6 months ago
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6 hours ago
By Brandon Drenon, BBC News, Washington
Prosecutors in the Hunter Biden case, the first criminal trial of a sitting US president's son, presented their closing arguments on Monday.
"No one is above law," prosecutor Leo Wise said.
Mr Biden, 54, denies lying about his drug use when he filled out a federal form in October 2018 to buy a gun in Wilmington, Delaware.
The son of President Joe Biden did not take the stand to give evidence in his trial.
He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
Mr Biden has pleaded not guilty to three charges related to his possession of a firearm while allegedly using narcotics.
His defence team says he was in recovery at the time, so was truthful when he indicated on the paperwork that he was not a drug user.
Members of the Biden family sat closely in the row behind Mr Biden inside Delaware's federal court.
Jill Biden - his step-mother and the president's wife - has been in court for five of the six days it has sat.
The start of proceedings was focused on a legal technicality. Mr Biden's lawyers want jurors to be told during jury instruction that he filled out the form "in good faith". The prosecution disagrees.
The discrepancy is linked to the question of whether Mr Biden "knowingly" lied on the form.
Last week, prosecutors used Mr Biden's own words from his memoir to argue that he knowingly misled the gun shop when declaring that he was not a drug addict.
Prosecutors played excerpts from an audiobook version in which Mr Biden talks about being addicted to crack cocaine for four years, a period which overlapped with his gun purchase.
The court also heard from Mr Biden's ex-romantic partners, including Hallie Biden. Hallie - Mr Biden's brother's widow - testified she found "remnants" of crack cocaine in Mr Biden's car in which she also found the gun.
However, during cross-examination, Ms Biden confirmed she had not seen him using drugs around the time of his gun purchase.
Throughout the trial, the defence has attempted to cast doubt on the memories of the prosecution’s witnesses, challenging them about their memories of events.
