Hunter Biden's defense may have overplayed hand, insulted jury: Turley
Constitutional law attorney Jonathan Turley on what led to the guilty verdict in the Hunter Biden gun trial.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden’s whirlwind, and at times emotional, criminal trial came to a close Tuesday when the jury found the first son guilty on all counts related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018.
"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," Hunter Biden said in a statement after the verdict.
After roughly six and a half days in court, the jury agreed with the prosecution team that Hunter Biden lied on a federal firearm form, known as ATF Form 4473, in October 2018 when he ticked a box labeled "No" when asked if he was an unlawful user of drugs or addicted to controlled substances.
Fox News Digital was present in the courtroom throughout the majority of the trial and has compiled the seven most dramatic moments and testimony that unfolded between June 3 and June 11.
HUNTER BIDEN FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN GUN TRIAL
Hunter Biden leaves federal court, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
HUNTER’S EXES TAKE THE STAND
Three of Hunter Biden’s exes took the stand and testified during the trial, including his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, who was married to the first son for more than 20 years and with whom she shares three adult daughters.
Buhle and Biden divorced in 2017 after Buhle found a crack pipe on the side porch of their home in Washington, D.C., in 2015, she told the court.
Buhle was soft-spoken and appeared emotional during her testimony as she detailed her suspicions of his rampant drug use after he was discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine.
"I was definitely worried, scared," she said, describing how she would scour his car for drugs and drug paraphernalia to ensure their daughters would not drive the vehicle around with the substances.
HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS DAY 5 AFTER TESTIMONY FROM SISTER-IN-LAW-TURNED-GIRLFRIEND: 'PANICKED'
Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, leaves the courthouse after taking the stand during Biden's criminal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Biden's ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, also took the stand last week, walking the jury through Biden’s rampant drug abuse throughout their relationship, including him smoking crack in hotel rooms, stealing away to public bathrooms to smoke crack and how she helped pick up drugs for him. She said the crack cocaine he purchased often was the size of a "ping pong ball," which he broke into pieces and lit up in glass pipes. Kestan testified under immunity.
Kestan met Hunter Biden when she was 24 and he was 48 at a New York City gentleman’s club where she worked as a dancer. Kestan said their whirlwind relationship was a "distraction" for Biden as he allegedly smoked less when they were hidden away, sometimes for days at a time, in ritzy hotel rooms such as New York City’s Four Seasons or in a bungalow at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont.
Kestan’s testimony was accompanied by photos depicting crack pipes in hotel rooms, a photo of a bare-chested Biden in a bubble bath with Kestan, and a screenshot of a FaceTime video showing Biden’s back tattoo that resembled claw marks. The jurors were told amid Kestan’s remarks that Biden learned how to cook crack cocaine, and they were shown a photo of baking soda in one hotel room that was used to cook cocaine into crack.
Ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan leaves federal court after testifying in Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law turned girlfriend, also took the stand. Hallie Biden was a key figure in the trial: She was the one to toss Hunter Biden’s gun in a trash can outside a Wilmington supermarket, which led to police involvement ahead of the indictment last year. She also provided further insight into his addiction to crack cocaine during the year he purchased the gun.
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Hallie Biden is Beau Biden’s widow and began a relationship with Beau's brother, Hunter Biden, in 2015, after her husband’s death from brain cancer. The pair had an on-and-off romantic relationship until about 2019, when they called it quits. Hallie Biden testified about her discovery that Hunter Biden used crack, that he introduced her to crack cocaine, and how she became sober before discovering the handgun at the heart of the case in Hunter Biden’s truck on Oct. 23, 2018.
"It was a terrible experience I went through, and I was embarrassed and ashamed. … I regret that period of my life," Hallie Biden told the court on Thursday about her use of crack cocaine. Hallie Biden was joined in court by her husband, who she married the weekend before her testimony. Similar to Kestan, Hallie Biden also testified under immunity.
A court sketch depicts Hallie Biden testifying during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 6, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
JILL BIDEN AND ALLIES FRONT AND CENTER
First lady Jill Biden became a fixture of the Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom throughout the trial. She took a front-row seat in the courtroom, sitting behind her stepson as he faced testimony regarding his repeated use of crack cocaine before and after his illegal purchase of a firearm.
Jill Biden only missed one full day of court last week, when she traveled to Normandy, France, with President Biden to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. She also notably missed former daughter-in-law Kathleen Buhle’s testimony, but she returned to the court after Buhle left the stand.
First lady Jill Biden leaves federal court, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The first lady was frequently joined by family members such as President Biden’s siblings Valerie Biden and James Biden, daughter Ashley Biden, daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen Biden, and allies, such as former Biden adviser Francis "Fran" Person and lawyer and producer Kevin Morris.
Jill Biden seldom looked around the courtroom during her days in the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building, which is named after the Republican Delaware senator President Biden defeated in 1972, subsequently catapulting the 46th president’s political career. The first family and allies also walked past large portraits of President Biden and Vice President Harris when entering and leaving the court’s main lobby.
HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS 3RD DAY WITH CROSS-EXAMINATION OF FBI AGENT
Jill Biden directed her focus toward the defense team and presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika the majority of her time in court, only shifting in her seat to speak with family or allies.
Jill Biden was not in the courtroom when Hunter Biden’s verdict was read, but she joined her stepson in court soon after and left with him and his wife early Tuesday afternoon.
First lady Jill Biden arrives at federal court, June 4, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
PROSECUTION TELLS JURY THAT BIDEN FAMILY IN AUDIENCE ‘NOT EVIDENCE’
Prosecutor Leo Wise in his closing arguments highlighted to the jury that the "people sitting in the gallery are not evidence," seemingly referring to the first lady and others in the Biden family, whose roots run deep in Delaware.
"Respectfully, none of that matters," he added, even if the jurors recognized the audience "from the news."
A juror who spoke to Fox News after the verdict said he was "aware" of the first lady’s presence in the courtroom but that the jury "didn't discuss any part of the case until" they were excused to deliberate Monday afternoon.
HUNTER BIDEN’S WIFE LASHES OUT AT FORMER TRUMP ADMIN AIDE
Hunter Biden’s second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, lashed out at a former Trump White House aide, Garrett Ziegler, on the second day of the trial.
Hunter Biden sued Ziegler last year for publishing contents of his infamous laptop that he left in a Delaware repair shop in 2019. Amid the Hunter Biden trial this month, the scandalous laptop was formally entered into evidence and confirmed as valid, despite many media outlets previously discounting the laptop as Russian disinformation.
HUNTER BIDEN'S WIFE LASHES OUT AT FORMER TRUMP AIDE DURING COURT APPEARANCE: 'PIECE OF S---'
"You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of s---" Cohen Biden said while pointing her finger at the former Trump administration aide just outside the courtroom last Tuesday, according to reports. Fox News Digital did not witness the tense exchange.
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, are shown outside federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. (Reuters/Hannah Beier)
Ziegler, who founded a nonprofit group Marco Polo, did not initially respond to Melissa Cohen Biden's remarks but later confirmed the confrontation.
"It's sad I've been sitting here the whole time and haven’t approached anyone," Ziegler said later to NBC News, confirming the encounter.
HUNTER BIDEN’S DRUG USE: WHAT PROSECUTION NEEDS TO PROVE, WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW
Hunter Biden and wife Melissa Cohen Biden leave federal court on June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
NAOMI BIDEN NERVOUSLY TAKES THE STAND
Naomi Biden was called by the defense team to take the stand last Friday, and she told the court that she was aware of her father's addiction to drugs but said she had never witnessed him use drugs, namely crack cocaine.
Naomi Biden took the stand early Friday afternoon in the federal courthouse, dressed in all black with her hair pulled back, and told the court amid her testimony that she was "nervous." Hunter Biden appeared emotional when his daughter first entered court, taking out a tissue at one point and dabbing his eyes.
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A court sketch depicts Naomi Biden’s testimony during Hunter Biden’s federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 7, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
Wise presented Naomi Biden with a stack of printed-out text messages she shared with her father in October 2018 during cross-examination, including messages Hunter Biden sent his daughter after 2 a.m. asking if her boyfriend could drive his pickup truck to him and exchange the vehicle in Manhattan.
Naomi Biden testified that she did not know what her father was doing at 2 a.m. or why he was asking for the car in the middle of the night. Wise asked Naomi Biden if she knew if her father was meeting with someone named Frankie that night. Kestan testified earlier in the week that Biden met with a drug dealer named Frankie in a hotel room when he was in New York City in October 2018.
"I can’t take this. I don’t know what to say. I just miss you so much," she texted him later as they tried to hash out exchanging the truck. Biden texted back, apologizing.
US V HUNTER BIDEN: OPENING STATEMENTS TO BEGIN IN FIRST SON'S FEDERAL GUN TRIAL AFTER JURY SEATED
VERDICT READ IN COURT
Following about just three hours of jury deliberations between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, Hunter Biden was found guilty of all three counts, which included making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
A court sketch depicts the verdict being read during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. Biden was found guilty on all three counts in his federal gun trial. (William Hennessy Jr.)
Hunter Biden was very still and forward-facing as the guilty verdict was read. Ahead of the verdict, Hunter Biden appeared more upbeat than he did amid trial proceedings during the first week. He flashed a big smile at his defense team early Tuesday morning.
HUNTER BIDEN'S CRIMINAL TRIAL ON FEDERAL GUN CHARGES BEGINS WITH JURY SELECTION
He kissed his wife, and they left the courtroom before grabbing lunch in Wilmington a short time later.
Hunter Biden and wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive for the reading of the verdict in his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. (Reuters/Hannah Beier)
Hunter Biden faces a total maximum prison time of 25 years for the three charges. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release. Hunter Biden, however, is a first-time offender, making it unlikely he will face maximum penalties when he is sentenced at a later date.
JURY HEARS AN HOUR OF EXCERPTS FROM ‘BEAUTIFUL THINGS’
The prosecution team played roughly an hour of excerpts from Hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which detailed his rampant drug use after his brother’s death in 2015. He authored the memoir after he became sober in 2019.
The book was "key evidence that Hunter was using drugs," prosecutor Wise said in his closing arguments to the jury on Monday.
Hunter Biden holds a copy of his memoir, "Beautiful Things," while leaving federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Last week, the prosecution team played excerpts from the book, which included anecdotes such as how he linked up with a female drug dealer he nicknamed "Bicycles" who sold him crack cocaine on the streets of Washington, D.C., how he could serve as a "crack daddy" to dealers due to his spiraling addiction, and how he took cocaine from a stranger in a hotel bathroom in Monte Carlo.
US V HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS DAY 7 WITH CONTINUED JURY DELIBERATIONS: 'CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES'
"I possessed a new superpower: the ability to find crack in any town, at any time, no matter how unfamiliar the terrain. It was easy-risky, often frustrating, always stupid and stupendously dangerous, yet relatively simple if you didn't give much of a s--- about your own well-being and were desperate enough to have an almost limitless appetite for debasement," one excerpt read.
Social media users weighed in on Hunter Biden being found guilty on charges related to his possession of a firearm. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The excerpts were taken from the audiobook version of the memoir, which was narrated by Hunter Biden himself. The first son sat in court as his narration echoed through the court’s speaker system, walking the jury through his free fall with crack cocaine.
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Another excerpt read in court stated, "I was smoking crack every 15 minutes." And another, "I was so lost in my addiction that I watched the crowd rob me blind and didn't care enough to stop them – not as long as the cycle of drugs, sex, exhaustion and exhilaration repeated itself over and over. It was nonstop depravity."
Hunter Biden will be sentenced sometime in October.
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