The president's son was convicted of unlawfully purchasing a firearm.
President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden has been found guilty on three felony counts related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs.
The younger Biden, who pleaded not guilty last October after being indicted by special counsel David Weiss, denied the charges. The son of a sitting president had never before faced a criminal trial.
The trial came on the heels of former President Donald Trump's conviction on felony charges related to a hush money payment made to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
The jurors in Hunter Biden's federal gun trial have been dismissed for the day, after deliberating for one hour with no verdict.
Hunter Biden left the courthouse after the jury was dismissed.
The jurors will be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET to resume their deliberations.
The jury has begun deliberations on the three felony counts Hunter Biden faces in his federal gun case.
Prior to the jury getting the case, the government rebutted defense attorney Abbe Lowell's closing argument by asserting again that Hunter Biden was a drug addict when he bought the gun at the center of the case and that he knew it -- beyond a reasonable doubt.
There are "seven ways to Sunday" to show Hunter Biden was an addict and it was "preposterous" that he -- a "Yale-educated lawyer" -- didn't know he was buying a gun while knowingly addicted, prosecutor Derek Hines argued.
Hines rebutted Lowell's characterization of the government's treatment of Hunter Biden's daughter Naomi Biden as "cruel."
Naomi Biden was "completely uncomfortable" because "she couldn't vouch for the defendant's sobriety," Hines argued.
Hines closed by saying that if the jury doesn't determine Hunter Biden is a crack addict based on the evidence in the case, "then no one is a crack addict of unlawful use."
Judge Maryellen Noreika then delivered the final portion of her instructions and sent jurors to begin their deliberations.
The judge indicated that she would not keep jurors past 4:30 or 4:45 p.m. ET today.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell, in his closing argument, urged jurors to dispense with the government's "conjecture and suspicion" and find his client not guilty on all three counts.
"We have had Hunter's life in our hands" until now, Lowell said, referring to his legal team. "And now we have to give it to you."
Lowell repeatedly referred to prosecutors' case as a "magicians' trick" -- to "watch this hand and pay no attention to that one," as he said -- arguing that prosecutors failed to "fill in the gaps" about Hunter Biden's drug use around the time of his firearm purchase "because they don't have the proof."
Lowell also referred to prosecutors' strategy of showing Hunter Biden's pattern of drug use as an "accordion," meant to "compress" the timeline and make it seem to jurors that he was actively using drugs in October 2018, when he said on a government form that he was not addicted to drugs in order to purchase a Colt handgun.
The defense attorney also attacked some of the tactics prosecutors used, calling their treatment of Hunter Biden's daughter Naomi Biden "extraordinarily cruel" and saying that many of their questions and evidence were introduced with the intention of "embarrassing Hunter."
He also asked jurors to recall gaps in the recollections of Hunter Biden's then-girlfriend Hallie Biden, and suggested they should remember the immunity agreement she struck with prosecutors for her testimony.
"These are serious charges that will change Hunter's life," he said of the three felony charges the president's son faces, adding that "it's time to end this case."
Following Lowell's closing, the government was scheduled to have a short rebuttal, at which point the judge was to finish her jury instructions before the jury gets the case.
Prosecutor Leo Wise used witness testimony and Hunter Biden's own words from his memoir and text messages to argue that the president's son "knew exactly what he was doing" when prosecutors say he falsely claimed he was not addicted to drugs in order to purchase a Colt handgun in 2018.
"Take the defendant's word for it," Wise said as he showed the jury excerpts from Hunter Biden's book that described his drug use and addiction.
Wise, showing the jurors a side-by-side comparison of testimony regarding his truck from his daughter Naomi Biden and then-girlfriend Hallie Biden, said their testimony is "circumstantial evidence " that shows "the defendant used crack in the truck" days after purchasing the firearm.
Naomi Biden testified that she returned the truck to her father "clean" on Oct. 19, 2018, and Hallie Biden testified that a few days later she found Hunter Biden's gun in the vehicle along with drug paraphernalia and drug remnants.
Wise also showed the jury a calendar of the month of October 2018 that showed the cash withdrawals made by Hunter Biden. "None of the cash was for rehab," Wise said.
The evidence, Wise told jurors in conclusion, "supports only one verdict."
Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell then began his closing arguments.
