By Jack Queen and Tom Hals
(Reuters) -US President Joe Biden‘s son Hunter Biden opted Monday not to testify at his criminal trial on charges of concealing his alleged drug use from the government in 2018 to illegally purchase a gun, and his legal team rested its case.
Prosecutors then called a witness to review text messages and refute defense evidence. Later, the parties will make closing arguments, the judge will instruct the jury, and the jury will begin deliberating.
The federal government’s case, the first criminal trial of a U.S. president’s child, last week offered an intimate glimpse into the younger Biden’s years-long battle with alcohol and crack cocaine abuse that prosecutors said prevented him from legally purchasing a gun.
Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to felonies both for lying about his addiction when he filled out a government screening document for the Colt Cobra revolver and for illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, follows another historic first: the May 30 criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be found guilty of a crime. Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the presidential election on November 5.
Trump and some of his Republican allies in Congress have charged in the case and three other criminal charges are politically motivated efforts to prevent him from regaining power.
Democrats in Congress cite the prosecution of Hunter Biden as evidence that Joe Biden is not using the justice system for political or personal purposes.
Last week, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, ex-girlfriend and sister-in-law testified for the prosecution about his drug use, telling jurors they often found drugs and paraphernalia in his possession and sometimes worried about his growing addiction.
Hunter Biden told the judge overseeing the case during a 2023 hearing that he has been sober since 2019.
Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell told jurors during his opening statement that his client did not intend to deceive because he was clean when he bought the gun and did not consider himself a drug user at the time.
The defense called three witnesses Friday, including the gun shop owner and an employee, and Hunter Biden’s daughter Naomi, who said her father appeared to be doing well when she saw him in the weeks before and after he bought the gun .
The sentencing guidelines for the charges against Biden are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in cases similar to his often receive shorter sentences and are less likely to receive prison time if they adhere to the terms of their pretrial release.
(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Howard Goller and Nick Zieminski)
