Text messages between Hunter Biden and his sister-in-law were a key factor in his conviction according to one juror
Hunter Biden was convicted Tuesday on three felony counts of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018 — making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed firearms dealer, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of or addict to a controlled substance, according to the New York Post.
A juror who spoke to the New York Post said messages between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden — the wife of his later brother, Beau Biden, with whom Hunter had a fling — were important is showing what Hunter Biden was like at the time he bought the gun.
“[The text messages showed], in my opinion, he was training to get drugs,” said a juror the Post described as a black 51-year-old woman from upper Delaware.
The Post noted that when Hallie Biden testified in the trial, she was shown a text from Oct. 13, 2018, one day after Hunter Biden bought the gun. The text said he was in a car waiting for a dealer whose name was Mookie.
Hallie Biden testified that she thought the text meant “that he was buying crack cocaine.”
A Hunter Biden text the following day said he was smoking crack and sleeping on a car.
Hunter Biden “looks kind of defeated. He looks kind of helpless to me,” the juror said.
“I think he just needs to get away somewhere and get some real rehab, if he hasn’t. Hopefully he’s still not using,” she said.
Should Hunter Biden receive the maximum sentence?
The Post reported that although the verdict came quickly Tuesday, that was not the way it appeared Monday after an informal vote, according to another juror.
That juror said five jury members changed their minds overnight.
The final juror was uncertain Hunter Biden was on crack when the gun was purchased but reviewed the evidence and changed her mind.
The upper Delaware juror said the panel “worked together really well.”
“I was expecting all of us to be at each other’s throats, you know, because of who his father is and how the political climate is in this country,” she said.
Juror 10 told CNN the Biden family was not an issue during deliberations.
The jury mainly focused on evidence, not Hunter Biden’s lifestyle, during deliberations, the juror explained.
“We didn’t use Jill. We didn’t use President Biden,” he said, adding Joe Biden’s “name was only brought up once during the trial.”
“No politics came into play, and politics was not even spoken about,” the juror said,
“I really don’t think that Hunter belongs in jail,” the juror said. Hunter Biden could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison and fined up to $750,000, although as a first-time offender the sentence is likely to be lower.
CNN also reported that three jurors said, “They believed they had no choice but to find Hunter Biden guilty.”
