The jury began deliberations on Monday in the case of first son Hunter Biden, who is accused of lying about his use of illegal drugs when he bought a handgun in 2018.
"We ask you find the law applies equally to this defendant as it would to anyone else," government prosecutor Derek Hines told the jury as the first criminal trial of a child of a sitting president reached its final phase.
"When he chose to lie and buy a gun he violated the law. We ask you return the only verdict supported by the evidence—guilty," Hines said.
Biden, 54, the son of President Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges that include lying about his addiction to crack cocaine when he filled out a government screening document for a Colt Cobra revolver and illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
Over four days of testimony last week prosecutors offered an intimate view of the younger Biden’s years of struggle with alcohol and crack cocaine abuse, which prosecutors say legally precluded him from buying a gun.
The jury heard testimony from three of Hunter Biden's exes about the first son's use of crack. Biden's ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan, who dated him during the year he purchased the gun, said she saw him smoke crack "every 20 minutes or so." Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden who had an affair with the first son, said she threw away the gun 11 days after Hunter Biden purchased it when she found it in his car alongside "remnants of crack cocaine."
In the prosecution's closing arguments, a government attorney said commonsense understanding of the grim testimony of Hunter Biden's constant drug use filled in any gaps in evidence about his behavior around the time of the gun purchase.
"It was personal and it was ugly and it was overwhelming," federal prosecutor Leo Wise told the 12-member jury about the testimony of Hunter Biden's drug use. "But it was also necessary."
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell compared the government's case to the work of a magician who focuses attention on drug use from months or years before the gun purchase to create the illusion Hunter Biden was a user of crack cocaine when he bought the gun.
"They blurred all those years before he walked into StarQuest Shooters and all those years after," Lowell told jurors, referring to the gun store where he made the purchase.
Wise said it did not matter if well-known people appeared in court or how they reacted to the evidence, a possible reference to first lady Jill Biden's attendance. "None of that matters. What matters came from the witness stand," he said.
Wise read passages of Hunter Biden's memoir about a failed attempt to get clean and relapsing into drug use, just before he bought the gun. "Take the defendant's word for it. That's his truth," Wise said.
Hunter Biden told the judge overseeing the case at a 2023 hearing that he has been sober since 2019.
The sentencing guidelines for the charges against Biden are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in cases similar to his often get shorter sentences and are less likely to be incarcerated if they abide by the terms of their pretrial release.