A juror in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial has told The Independent that Hallie Biden was trustworthy and her testimony about the first son’s drug use played a part in their deliberations.
Biden was found guilty of three counts in his federal gun trial in Wilmington, Delaware, after days of emotional testimony. He faces up to 25 years in prison, and sentencing is scheduled for a later date.
Juror 10, who didn’t share his name, spoke after the hearing and highlighted Hallie’s testimony, where she described her on-off relationship with Hunter. She is also Beau Biden, Hunter’s brother, widow. The juror detailed the panel’s thoughts on Hallie’s testimony about Hunter’s drug use and tossing his gun in the garbage.
“For her to have that immunity, she could not lie,” the juror told The Independent. “We always knew that she was not lying about anything that she said under oath because the defense would have hopped on it right away.”
“In our opinion, she was telling the truth,” he added.
On Thursday, both the prosecution and the defense focused heavily on the events surrounding October 23, 2018, when Hallie found the gun and worried someone might get hurt, drove to a nearby market, and disposed of it in a trashcan.
When Hunter realized the firearm was gone, he told Hallie to go and get it, but when she got back to the grocery store, it was gone. Hallie filed a police report regarding the missing gun alongside shop staff, and police were able to locate an elderly man going through trash for recyclables as being the one having removed it.
She agreed with the defense’s suggestion that the relationship was sometimes “intense” but always “complicated.”
Juror 10 was one of six jurors who initially voted not guilty in the initial vote after the case was handed to the jury on Monday night following closing arguments. By Tuesday morning, that had shifted 12-0 to convict the first son.
“We wanted to hear more evidence,” Juror 10 said on Tuesday afternoon. “We wanted to go over the evidence more carefully before making a rash decision.”
Biden “deserved better” than to be found guilty after little to no deliberation, the juror added. “We wanted to go over each step of the process.”
The juror noted most of the jury took notes and that “the judge also gave us all the emails, text messages, photographs that we could refer to.”
Similarly to Hallie Biden, Zoe Kestan received immunity.
Kestan testified on Wednesday that Biden smoked crack cocaine within minutes of their meeting at a “gentlemen’s club” where she worked in Manhattan.
Wednesday’s proceedings focused mostly on the testimony of Kestan, whom the defense also noted has an immunity deal. She testified regarding the widespread crack use by Biden amid their seemingly chaotic time together moving between hotels and AirBnBs after meeting in December 2017.
“Zoe was a little bit different than Hallie just for the fact that she was younger,” Juror 10 said. “Not that that played a part in it, guys date younger women all the time.”
Asked about the testimony of Naomi Biden, the juror said “I actually thought the defense made a mistake by using her.”
A tearful Biden watched his daughter Naomi testify on Friday that “things got bad” following the death of her uncle, Beau Biden. Naomi, 30, the eldest of Hunter Biden’s three daughters, admitted she was “nervous” when she took the stand.
Naomi also said she never found evidence of her father’s drug use and that he never used drugs in front of her.
She described a visit to Los Angeles to see her father with her boyfriend, now-husband, Peter Neal in 2018. Hunter was in rehab at the time and Naomi said that she hadn’t seen her father in a long time and that she met him alongside his sober coach.
“He seemed the clearest since my uncle died,” she said. Naomi, dressed all in black, said she was “proud to be able to introduce him to my boyfriend.”
Juror 10 told The Independent that the defense “put her in a position where she's testifying against her father.”
“I don't know if they wanted to use her for a sympathy vote or what they expected to get from Naomi,” he added. “I felt sorry for Naomi, I don’t think they should’ve called her as a witness.”
Juror 10 argued the prosecution didn’t “badger her that much” because they knew that “she had nothing to do with what was going on.”
