The jury in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial was thrown out Friday afternoon after the prosecutors rested their case and the defense lawyers for the son of President Joe Biden began to lay out their case.
Three people, including Hunter Biden’s oldest daughter Naomi Biden, were called to the stand by his lawyers. Naomi Biden said she visited her father while he was in rehab in Los Angeles in the summer of 2018.
For NBC News, Naomi Biden said that he seemed “hopeful” in October 2018, which is the month that officials say he lied about using crack cocaine to buy a revolver.
Leo Wise, the prosecutor, asked Naomi Biden about her claim that she did not see any drug paraphernalia in her dad’s truck when she took it in October 2018.
Naomi Biden’s father wiped tears from his eyes as she spoke.
Hunter Biden, the president’s only living son and 54 years old, is charged with three counts for buying and having a Colt Cobra revolver while high on drugs.
Investigators say there is “overwhelming” proof that Hunter Biden was hooked on crack at the time he bought the gun and that he lied about it on a form that was used for a government background check related to the purchase. Hunter Biden’s lawyers have tried to make people question that he was high at that time.
The hearing in Delaware’s U.S. District Court should be over next week. It’s unclear if Hunter Biden’s lawyers will use their client to defend himself in court. At the end of the week, one of his lawyers said they would decide what to do about their “last witness.”
Thursday, Hallie Biden, married to Hunter’s late brother Beau Biden, testified in court.
In 2018, Hallie Biden found the gun at the center of the case and got rid of it.
Following Beau Biden’s death from cancer in 2015, she was also seeing Hunter Biden. She told the jury that she found out Hunter Biden was using crack cocaine while they were dating and then “Googled it because I didn’t know what it was.”
In court, she said she found the gun in Hunter Biden’s truck on October 23, 2018, and then threw it behind a grocery store.
“I didn’t want him to hurt himself, or my kids to find it and hurt themselves,” she said to the jury.
In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, the president said that he will not forgive his son if he is found guilty, and he will accept the jury’s decision.
The trial of the president’s only living son began just a few days after former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies of faking business records.
Trump has said that his case, which was brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and tried in New York state court, was planned by Joe Biden to hurt his chances of becoming president in 2024. This claim is not based on any evidence.
The likely Republican candidate and his supporters have kept spreading that claim and using it to raise money, even though Joe Biden’s son is being charged by the federal government in two different courts.
