Jurors within the Hunter Biden gun trial will hear closing arguments Monday afternoon after lawyers said President Joe Biden's son wouldn’t testify Wilmington, Delaware, Federal Court.
The prosecution concluded its evidence after calling FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen back to the witness stand for a temporary counter-deposition.
The jury is predicted to start deliberating Biden's fate this afternoon after receiving final instructions from Judge Maryellen Noreika.
Biden is charged with three felony counts related to possession of a handgun in reference to drug use.
Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell said in effect that he wouldn’t take the stand at a morning hearing with Noreika on proposed jury instructions.
Lowell asked Noreika to go away the phrase “did not testify” – which refers to Biden – in those instructions.
Noreika denied a defense request to alter the proposed jury instructions.
Biden's lawyers wanted Noreika to inform jurors that “Mr. Biden's answer to the prosecution is that he never 'knowingly' possessed a gun when he considered himself a drug user or addict, and that he did not 'knowingly' lie on a form asking him if he was a drug user or addict because he did not believe he was a drug user or addict at the time.”
But the judge said that was an “argument” and never “appropriate” for her to present to the jury.
The trial continues as former President Donald Trump is predicted to conduct a virtual interview with a New York City probation officer on Monday in preparation for his sentencing next month in a hush-money criminal case in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Trump was found guilty last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records in reference to a bribe payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
The Republican will face Hunter Biden's father within the presidential election in November.
President Biden said last week that he wouldn’t pardon his son if Hunter Biden is convicted within the case, one in all two criminal proceedings pending against the younger Biden.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to go on trial for criminal tax offenses in federal court in Los Angeles later this yr.
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