WILMINGTON, Del. — Guilty, guilty, guilty.
Hunter Biden, 54, became the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime Tuesday after a federal jury found him guilty of three counts related to lying about his drug use in order to buy a gun.
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The panel of six men and six women deliberated for three hours across two days before convicting the 54-year-old of making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed firearms dealer, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of or addict to a controlled substance.
The first son stared at the jurors, who had serious expressions on their faces, and made no visible reaction as the verdict was read out by a court official — except to slightly nod his head as the last “guilty” was spoken.
Hunter’s wife Melissa Cohen Biden sat in the gallery behind him, next to her husband’s “sugar brother,” attorney Kevin Morris. She also remained impassive at the news of the conviction.
Hunter then hugged his lead defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, and other members of his legal team.
First lady Jill Biden, who was present at every day of the trial except one, was caught out by the speed with which the verdict was reached — entering the courthouse still wearing sunglasses about five minutes after it had been read.
Judge Maryellen Noreika did not set a sentencing date Tuesday, but noted that such hearings normally take place about four months after conviction — which would mean Hunter would have to return to court as his father’s re-election campaign nears the final stretch.
The first son faces up to 25 years behind bars — though a lighter sentence is much more likely since he has no prior convictions.
Follow the latest on Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial:
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- Hunter Biden breaks silence after felony gun conviction, says he’s ‘disappointed’ by outcome
- Hunter Biden juror reveals the damning evidence that lead to conviction at gun trial
- Here’s what’s next for Hunter Biden following his conviction on gun charges
After the verdict, Hunter huddled in a side room with his family for roughly 15 minutes before saying, “Let’s go” and heading to the elevator with Jill and Melissa in tow and flashing a smile.
A few moments later, the first son left the federal courthouse in Wilmington holding hands with his wife. He touched his stepmother Jill on the shoulder before getting in a black SUV guarded by Secret Service agents — and ignored the nearby pack of reporters.
Special counsel David Weiss, whose office brought the charges, told reporters in a brief statement after the verdict that the prosecution “was not just about addiction, a disease that haunts families across the United States, including Hunter Biden. This case was about the illegal choices the defendant made in the throes of addiction.”
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“No one in this country is above the law,” added Weiss, who was not in court when the verdict was read. “Everyone must be accountable for their actions.”
Lowell indicated he would appeal the verdict, saying he was “naturally disappointed” and would “continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter.”
The first son himself said he was “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,” Hunter Biden added, “and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time.”
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Prosecutors Leo Wise and Derek Hines had argued President Biden’s son knowingly fibbed on a gun application form that he did not use controlled substances before walking out of a Wilmington shop with a Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver on Oct. 12, 2018.
In fact, Hunter Biden was hooked on crack cocaine at the time, a fact he acknowledged in his own 2021 memoir — which the government used as evidence against him, along with witness testimony, the first son’s own communications, and datataken from his infamous laptop.
Judge Noreikahad ruled before trial that prosecutors didn’t have to prove that Hunter was high the day he purchased the weapon.
Jurorsheard a plethora of excerpts from the audiobookof Hunter’s book — narrated by the first son himself — describing his struggle with addiction and how he had a “superpower of finding crack cocaine anytime, anywhere.”
The jury also saw copious messages in which Hunter appeared to be pursuing drug deals and talked about being high or how he was using — including texting his dealer in the spring of 2018 asking: “Can you get baby powder, the real soft stuff.”
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Jurors heard from witnesses including the Biden scion’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; his ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan; and from his sister-in-law-turned-lover Hallie Biden, who was married to Hunter’s brother Beau until he died of brain cancer in 2015.
Buhle testified about discovering Hunter used crack the same year as Beau’s death, when she found her then-husband’s pipe on the porch of their Washington, DC home. She said that when he used he was “not himself,” and was “angry [and] short-tempered.”
Kestan told jurors about dating Hunter for roughly nine months in 2018, a wild period during which she got a front row seat to him smoking crack “every 20 minutes or so.”
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Hallietestified about finding the guninside Hunter’s Ford Raptor pickup on Oct. 23, 2018 — 11 days after he bought it — and throwing the weapon away in a panic at a Wilmington grocery store.
Moments later, Hallie recounted, Hunter flew into a rage upon learning she got rid of the .38 and ordered her to retrieve it.
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But when she returned to the store roughly 30 minutes later, the gun was no longer there. (It was later found and turned in by an elderly man who had been searching the trash for recyclables.)
Lowelltold jurors that their client didn’t knowingly lie on the gun application form but rather argued he was in a “deep state of denial” about his drug dependency.
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The defensefurther described Gordon Cleveland, the salesman at the StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, as a “whale hunter” who pushed Hunter into buying the weapon.
Lowellalso tried to poke holes in the prosecution’s timeline of Hunter’s addiction in an attempt to show he hadn’t fallen off of the drug wagon, but was instead struggling with alcoholism.
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Hunter had pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case, although in June 2023 he was slated to take a guilty plea — only for the deal with prosecutors to blow up in court after Hunter’s team discovered he wouldn’t receive blanket immunity from possible future charges.
The verdict is not the end of the first son’s legal trouble.
He’sscheduledto face a case in Los Angeles federal court beginning Sept. 5 for allegedly evading $1.4 million in federal income tax for the years 2016 through 2019.
