There is enough evidence, according to MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade, for a jury to rule Hunter Biden guilty in his current trial. The trial is still on.
Monday marked the start of Biden’s trial in Delaware. In September, special counsel David Weiss filed three federal firearms charges against Biden, including making false statements and willfully owning a firearm while abusing drugs. According to McQuade, on the Jonathan Capehart show, the jury could fairly conclude that Biden is guilty based on the substantial amount of evidence the prosecution has given, even if it is impossible to show Biden’s intent, so just circumstantial evidence is required.
“I believe the defense would argue that, while they don’t really dispute the facts—that he did purchase this gun, that he used drugs on all of the dates that have been presented—he did not consider himself to be an addict at that particular time,” McQuade stated.
Since you cannot read another person’s thoughts, proving a defendant’s intent, knowledge, and thinking is always the most difficult task for a prosecutor, she said. “You didn’t see him on that day, you didn’t know that he was using it on that day,” has been the refrain of a great deal of the testimony. Undoubtedly, there have been testimonies since that day. To find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury must consider some circumstantial evidence. However, it appears that there is a lot of information available from which they can draw that conclusion. It will therefore likely be a challenging battle for the defense.
According to CNN, prosecutors took mail and other materials from Biden’s abandoned laptop and presented them to the jury as evidence of his drug use at the time he purchased the rifle in 2018. On Monday, Bernarda Villalona, a criminal defense lawyer, suggested to Biden that he enter a guilty plea, citing the “strong” evidence against him and the possibility that it would be his “best” option to “avoid” jail time.
Professor of law at George Washington University Jonathan Turley said on Thursday that the speed at which Biden’s arguments had “collapsed” throughout the trial was “really astonishing.”
Author: Steven Sinclaire
