Hunter Biden, the US president’s eldest living son, was found guilty on Tuesday of all three felonies he faced in connection with buying a gun while using crack cocaine.
Biden received the verdict in court as his friends and family, including the first lady, Jill Biden, lent support.
The jury reached its verdict after approximately three hours of deliberation over two days. It followed a weeklong trial in the Biden family’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, that featured sometimes excruciating testimony from some of his closest relatives about his addiction habit. Hunter Biden chose not to take testimony in his defense.
Joe Biden said Tuesday: “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the legal process as Hunter considers an appeal.
“Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support,” he continued. “Nothing will ever change that.”
The president has previously said he will not pardon his son if convicted. He also praised his son’s resilience and strength during his recovery from addiction.
No sentencing date has yet been set, although the maximum prison sentence Hunter Biden could receive is 25 years, which would be much longer than expected for a first-time offender.
In a statement, Hunter Biden said he is more grateful to his family and friends for their support than disappointed by the verdict.
“Recovery is possible by the grace of God, and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time,” he added.
His attorney Abbe Lowell said they were “obviously disappointed” by the verdict but respected the process and would “vigorously pursue any legal challenges available to Hunter.”
The Trump campaign sent a statement to CNN saying the trial was “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family.”
Hunter Biden was accused of making two false statements while filling out a form to purchase a Colt revolver in October 2018: first by falsely stating that he was not addicted to or using drugs, and then by stating that the statement was true. A third indictment alleged that he then illegally possessed the gun for 11 days before his sister-in-law and then-lover, Hallie Biden, threw it into a trash bin in a panic.
Lowell argued that the prosecution had not presented evidence that he had used crack cocaine — which he later admitted in a memoir he was addicted to before entering rehabilitation — in the month he purchased and owned the gun.
The attorney also noted that no one had seen Hunter use the drug during that period.
But messages retrieved from Hunter’s cell phone undermined the argument that he had not used drugs in the period before and after purchasing the gun. The day after he bought the gun, he texted Hallie Biden saying he was meeting a known drug dealer named Mookie. A day later, he revealed in another text message that he was sleeping in a car and smoking crack.
His daughter, Naomi Biden Neal – who testified in his defense – told the court that her father appeared sober in the weeks before the purchase. But the prosecution introduced more text messages that betrayed a strained and tenuous relationship between the pair, including one in which Naomi told her father that he had pushed her to her limits.
The prosecution called other members of the Biden family, including his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, to whom he was married for 24 years, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, as it tried to show that Hunter’s drug use continued in 2018 and 2019.
The testimony painted a portrait of Hunter Biden falling deeper into addiction as he struggled with the death of Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
After the breakdown of his marriage, he formed a romantic relationship with Hallie Biden, who admitted to smoking crack with him.
In summary, District Attorney Leo Wise said Hunter Biden’s text message showed he was trying to make drug deals before and after his gun purchase.
Related: Trial by fire Hunter Biden: main conclusions
He called the evidence against the defendant “personal, ugly and overwhelming” and noted that on October 14, 2018, two days after purchasing the gun, Hunter Biden told Hallie Biden that he had smoked crack. “That’s my truth,” he quoted Hunter as he wrote.
The evidence included lurid testimony of Hunter Biden smoking crack pipes, supported by photos shown in court.
Zoe Kestan, Hunter’s former girlfriend who met him at a gentlemen’s club, told the court last week that he regularly withdrew money to finance drug purchases.
She said he would smoke crack “about every 20 minutes,” and that she saw him smoking it over several days in Malibu, California, in September 2018, the month before he bought the gun.
Witnessing the proceedings was Hunter’s stepmother, Jill Biden, who was present every day except last Thursday, when she flew to Normandy, France, to attend the 80th anniversary of D-Day with her husband.
Lowell told jurors that just because Hunter Biden had a famous last name did not mean he was any less entitled to his rights than any other defendant, and urged them to find him not guilty.
