It's been less than two weeks since former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts, a historic first for this country. Well, it didn't take too long for the United States to see another courtroom milestone. The jury has found Hunter Biden, the President's son, guilty on all three counts in this case after three hours of deliberation. Yesterday, marked the first time a sitting President's immediate family member had been found guilty of a crime. One of the jurors in the case told CNN that after starting the first day of deliberations, they were deadlocked at 6:00 to 6:00. But when they came back on Tuesday, there was just one holdout. And before long, eventually, they all agreed to convict.

It was very sad, not that he was being convicted of these crimes, but that his life had turned out the way it did.

This historic conviction could big ramifications on the campaign trail. And here's the thing: Hunter's legal issues are far from over. My guest today is CNN's Marshall Cohen. He was inside the courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, for every moment of this trial. We spoke right after the verdict came down, and he's going to tell us what the jury found and how President Biden is thinking about the powers he has to make his son's sentence go away. From CNN, This is One Thing. I'm David Reind.

Just hit record on my other phone. Great. And let's do it. It's just not as quiet as you want it to be, probably. That's fine. But I'm outside the courthouse.

Perfect. All right. So, Marshall, for those who may not have been paying a ton of attention to this case, can you remind us what the jury had to decide here?

So Hunter Biden has been charged It was attacked by a special counsel, David Weiss at the Justice Department with three federal gun offenses. It's against federal law for a drug user or a drug addict to buy a gun or possess a gun. So there were three counts in this case, three felony counts. The first two were for lying about his drug use on a federal background check form, and the third count was for possessing the gun after he bought it while he was addicted to drugs. And the jury reached three unanimous verdicts, guilty on all three counts. So the jury, the members of the jury here, concluded that, yes, Hunter Biden lied on the form when he said he was not a drug user and that he also broke the law when he possessed the gun because he was a drug addict at the time or a drug user at the time or around the time when he possessed the gun back in October 2018.

And they reach a decision super quickly, right? What evidence stood out in their minds, do you think?

Three hours of deliberations, roughly. One hour yesterday, two hours this morning. Look, that's pretty quick. I mean, I've covered a bunch of trials. I've only been doing this for 10 years, so not super long, but that's pretty darn fast. And that's exactly what the prosecution, frankly, was teeing itself up for. They told the jury that there was overwhelming evidence evidence of Hunter Biden's guilt. And clearly, the jury did not find it too difficult to reach those guilty verdicts. It was just three hours.

And so you were in the courtroom when this came down. What was Hunter's reaction as the verdict was read?

Well, I did not see much of a reaction from him. Obviously, he's facing forward hearing the verdict, and so I got a good look at the back of his head. But after the verdicts were done and after court was out of session, He turned around and gave a hug, a strong hug, to every member of his legal team, patting them on the back. I saw him briefly flash a smile to his lawyers. Obviously, he's not happy with this verdict. Maybe he was stunned by what he had just witnessed. He then walked out of the courtroom, and it was like a receiving line. There were many friends, many family members who were there that he greeted and accepted their consolation from one person who was not in the courtroom, one person who did not make it in time, the first lady, Jill Biden. She was not there when the verdict was read. I saw her entering the area outside the courtroom about seven minutes after the proceedings had already been adhered. So it happened quick. It happened quick.

Is he going to be going to prison? What is the sentencing going to look like here?

So he will be sentenced probably in about three months. They did not set a specific date for the sentencing. But if the judge wants to send him to prison, she has the power to do so. These charges come with a possible maximum statutory penalty of 25 years in prison. That is not going to happen. No one is expecting that. He is now a first-time offender. He does not have a criminal record, but it is possible. It is possible, though a lot of other legal experts think that probation is is perhaps more likely.

So once we learn the sentence, can President Biden pardon or commute that sentence?

So the answer is yes. President Biden is the President, and these are federal crimes. So he has the power to issue a pardon or commutation. A commutation, if he commuted the sentence for his son, that would mean that Hunter would not have to serve any prison time or pay any fines that he is sentenced to pay. That means the sentence is wiped away. He also could go one step further and pardon his son, which would basically get rid of the sentence and the conviction. So he would no longer be guilty of these crimes. It would be as almost as if it didn't happen. But I do have to point out the President, every time he's been asked about this, and every time the White House has been asked about this, they have said, It's not going to happen. But look, look, I can't predict the future. What happens if the election comes and goes and Biden wins or Biden loses? At that point- He would have nothing to lose then. He's got nothing to lose. And if he just got reelected, then he can protect his son, and he won't pay a political price. So it's hard to predict the future.

Take me into the political ramifications even further, because one of former President Donald Trump's biggest talking points is how the Biden Justice Department is weaponized against him and is engaged in political persecutions. But that same Justice Department just scored a conviction against the President's son. So it seems like that would be a tricky talking point going forward.

Well, of course, it defies logic. If you believe that the Justice Department is single-mindedly oriented around locking up Republicans and going after Republicans, then what the heck just happened here in Delaware, where the son of the Democratic President was put on trial basically for being a drug addict and now has been convicted on three counts and might go to prison. So it totally undercuts that narrative, which always has been a relatively flimsy narrative. It's much more of a political narrative that works out very well in the right wing media echo chamber and among Republicans on Capitol Hill as a way to bully President Trump as he faces all of his legal problems. Also, you know what? Guess what? Same Justice Department is currently going against Bob Menendez. Right. The senior senator from New Jersey, my home state. So he's a Democrat and a pretty powerful one, too. He was the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. So it just doesn't bear out.

And what's next for Hunter? Because he has another trial coming up, right?

This is halftime. This is halftime for Hunter Biden. He has the gun trial behind him now. He is guilty on all three counts. But there is a separate indictment that he faces brought by the same prosecutors. But this one was filed in California. That is supposed to begin in September for tax evasion, alleged tax evasion and allegedly, lying on his tax returns. He's accused of evading more than a million dollars in taxes on money that earned overseas from Ukraine, from China, and other countries for very lucrative overseas business deal that he used to have. And that's going to be a really tough case. The allegations in that case is that, When they turn to the prosecutors, they say Hunter Biden made a lot of money and spent a lot of money on everything but his taxes. They mentioned in the indictment that he paid for strippers, he paid for escorts, he paid for luxury vehicles and Porsches and fancy hotels. Trials, and for a lot of drugs, and also other things like college tuition for his daughters and stuff like that. But they say he dodged his taxes. So this was an embarrassing and painful trial, and there is another very embarrassing and painful trial scheduled for September, right as the campaign season heats up.

Yeah, and that's my final question. I know this just happened just like an hour ago, but this was such a historic trial, and it brought up so much painful stuff for the Biden family, so many painful details. What was it like just witnessing this moment in the courtroom?

It's painful. This case is all about addiction in so many ways. That's what the charges are based on. And members of the jury said beforehand that many of them knew people that struggled with addiction. We all do. We all know people, maybe not struggling as severely as Hunter Biden, but we all know people that have gone through this. And it was emotional day in and day out in court. Hunter Biden had a strong support system there with the first lady and many of his uncle and his aunt and his kids. I should point out he has been clean. He says he has been sober since 2019. That's five years of sobriety for him. And he feels like in his personal life, he has turned a corner, but now he's entering a new chapter as a convicted criminal.

Yeah. Well, Marshall, thanks for covering this for us. Appreciate it.

You got it.

One Thing is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Paulo Ortiz and me, David Reind. Our senior Our producer is Faz Jamil. Our supervising producer is Greg Peppers. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dizula is our technical director, and Steve Ligtai is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Haley Thomas, Alex Manisari, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Lanie Steinhart, James Andres, Nicole Passereau, and Lisa Namerou. Special thanks to Katie Hinman. Just a reminder, we love Ratings and Reviews on Apple Podcasts. We'll take them anytime, any day. We'll be back on Sunday with another episode. Talk to you then.