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Juror on Hunter Biden trial says politics was “not a factor in this case”
The jury of six men and six women that convicted Hunter Biden on three felony gun charges Tuesday wanted to review the evidence and didn’t want to “rush judgement,” said one anonymous juror in an interview with CBS News. The juror also said politics didn’t factor into their decision.
“We never talked about the president throughout the deliberation,” said anonymous juror No. 10. “…Politics was not a factor in this case.”
The Delaware-based jury deliberated for about three hours after receiving the case Monday afternoon. When jurors initially took a vote to feel out where they stood, the vote was 6-6, said juror No. 10.
“I may have been one of the six that said not guilty,” the juror said. “It’s not that we believed he was not guilty. We needed to go over the evidence. We didn’t want to rush judgement. We don’t want to ruin someone’s life.”
The jury reviewed the evidence, and ultimately, they landed on a unanimous conviction on all three counts, agreeing with the prosecution that Hunter Biden violated federal law in purchasing and possessing a gun as a drug addict.
Juror No. 10 explained his thinking in reaching a guilty verdict. The juror said the evidence in the case revolved around a form Hunter Biden filled out to purchase the gun, on which he declared — falsely — that he was not an unlawful user of any controlled substances. The juror said Hunter Biden was clearly “not clean” from drugs around the time of purchase.
“He knew what he was doing when they told him he had to fill out that application,” the juror said.
“When he checked that box, he knew he was an addict,” the juror added. “He knew he was using crack.”
The anonymous juror said it didn’t help the defense when self-recorded audio from Hunter Biden’s book, “Beautiful Things,” was read aloud in court. In the book, published in 2021, Hunter Biden openly admits to his struggle with addiction.
“His book didn’t help him, especially it being an audiobook and hearing his own voice,” the juror said. “He came out and admitted it: I’m a drug addict.”
The mood in the courtroom as the jury read the verdict was “solemn,” the anonymous juror said. There was little time between the announcement that a verdict had been reached and the reading of the verdict, and first lady Jill Biden didn’t make it back into the courtroom in time.
“That was where I felt sorry for his family,” the juror said.
President Biden, who has stayed away from the trial, changed his schedule Tuesday to fly to Wilmington. The president issued a statement saying he will accept the outcome of the case, and loves his son.
Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison, but sentencing is out of the jury’s hands. That will be up to the judge. A sentencing date has yet to be set.
“He’s just like anybody else,” the anonymous juror said of Hunter Biden. “He needs more help than he needs jail. Jail is not gonna help somebody.”
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Washington — President Biden is set to travel to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Friday for a campaign rally, marking the start of a crucial weekend for his reelection bid as he seeks to assuage concerns about his fitness for a second term sparked by his startling debate performance just over one week ago.
In addition to the campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon, Mr. Biden will tape an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, which the network said will air in full Friday night. The president will also head to Philadelphia for another campaign event on Sunday, capping the July 4 holiday weekend with a visit to a second battleground state.
The president’s appearances are coming under new scrutiny following his poor showing against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in the first general election debate on June 27. Mr. Biden blamed his performance on a busy travel schedule leading up to the face-off with Trump, saying during a campaign event Tuesday that he “almost fell asleep” on stage after making two trips to Europe in June.
In a pair of radio interviews that aired Thursday, Mr. Biden admitted he had a “bad debate” and that he “screwed up.”
Mr. Biden’s campaign and the White House sought to brush off concerns about his lackluster performance by insisting he had a cold and that the debate fiasco was simply a “bad night.” As part of efforts to quiet concerns about Mr. Biden and his age, he and Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a call with campaign staff on Wednesday, and they met with 20 Democratic governors at the White House later that evening. Mr. Biden also spoke with the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, as well as other key allies on Capitol Hill.
The president has maintained the same message throughout the outreach, according to participants: he is in the race to defeat Trump and will not be pushed out.
“I learned from my father, when you get knocked down, just get back up, get back up,” Mr. Biden told “The Earl Ingram Show,” which airs in Wisconsin, in the radio interview Thursday. “And you know we’re going to win this election, we’re going to just beat Donald Trump.”
Amid the assurances, two House Democrats have openly called on Mr. Biden to withdraw from the presidential race: Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona. Others, meanwhile, have publicly urged the president to take steps to prove to voters, elected Democrats and party donors that he is fit for a second term in the White House.
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