Prosecutors in the United States have rested their case at the trial of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, who is accused of breaking the law when he bought a gun in 2018 and failed to mention his drug addiction on his application.
“At this time, the United States rests,” Justice Department attorney Derek Hines told District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Willmington, Delaware.
The 54-year-old defendant’s legal team then asked the judge to acquit him, saying the evidence did not support a conviction.
Judge Noreika did not immediately rule on the request which is routinely filed by defendants and often denied.
Defence attorney Abbe Lowell said he would proceed with his case and call at least two witnesses.
He said Hunter Biden had yet to decide whether to testify. Criminal defendants rarely testify and then face prosecutors’ cross-examination.
The jury in the five-day-old first criminal trial of a US president’s child has heard witnesses including Mr Biden’s ex-wife, former girlfriend and sister-in-law testify about his use of crack cocaine.
His sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, recounted yesterday finding the gun and throwing it away out of concern for the safety of the defendant and her children.
Mr Biden has pleaded not guilty to three charges of illegally failing to disclose being a drug user when he bought the Colt Cobra revolver and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
Prosecutors said there was overwhelming evidence that he was actively using crack in the weeks before and after he purchased the gun in October 2018 and that he lied by answering “no” on a government screening document when asked if he was a drug user.
Mr Lowell has said that Mr Biden did not intend to deceive because he did not consider himself an addict when he bought the weapon.
The defendant told a judge at a hearing in 2023 that he had been sober since 2019.
The trial follows another historic first – last week’s conviction of Donald Trump, the first US president to be found guilty of a crime.
Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the 5 November election for the White House.
Trump and some of his fellow Republicans in Congress have accused Democrats of pursuing that case and three other criminal prosecutions to prevent him from regaining power.
Democrats in Congress have pointed to cases, including the Hunter Biden prosecution, as evidence that President Biden is not using the justice system for political or personal ends.
Joe Biden told ABC News yesterday that he would not pardon his son if he was convicted.
Asked if he would accept the trial outcome and rule out a pardon, the president said: “Yes”.
If Hunter Biden is convicted on all charges, he faces up to 25 years in prison, though defendants generally receive shorter sentences, according to the US Justice Department.
