Wilmington, Delaware
CNN
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Particular counsel prosecutors rested their case towards Hunter Biden on Friday, and his attorneys mentioned they’ll determine over the weekend whether or not he testifies in his personal protection.
That will be a daring and dangerous transfer for President Joe Biden’s son, who might face jail time if he’s convicted of the felony gun expenses that he’s at the moment dealing with. He has pleaded not responsible to mendacity on federal background examine kinds about his drug use and to possessing a gun whereas hooked on medication.
The protection started presenting its case as properly on Friday, calling Biden’s daughter Naomi Biden.
She mentioned she was “nervous” and appeared uncomfortable at occasions, together with when confronted by prosecutors about some troublesome texts together with her father – texts which might result in questions on Hunter Biden’s mind-set that October.
Right here’s what to find out about Day 5 of the trial:
Hunter Biden’s attorneys mentioned earlier on that his daughter Naomi and his uncle James might inform the jury about how the defendant was transferring away from medication and towards restoration round when he purchased the gun.
Naomi Biden described visiting her father in summer season 2018, whereas he was in rehab in Los Angeles and dealing with a sober companion.
“He appeared just like the clearest that I had seen him since my uncle died,” she mentioned, referring to her uncle Beau Biden, who died from mind most cancers in 2015, later including, “I instructed him that I used to be so pleased with him.”
Shifting ahead to October 2018 – the month Hunter Biden purchased the gun – he was in New York and Naomi noticed him briefly to provide him again his truck.
“We exchanged the automotive with my dad and he nonetheless appeared good, and I used to be hopeful,” she mentioned.
Throughout cross-examination by the prosecutors, Naomi Biden testified that she by no means used medication and didn’t carry any medication or paraphernalia into the truck earlier than returning the automobile to her father on October 19.
Throughout the week, Hunter went again all the way down to Delaware. Earlier this week Beau’s widow Hallie Biden, who later dated Hunter, testified that she discovered remnants of crack cocaine within the automotive when she searched it on October 23, the identical day she found the gun.
Naomi Biden later, nevertheless, appeared slightly confused and reticent when confronted with texts showing to indicate her father to be considerably erratic and non-communicative whereas they tried to rearrange the automotive handoff.
As she left the stand, Naomi Biden gave her dad an embrace, a kiss on the cheek, and was seen trembling and wiping away tears as she exited the courtroom.
After the lunch break. Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell introduced that the protection wouldn’t ask James Biden to testify and courtroom adjourned early.
Biden’s staff mentioned they need to take the weekend to determine whether or not the defendant takes the stand in his personal protection.
Not less than one witnesses beforehand described him as “extraordinarily charming,” and he’s identified to share a few of the identical folksy affability as his father. He’s from Delaware, and his household is a fixture on this state, the place all the jurors are from.
“We’re all the way down to that final choice,” Lowell instructed the decide.
It will be a dangerous transfer. In pretrial filings, prosecutors mentioned there was a bunch of thorny and doubtlessly damaging issues that they’d need to carry up if he took the stand.
As is true in all legal trials, the burden is on the prosecutors to show their case past an inexpensive doubt to a unanimous jury.
No person is contesting that Hunter Biden was a longtime drug abuser. His personal memoir is stuffed with tales of his many crack cocaine binges and relapses. And the jury heard Hunter’s story from his personal perspective early on, when prosecutors performed parts of his audiobook, the place he described trolling homeless encampments for sellers and smoking crack almost nonstop on the peak of his dependancy.
Prosecutors hope the jury will join the dots between that huge proof of his dependancy and the gun that he purchased on October 12, 2018, and possessed for lower than two weeks.
His ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan testified Wednesday that she watched Biden smoke crack in September, and Hallie Biden, mentioned he seemed to be “underneath the affect” when often she noticed him in October 2018.
Throughout opening statements, prosecutors promised to current “overwhelming proof that he knew he was a drug addict and a drug person.” That will get to one of the crucial troublesome components they’ll must show, as a result of it’s about Hunter’s mind-set. And that burden could be his finest shot at an acquittal.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Macayla Prepare dinner, Package Maher, Casey Gannon and Paula Reid contributed to this report.