Hunter Biden has been found guilty of lying on a federal gun form, lying to a gun dealer and possessing a firearm while using illegal drugs and now his sentence becomes the question.
A judge will have to decide whether the country’s first son will now head to jail for up to 25 years.
On Tuesday, a jury of 12 Delaware residents found Biden guilty on all three charges after approximately three hours of deliberations.
It is unlikely that Biden will receive a lengthy jail sentence, given that he is a first-time, nonviolent offender and cases similar to Biden’s have resulted in little jail time. Instead, Judge Maryellen Noreika could choose to impose other penalties such as fines or probation.
But prison is not entirely off the table.
Noreika said she would set Biden’s sentencing date for a later time. But no matter what punishment he faces, he will have to face it. His father, President Joe Biden, has already said that he will not pardon his son.
Prosecutors presented a strong case to jurors, painting Biden as a grief-stricken man who made some bad choices that resulted in a careless mistake. They specified that while addiction is not a crime, lying about drug use to buy a gun was.
“Nobody is above the law,” lead prosecutor Derek Hines said, during opening arguments. “Nobody is allowed to lie, not even Hunter Biden.”
The defense disputed the government’s claim and said the president’s son was not actively using drugs when he purchased the gun and did not “knowingly” make false statements.
Testimony from several of Biden’s exes confirmed that he was addicted to crack cocaine from 2015 until 2019, and that he was unreliable in telling the truth. Defense attorneys did not dispute that, and hinged much of their case on extremely specific wording in the statute Biden was charged under.
