Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive at the federal court for his trial on criminal gun charges, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., June 10, 2024.
Hannah Beier | Reuters
This is developing news and will be updated throughout the day.
The criminal gun trial of Hunter Biden resumes Monday morning with the chance that jurors in Wilmington, Delaware, federal court could start deliberating the fate of the son of President Joe Biden by afternoon.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers revealed in the morning that the 54-year-old will not testify in his defense in the case. They told the trial judge to leave the phrase “did not testify,” referring to Biden, in the jury instructions.
Biden is charged with three crimes related to possessing a handgun while being a drug user.
Closing arguments are expected to begin after jurors return at 9 a.m. ET.
Hunter Biden’s daughter Naomi Biden testified on Friday.
Judge Maryellen Noreik on Monday morning denied a request by the defense to change the proposed jury instructions.
Biden’s lawyers wanted Noreika to tell jurors that “Mr. Biden’s response to the charges is that he never ‘knowingly’ either possessed a gun when he thought of himself as a user of drugs or addicted to them and he did not ‘knowingly’ lie on a form that asked him ‘are you’ a user or addict because he did not believe he was either a drug user or addict at the time.”
But the judge said that was an “argument,” and not “appropriate” for her to tell the jury
The trial resumes as former President Donald Trump is expected to have a virtual interview with a New York probation official on Monday, in preparation for his sentencing next month in a criminal hush money case in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Trump was convicted last month of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
The Republican is set to face Hunter Biden’s father in November’s presidential election.
President Biden said last week that he will not pardon his son if Hunter Biden is convicted in the case, one of two criminal cases the younger Biden faces.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to go on trial later this year in Los Angeles federal court on criminal tax charges.
