Hunter Biden trial verdict live: President’s son arrives in court with wife Melissa Cohen as he awaits his fate in gun case

Welcome to DailyMail.com’s daily US politics blog, with live coverage of the verdict in hunter bidenThe federal firearms trial.

The jury returns at 9 a.m. for its second day of deliberations after being sent home Monday night, leaving the president’s son waiting to learn his fate.

In her closing arguments, her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, tried to criticize her exes and criticized the prosecution for their “cruel” cross-examination of her daughter Naomi.

Here’s what happened in court during closing arguments:

After deliberating for only an hour on Monday, the jury does it again on Tuesday morning.

There is speculation that the verdict could come before lunchtime.

If convicted of the three federal weapons charges, Hunter faces up to 25 years in prison.

His father, President Joe Biden, recently said he is not considering a pardon for Hunter.

Hunter Biden attempted to meet with a drug dealer just 24 hours before lying about his crack use to buy a gun, damning texts revealed by prosecutors in court Monday suggest.

The messages from October 11, 2018 show the president’s son trying to arrange a meeting at a 7-Eleven in downtown Wilmington, Delaware.

He pleaded guilty in June 2023 to a charge of using a communication device to facilitate a drug conspiracy.

Taxpayers will cover most of the cost of Jill Biden’s whirlwind flights between Wilmington, Delaware, and France so she can be at her son Hunter’s side during his federal gun trial, although the Democratic Party will provide some funding.

The first lady racked up $345,400 in flight costs, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation estimated, while traveling between the United States and France last week, traveling separately from her husband Joe Biden so she could support her family at home and at the same time time representing the United States abroad. .

His political party will reimburse the government for what it would cost to fly commercially and taxpayers will foot the rest of the bill.

President Joe Biden raised concerns Monday night when he appeared to freeze for nearly a minute before his speech became garbled beyond the point of comprehension during a lively Juneteenth celebration at the White House.

During next week’s national holiday event, the Commander in Chief appeared to short-circuit as the rest of the crowd, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, danced to the lively band.

Philonise Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd, flanked Biden on his left and eventually noticed the worrying pause he was making and put his arm around him in an apparent effort to help.

Floyd was able to get a response from Biden when he extended a fist in his direction, which the president responded with his own fist.

But Biden would suffer a new crisis when he gave a speech after the musical performance.

Lawyers began closing arguments in Hunter Biden’s gun trial after court resumed from a lunch break.

The prosecution begins first after FBI Agent Erika Jensen returned to the stand.

“No one is above the law,” said prosecutor Leo Wise.

He also told the jury to ignore the bigwigs in the audience, including first lady Jill Biden.

‘All this is not evidence. The people sitting in the gallery are not evidence.

Irrefutable text messages show Hunter set up a meeting with a convicted drug dealer the night before purchasing a .38 revolver.

The day before the gun purchase, Hunter texted violent, convicted drug trafficker Eladio Otero Jr. to “see you on July 11 at 3,” according to records from the First Son’s abandoned laptop.

Otero was convicted last year of “use of a communications device to facilitate a drug conspiracy” in a Delaware federal case overseen by David Weiss, who is now the special prosecutor prosecuting Hunter.

Otero was previously convicted of assault after being arrested for a 2007 armed robbery in which he held a knife to the victim’s throat while his accomplice held a gun to the man’s head, according to a police report. Maryland.