WILL THE JURY HAVE ANY SYMPATHY? Time is Running Out For Hunter Biden

During an interview with CNN, defense lawyer Seth Berenzweig suggested the only hope for Hunter Biden to have the jury acquit him of all charges is if they play the sympathy card because the evidence is overwhelming.

President Biden’s son Hunter Biden is facing three federal gun charges as well as providing false statements to investigators related to his purchase of a firearm while being addicted to drugs.  On CNN Newsroom, Berenzweig described Hunter Biden’s defense team of doing a good job but because of the “overwhelming” evidence against Hunter, his lawyers are leaning on the jury’s emotional side to try and win the trial.

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“I didn’t think that they really had a lot of evidence to affirmatively put on. His daughter provided some very emotional testimony,” Berenzweig told CNN Newsroom. “She was subject to a pretty aggressive direct examination. I think that the defense overall has done a good job in so far as they have tried to keep the car right in the middle of the road and they’ve been very, very specific, but even if that evidence, and … I think the evidence is pretty overwhelming. Even if that evidence gets them to, say, the one-yard line, the only way that … the defense counsel’s going to get the ball into the goal line is if they pull at the heartstrings of the jury.”

“This has to be a very emotionally pulling closing. They have to humanize and sympathize Hunter Biden, and that‘s going to be, I predict, a really big part of the closing argument of the defense in this,” he suggested.

The prosecutors in the case obtained materials from Hunter Biden’s own personal laptop which provided ample evidence of his drug use near the time of the purchase of a firearm.  Originally Hunter Biden’s lawyers told him to plead guilty at the beginning of the trial in an attempt to evade any jail time but he refused.

“They do have a mountain of evidence,” said former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson during a CNN panel discussion. “They have, I believe they put on a forensic chemist to testify that there was some residue found on the gun pouch to prove that there was some contemporaneous drug use with the possession of the weapon. We have Hunter Biden’s own words taken from his memoir, which I believe was very strong for the jury.”

“And quite frankly, the defense tried the best that they could, but they weren’t really able to bring a lot out to cast doubt,” she said. “It is all about, did Hunter Biden know that he was an addict? Did he consider himself an addict during those 11 days and at the time he signed those forms? And there was no direct evidence, but there sure was a lot of circumstantial evidence. So if I was the prosecution, I‘d be feeling pretty good going into closing arguments.”