One of the twelve jurors who participated in the conviction of Hunter Biden on three felony charges related to an illegal firearm purchase has disclosed the factors that influenced their collective decision. As per the juror and fellow panel members, a crucial element in securing the conviction was a series of incriminating text messages exchanged between Hunter Biden and his sister-in-law.
The juror, who shared their insights with the New York Post, emphasized the significance of the messages between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden, who happened to be the spouse of his deceased brother, Beau Biden. These messages shed light on Hunter’s mental state and circumstances at the time of the gun acquisition.
“[The text messages showed], in my opinion, he was training to get drugs,” said a juror.
During the trial, Hallie Biden was provided with a text message dated October 13, 2018, which occurred a day after Hunter Biden acquired the firearm. The content of the text suggested that Hunter was situated inside a vehicle, patiently awaiting the arrival of a crack dealer named Mookie. Hallie’s testimony affirmed her belief that Hunter intended to purchase crack cocaine. Furthermore, a text message received from Hunter the subsequent day revealed his admission of smoking crack and spending the night sleeping in 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.”
The Post stated that despite the swift verdict reached on Tuesday, the process seemed prolonged on Monday after an initial informal vote, as reported by a different juror. This juror highlighted that five members of the jury altered their opinions overnight. Additionally, The Post mentioned that the last juror initially had doubts about Hunter’s drug use during the gun transaction, but upon reevaluating the evidence, determined that he indeed was.
The juror said the group “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 was interviewed by CNN on Tuesday following the verdict, wherein he emphasized that the deliberations did not revolve around Joe Biden or the Biden family. Instead, he highlighted that the jury’s attention was solely directed towards the evidence presented, without any consideration for Hunter Biden’s family or lifestyle.
“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,” he noted further, adding he did not think that Hunter belonged in jail. The first son faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine of $750,000.
“Deliberating, we were not thinking of the sentencing, and no, I really don’t think that Hunter belongs in jail,” the juror said. “If you looked at this case and you realize that when Hallie dumped that gun in a trash can, and it was retrieved, and Hunter Biden did not want to press charges because he was the victim of a theft of the firearm, he did not want to press any charges against Hallie and another thing that I also thought was they asked him, ‘did you want your gun back?’ And he said ‘no,’ he did not want that gun back.”
“When he said he did not want that gun back. And that gun sat in evidence for almost five years, I think that may have been what led to his downfall,” the juror continued. “Had he taken possession of that gun, I don’t know if we would even had the trial because he may have sold the gun, got rid of the gun, sold it back to a gun shop, or whatever,” he continued. “And it wasn’t like it was sitting in evidence … I believe that means it was sitting in evidence and somebody got a hold of that and say, ‘hey, let’s check this out a little bit more. And see exactly how he obtained that gun.”