Hunter Biden’s daughter testified in defense of her father this Friday (7). Naomi Biden said her father, son of US President Joe Biden, appeared to respond well to drug treatment weeks before buying a gun that prosecutors say he obtained illegally by not disclosing his addiction.
Hunter Biden, son of the President of the United States, pleaded not guilty in federal court to criminal charges that include lying about his addiction when he requested the Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 and illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
Joe Biden’s 30-year-old granddaughter, Naomi Biden, told the jury in the criminal trial that she saw her father in California and that “he looked really great.”
During the interrogation, Naomi Biden was shown messages in which she was contacting her father and was unable to get a response.
“I can’t take this,” he wrote in one of his messages to his father several days after he bought the gun. “I miss you so much and I just want to spend time together.”
Prosecutors presented previous testimony and evidence that they said showed Hunter Biden was planning to buy crack cocaine at the time.
Naomi Biden was the last witness in the trial, this Friday (7).
The jury was dismissed until Monday (10), when the defense will announce whether Hunter Biden, 54, will testify.
Testifying can be risky for criminal defendants because it exposes them to interrogation.
The jury in the first five-day criminal trial of a US president’s son heard from witnesses, including Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, ex-girlfriend and sister-in-law, about crack use.
His sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, said on Thursday (6) that she found the gun and threw it away out of concern for the safety of Hunter Biden and her children.
Prosecutors said there was overwhelming evidence that Hunter Biden was actively using crack cocaine in the weeks before and after purchasing the gun.
The indictment also claimed that the American president’s son lied when he answered “no” on a government screening document when asked if he was a drug user.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell said Biden did not intend to deceive because he did not consider himself an addict when he purchased the gun.
Hunter Biden told the judge at a 2023 hearing that he had been sober since 2019.
This Friday morning (7), prosecutors closed the case and Hunter Biden’s team asked the judge overseeing the case to acquit him. His lawyers said the evidence did not support a conviction.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika did not immediately rule on the request, which is routinely filed by defendants and often denied.
In addition to Naomi Biden, the defense lawyer called an employee and the gun store owner as witnesses to try to resolve doubts about the veracity of the background check form at the center of the case.
The trial follows another historic first – last week’s criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first US president to be found guilty of a crime.
Trump is the Republican opponent of Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 elections.
Trump and some Republicans in Congress accused Democrats of pursuing the case and three other criminal cases to prevent the former US president from regaining power in his rematch with Joe Biden.
Congressional Democrats have pointed to cases like the Hunter Biden lawsuit as proof that Joe Biden is not using the justice system for political or personal ends.
Joe Biden told ABC News on Thursday (6) that he would not pardon his son if convicted.
Sentencing guidelines for the charges against Hunter Biden are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in similar cases generally receive shorter sentences and are less likely to be incarcerated if they comply with the terms of their pretrial release.
Source: CNN Brasil
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