Defense rests…

Jurors have begun deliberating on the gun charges against Hunter Biden.
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is accused of lying about his drug use on a federally required form when he bought a gun in 2018.

During closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors that there was “overwhelming” evidence against Hunter Biden and that he chose to lie and violate the law.

But Biden’s defense attorney Abbe Lowell said prosecutors lacked firm evidence for much of their case, and said they treated the case like a magic trick, using circumstantial evidence in an effort to direct the jury’s focus away from the whole picture.

Prosecuting attorney Derek Hines said cash withdrawals of more than $150,000 made by Hunter Biden are “indicative of the continual, significant drug use that the defendant described in his book.”

“There is no evidence that it was used for anything but drugs,” Hines said.
Hines also rejected arguments from the defense that Hunter Biden was trying to avoid his sister-in-law Hallie Biden and so lied in text messages saying he was looking for and using drugs. If Hunter didn’t want to be around Hallie, he could have just said he was in Washington, D.C. rather than Delaware, Hines said.

Hines also reminded the jurors that witnesses who testified in exchange for immunity were required to testify truthfully or they would risk prosecution
Hines also reminded jurors that prosecution immunity agreements with Hallie Biden and Zoe Kestan required them to testify truthfully, or else risk being prosecuted themselves. And he noted that the gun was in Hunter Biden’s truck on Oct. 23, countering defense suggestions that he never carried it around.

“There is overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hines concluded. “When he chose to lie and buy a gun, he violated the law.”

Prosecutor Derek Hines began his rebuttal statement by saying that several things defense attorney Abbe Lowell said during closing arguments were “completely unfair” – including Lowell’s suggestion that jurors have Hunter Biden’s life in their hands.

If Hunter Biden had simply been an addict struggling with personal problems, “we would not be here in this courtroom,” Hines said. But the defendant is on trial for buying a gun and lying about being a drug addict on the federally required gun purchase form, he said.

Hines also took exception with Lowell’s assertation that the prosecution’s questioning of Naomi Biden was “extraordinarily cruel.”

“Who called the defendant’s daughter as a witness in this case?” Hines asked. “Not us.”

Hines told the jury that the evidence clearly shows that Hunter had a pattern of illegal drug use at the time he bought the gun. Prosecutors do not have to prove that Hunter used drugs on the day he bought the gun or was under the influence while in the gun store, he said.

He said text messages indicate Hunter Biden was going to a convenience store in the days before buying the gun to make drug deals. He rejected the notion that Hunter Biden had no plan to purchase a weapon, and only walked into the gun store on a whim after stopping at a nearby cellular store.

“He knew what he was getting into,” Hines said. “He could have gone to the AT&T store and gone home.”

The prosecutor also said Hunter Biden stored drugs in the brown leather pouch that Hallie Biden used to dispose of the gun, and said Hunter was the source of the drug residue found on the pouch.

“There is no evidence that the brown leather pouch is anyone else’s,” he said.

By CLAUDIA LAUER, RANDALL CHASE

Hunter Biden’s defense attorney summed up his closing arguments by reminding jurors that their duty to determine a person’s guilt or innocence comes with “tremendous responsibility.”

“The burden of proof … is always on the prosecution,” Abbe Lowell said.
He told jurors they should consider the testimony from Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and former lover Hallie Biden and his former girlfriend Zoe Kestan “with great care and caution,” noting that both witnesses were granted immunity.

Lowell also said prosecutors sought to embarrass Hunter by asking what Zoe’s age was when the two dated, and said they were “extraordinarily cruel” to Hunter’s daughter when they asked if she uses cocaine. Prosecutors did not provide any evidence of allegations that Hunter had contact with a dealer named Frankie, and they didn’t produce Frankie either, Lowell said.
Lowell also stressed that Hunter Biden pushed to report to police that the gun was missing from the trash, and was consistently listed as the victim in the incident.

He suggested that prosecutors were treating the case like a magic trick, presenting circumstantial evidence like a magician might present a card trick — trying to get jurors to focus on one hand and ignore the other.

The fact that Hunter Biden has a famous last name does not mean he is less entitled to his rights than any other defendant, Lowell said, reminding jurors that he is still presumed innocent unless and until a guilty verdict is given.

“With my last breath in this case, I ask for the only verdict that will hold the prosecutors to what the law requires of them,” he concluded, asking jurors to find Hunter not guilty.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell rejected the prosecution’s assertion that large cash withdrawals made by Hunter Biden could have been used to buy drugs.
Witnesses for the prosecution didn’t back up those claims with detailed financial records, Lowell told jurors.

Earlier in the trial, the defense had suggested the money could have been used to pay for rehab, though the prosecutor had countered that financial records suggested otherwise.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Abbe Lowell also argued that prosecutors were unable to show when and how drug residue got on a leather pouch Hallie Biden found in Hunter’s truck and inside of which she put his gun before tossing it in the trash. They also couldn’t say who put it there.

Turning to testimony by Kathleen Buhle, Hunter’s ex-wife, about his drug use, Lowell noted that they were no longer together in 2018.

“There was no actual witness to the drug use in this period of time,” he said.
Lowell noted that the federal form Hunter filled out when he bought the gun asks in the present tense whether the purchaser “is” a user of or addicted to illegal drugs. He also suggested that Biden decided on a whim to go to the gun store after visiting a nearby store to buy a new cellphone.
Lowell noted that Hunter bought several other items at the gun store, including a utility knife, flashlight and BB gun.

“It does reflect on whether Hunter had the necessary intent” to buy a gun and lie on the paperwork.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell began his closing arguments by saying that the prosecution has not met its burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Lowell focused on the word “knowingly,” saying Hunter’s state of mind at the time of the gun purchase is critical. The defense has suggested that, at the time he bought the gun, Hunter did not consider himself an addict. What he wrote later in his memoir is irrelevant, Lowell suggested.

Lowell also tried to discredit Kestan’s testimony about witnessing Hunter’s drug use. He notes there were “No pipe, no scales, no drugs. Not even alcohol” in photos she took while visiting him in California.

Lowell also noted that Hallie Biden did not see Hunter using drugs in the days surrounding the gun purchase. As far as text exchanges with Hallie Biden suggesting drug use and drug deals in the days following the gun purchase, Lowell suggested, perhaps Hunter was “just putting somebody off.”

“At any given time, he would lie to her about where he was,” Lowell said.

Wise opened his remarks by signaling with his right hand to the gallery, which included first lady Jill Biden along with Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden and other family members.

“All of this is not evidence,” he said, extending his hand and directing the jury to look at the gallery. “People sitting in the gallery are not evidence.”

He told jurors their decision could be made using only the evidence and the law from the court proceedings.

The first lady and Hunter Biden showed no signs of emotion. At times, Hunter Biden looked at the jury and other times he seemed to look straight ahead listening. Jill Biden, seated in the front row behind Hunter and to the left of his wife, looked ahead as well.

Jurors watched the prosecution’s closing, which used black slides with white writing to convey their main points. One juror bit his nails.

Wise pointed to text messages that he said show Hunter trying to make drug deals on the days before and after the gun purchase and on Oct. 16, noting that Hunter told Hallie on Oct. 14 that he was smoking crack, writing, “That’s my truth.”

“Take the defendant’s word for it. That’s his truth,” Wise said, urging them to reject defense suggestions that Hunter was simply trying to avoid being with Hallie.

“You don’t leave your common sense behind when you come into that jury box,” he told jurors.

Wise also said there is nothing to support the defense’s suggestion that Hunter was withdrawing large sums of money from the bank to pay for rehab. Financial statements show that the rehab payments were not made with cash, Wise said, arguing that the withdrawals were made to buy drugs.
Wise also recalled text messages between Hunter and his daughter, Naomi, in October 2018 during a trip to New York, including one in which Hunter asks if Naomi’s boyfriend could meet him in the wee hours of the morning to exchange cars.

“I’m really sorry Dad, I can’t take this,” Naomi responded.

Text messages from 2018 and 2019 point to Hunter Biden’s drug use and efforts to obtain crack cocaine from drug dealers, Wise said.

One day after buying the gun, Hunter texted Hallie Biden that he was waiting for a dealer named Mookie. The following day, Hunter told Hallie in a text message that he was smoking crack. In other text messages, Hunter described him self as both “a drunk” and “an addict.”

In addition to the text messages, Hunter in his memoir described buying and using drugs during four years of “active addiction,” Wise said.

“In his prologue, he referred to himself as a drug addict,” Wise said.

Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, testified to his drug use and addiction, Wise noted. His former girlfriend Zoe Kestan said she saw Hunter using drugs from December 2017 through November 2018, even after he had gone to rehab.

Wise said prosecutors have shown that Hunter Biden, as a drug user, knowingly and illegally possessed the handgun, regardless of how it was acquired.

“You saw messages from the defendant to Hallie Biden where he admits that the gun was his,” Wise said, noting that there’s no evidence that anyone else possessed it from Oct. 12 to Oct. 23.

Wise said the evidence shows that Hunter “knowingly” made a false statement in buying the gun and “knowingly” possessed it. The evidence shows Hunter Biden knew he was using drugs and was addicted to drugs, Wise said.

Wise noted that prosecutors don’t have to prove that Hunter used drugs on the day he bought the gun, or during the time he possessed it, just that he used drugs around the time of the gun purchase. He noted that Hunter’s former girlfriend testified that he used drugs in California less than three weeks before he bought the gun.

“You can consider the defendant’s pattern of use,” Wise said, adding that the evidence shows that Hunter also used drugs in the days after he bought the gun.

In the prosecution’s closing arguments, Wise acknowledged the personal nature of the evidence presented during the trial.

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

Wise says that the false statement that Hunter Biden is charged with making is the ‘no’ answer on an ATF form. Wise was referring to Biden checking a box asking whether he was a user of or addicted to illegal drugs.

“In fact, he was,” Wise said.

Prosecutor Leo Wise began by telling jurors the only evidence in the case is what came from the witness stand and the physical and documentary evidence that has been admitted.

“No one is above the law,” he said, echoing what prosecutors said in their opening statement.

Wise told jurors he’ll summarize the evidence for them and show the prosecution has proven each element of each of the felonies with which Hunter Biden is charged.

“That is a burden we embrace, and a burden, I submit, that we have met,” he said.

There was no visible reaction from Hunter Biden when lawyer Abbe Lowell said the defense rested. The defense rested their case without calling the president’s son to the witness stand. Defendants aren’t required to testify and lawyers often advise against it since it leaves them open to prosecutors’ grilling on cross-examination.

Shortly before the judge read instructions to the jury, Hunter Biden’s sister Ashley draped her arm around the first lady, reaching Melissa Cohen Biden, Hunter’s wife, and gently touching her back.

Both Hunter and the prosecutors scanned the jury as the judge instructed them on the law. Some jurors took notes with yellow pencils and many followed along with the judge’s instructions, turning pages as she read aloud from the bench.

Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial has resumed in Delaware, with the judge discussing final jury instructions with attorneys. The judge began Monday’s proceedings by overruling many of the defense team’s objections to her proposed instructions. Hunter Biden is charged with three felonies stemming from a handgun purchase in October 2018. Prosecutors say he lied when buying the gun by stating that he was not a drug user or addict.

1

First lady Jill Biden is at the courthouse. So is Hunter Biden’s Uncle James, Aunt Valerie and his sister Ashley.
The family has come to court a lot over the past week to support Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden has arrived at the courthouse, hugging his uncle, James Biden, on his way in. President Joe Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, was seen outside the courthouse.

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden lied when he swore he wasn’t a drug user on a form he filled out at the gun shop. He had the gun for about 11 days before it was thrown in a trash can.

Hunter Biden’s attorney argues his client did not believe he was in the throes of addiction when he stated in the paperwork that he did not have a drug problem.

Here’s who has testified in the trial thus far.