Wilmington, Delaware
CNN
 — 

Particular counsel prosecutors rested their case in opposition to Hunter Biden on Friday, and his attorneys stated they’ll resolve over the weekend whether or not he testifies in his personal protection.

That will be a daring and dangerous transfer for President Joe Biden’s son, who may face jail time if he’s convicted of the felony gun expenses that he’s at the moment dealing with. He has pleaded not responsible to mendacity on federal background test varieties about his drug use and to possessing a gun whereas hooked on medication.

The protection started presenting its case as nicely on Friday, calling Biden’s daughter Naomi Biden, who stated she was “nervous” and appeared uncomfortable at occasions, together with when confronted by prosecutors about some troublesome texts together with her father.

Right here’s what to find out about Day 5 of the trial:

Hunter Biden’s attorneys stated earlier on that his daughter Naomi and his uncle James may inform the jury about how the defendant was shifting away from medication and towards restoration round when he purchased the gun.

Naomi Biden described visiting her father in summer time 2018, whereas he was in rehab in Los Angeles and dealing with a sober companion.

“He appeared just like the clearest that I had seen him since my uncle died,” she stated, referring to her uncle Beau Biden, who died from mind most cancers in 2015, later including, “I informed him that I used to be so happy with him.”

Transferring ahead to October 2018 – the month Hunter Biden purchased the gun – he was in New York and Naomi noticed him briefly to present him again his truck.

“We exchanged the automotive with my dad and he nonetheless appeared good, and I used to be hopeful,” she stated.

Throughout cross-examination by the prosecutors, Naomi Biden testified that she by no means used medication and didn’t carry any medication or paraphernalia into the truck earlier than returning the automobile to her father on October 19.

Inside the week, Hunter again all the way down to Delaware. Earlier this Beau’s widow Hallie Biden, who later dated Hunter, testified that she discovered remnants of crack cocaine within the automotive when she searched it on October 23, the identical day she found the gun.

Naomi Biden later appeared just a little confused and reticent when confronted with texts showing to indicate her father to be considerably erratic and non-communicative whereas they tried to rearrange the automotive handoff.

As she left the stand, Naomi Biden gave her dad an embrace, a kiss on the cheek, and was seen trembling and wiping away tears as she exited the courtroom.

After the lunch break. Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell introduced that the protection wouldn’t ask James Biden to testify and court docket adjourned early.

Biden’s crew stated they wish to take the weekend to resolve whether or not the defendant takes the stand in his personal protection.

Not less than one witnesses beforehand described him as “extraordinarily charming,” and he’s identified to share among the identical folksy affability as his father. He’s from Delaware, and his household is a fixture on this state, the place the entire jurors are from.

“We’re all the way down to that final determination,” Lowell informed the decide.

It will be a dangerous transfer. In pretrial filings, prosecutors stated there was a bunch of thorny and doubtlessly damaging issues that they’d wish to carry up if he took the stand.

As is true in all legal trials, the burden is on the prosecutors to show their case past an affordable doubt to a unanimous jury.

No person is contesting that Hunter Biden was a longtime drug abuser. His personal memoir is full of tales of his many crack cocaine binges and relapses. And the jury heard Hunter’s story from his personal perspective early on, when prosecutors performed parts of his audiobook, the place he described trolling homeless encampments for sellers and smoking crack almost nonstop on the peak of his dependancy.

Prosecutors hope the jury will join the dots between that huge proof of his dependancy and the gun that he purchased on October 12, 2018, and possessed for lower than two weeks.

His ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan testified Wednesday that she watched Biden smoke crack in September, and Hallie Biden, stated he seemed to be “beneath the affect” when sometimes she noticed him in October 2018.

Throughout opening statements, prosecutors promised to current “overwhelming proof that he knew he was a drug addict and a drug person.” That will get to one of the crucial troublesome parts they’ll must show, as a result of it’s about Hunter’s mind-set. And that burden is perhaps his greatest shot at an acquittal.

CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Macayla Prepare dinner, Package Maher, Casey Gannon and Paula Reid contributed to this report.