June 10, 2024 4:57 PM
Hunter Biden’s legal fate remains in the hands of a jury, so here’s a refresher on the three charges he faces.
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, leave the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The panel of 12 Delawareans is deliberating in the federal firearms trial against Hunter Biden after both sides made closing arguments.
It is the first time in US history that the child of a sitting president has been put on trial. The indictment was filed by the Department of Justice, specifically by special counsel David Weiss, who was appointed last year to oversee the Hunter Biden investigation.
Hunter Biden, 54, is charged with federal offenses including illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm while abusing or addicted to drugs. He has pleaded not guilty to three charges but has spoken openly about his struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction.
The first two of the three indictments relate to the gun purchase itself.
Gun buyers must fill out a form with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to confirm their purchase is legal, and Hunter Biden is accused of lying on that form.
Those questions included: have you ever been convicted of a felony? Are you a fugitive? Are you in the country illegally? And, crucial to this case, are you an “unlawful user or addict” of illegal drugs? Hunter Biden allegedly checked the box marked “no.”
The third charge is for gun possession. It is a federal law to possess a firearm if you are abusing drugs. According to the indictment and documents recently unsealed in court documents, Hunter Biden possessed the gun for 11 days in October 2018, but his girlfriend threw it in the trash out of concern for his mental health.
“Guns are dangerous in the wrong hands and that’s the driving force behind this law,” Nabeel Kibria, a Washington, DC-based lawyer who has handled hundreds of gun-related cases, told CNN. “The evidence seems to be heavily weighted against hunters, but who decides who is an addict? What are the clear rules that must be followed?”
Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all three charges, but as it is a first offense, he will likely receive a much lighter sentence than the maximum.
