering a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. she is the author of a book on first ladies. more about katie rogers

the jury in a wilmington, delaware, federal court convicted hunter biden, the son of us president joe biden, on all three felony charges tuesday morning after three hours and five minutes of deliberations. the younger biden was found guilty of lying on a gun application and to a federally licensed gun dealer about his drug use and illegally possessing a gun while addicted to drugs in october 2018.