A juror in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial said Tuesday he never considered President Joe Biden when he made a verdict decision.
“President Biden never really even came in to play for me, because his name was only brought up once during the trial,” Juror 10 said in an interview with CNN.
Anchor Manu Raju had asked whether any of the jurors had a “personal connection to Joe Biden and the Biden family” since he is the president and the family is well known in Delaware, where the trial took place.
“Did that play into the discussion at all?” Raju asked.
“Not at all,” Juror 10 responded. “We didn't discuss … we didn't use Jill. We didn't use President Biden.”
The juror conceded that the impact of the trial briefly hit him when the president’s name came up during the trial, but he moved past it.
“This is the sitting president's son who's on trial,” the juror reflected. “But you kind of put that out of your mind. And after that, after it was brought up again, I did, I did put it out of my mind. I never, never really put the two together.”
The jury ended up convicting the president’s son on all three charges after three hours of deliberations over two days. Hunter is the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison, but a much lower sentence is expected since he is a first-time offender.
Prosecutors argued Biden lied when he filled out a form in 2018 when he obtained a gun, falsely claiming he was not addicted to drugs. Biden claimed he didn’t believe he was an addict at the time. The trial happened after a judge rejected a deal with prosecutors that would have allowed Biden to evade prosecution as long as he avoided wrongdoing for two years.
Another wrinkle remains in the saga: The law that prosecutors used to charge Biden is currently being challenged under 2nd Amendment grounds. If it is overturned, Biden’s conviction would be voided. Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said the defense would “pursue all the legal challenges available.”
The president made several public indications of support for his son, but last week he said he would respect the trial’s outcome and would not issue any pardon. The Justice Department last year appointed a special counsel, David Weiss, to oversee the investigations.
Hunter is set to go on trial on separate federal tax charges in September.
