CBS News
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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CBS News
Johns Hopkins medical school will be free for most thanks to $1 billion from Bloomberg Philanthropies
Johns Hopkins medical school will be free for most students starting this fall, thanks to a $1 billion donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Tuition will be completely free for medical students whose families earn less than $300,000, with the gift also covering living expenses and fees for students from families earning up to $175,000.
Previously, tuition was roughly $65,000 a year for four years.
The gift aims to improve declining life expectancy in the U.S. by making medical and nursing school more accessible to lower-income students and diversifying the medical and public health fields.
“As the U.S. struggles to recover from a disturbing decline in life expectancy, our country faces a serious shortage of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals — and yet, the high cost of medical, nursing, and graduate school too often bars students from enrolling,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P. in a statement Monday. “By reducing the financial barriers to these essential fields, we can free more students to pursue careers they’re passionate about — and enable them to serve more of the families and communities who need them the most.”
Currently, future doctors graduate from Hopkins with an average total student loan debt of approximately $104,000, while the median debt from all medical schools 2023 graduates was $200,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Bloomberg’s gift will lower the average student loan debt for Hopkins medical school graduates to $60,279 by 2029, with most students paying nothing at all, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies. In other words, it knocks down the hurdles that can prevent aspiring doctors from low-income families from pursuing careers in medicine.
The gift will also increase financial aid for students at its School of Nursing and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. It comes after the organization made a $1.8 billion financial aid donation to Johns Hopkins in 2018 to establish need-blind admissions for undergraduates.
The donation isn’t the first to make medical school tuitinon free for students. In February, a $1 billion donation from Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman made Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she is a professor and board member, free for students in perpetuity.