2018. he has pleaded not guilty on all counts. joining us now, justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian, and a defense attorney that represented three employees in an administration. >> reporter: the jury has had the case today for about two hours. they had it yesterday just for about an hour, so three hours total of deliberations. obviously we don't know anything about what is going on inside the jury room. it's secret. we know the jury forewoman had a sister with issues with a drug problem and watched the evening news. that's all we know about it. the prosecution strongly made the case they established beyond a reasonable doubt that hunter biden was a drug user when he purchased that gun and owned it for 11 days. the defense trying to poke holes in the story and suggest that there's doubt about whether he was using drugs during the period on or around that period when he bought and owned that gun. that's where it stands, josé. >> over the last course of the trial, the defense argued there was no evidence hunter biden was using drugs when he bought the gun, and the jury instructions say they do not have to determine he was using drugs the day he bought the gun but just that he was addicted to a controlled substance during that time. how will this affect the verdict? >> i think they are going for a hung jury here, at the least, if not an acquittal, and you have to show reasonable doubt. you have people in their family with addiction problems and alcoholism, and there's going to be sympathy for hunter biden. if hunter biden knowingly did not think that he, in fact, was an addict at the time or that he didn't do drugs right around that time period, even though there's a dispute about what the proper instructions should be, you may have a hung jury. you may have people with that sympathy, and this deliberation could be going on for quite some time. >> the issue is -- >> can you hear me? >> ken, do we have a verdict? >> we have a verdict, josé. that's all i know at this point. we just saw a flury of journalists running towards the courthouse and we have determined that the judge has been told that there's a verdict. stand by. we will get it to you as soon as we have it. >> okay. so we will stand by and just stay with me. go ahead. >> so much of my theory for deliberations going on for quite sometime. >> what does that tell you? >> usually a quick verdict favors the government, but it's hard to say here. with a short trial, it was not a lengthy trial like donald trump's trial, and -- so we do not know -- they have been out for about three hours. it's a pretty quick verdict. >> okay. so back to ken. the process is, we don't have cameras and there are no microphones in there, and what is the process for finding this information out? >> reporter: we have elaborate plans, josé, that should remain confidential. we have many plans to get the verdict to you as quickly as possible. three hours is unexpectedly short, but at the same time, this was not a complicated case, right, in terms of what the government had to prove, the elements of the charges. it was simple. they had to prove that he was a user or addicted to, and not just addicted but an illegal user of is also an option of drugs around the time, the period he bought the gun, but not on the day or the week he owned the gun, and there's evidence of that, and it's not disputed hunter biden was addicted to cocaine before he bought the gun, and then he called himself an addict to friends and family, and what was contested in the trial is is there evidence he used drugs in the period he bought the gun, and it's not clear that matters about that. the prosecution argued it didn't matter. they also argued that, in fact, he was using drugs, even a day or two days after he purchased that gun, and there are text messages to that fact and those are not definitive. the jury back here with a verdict within three hours of deliberation, and that's normally good for the government but who knows. we will find out when we do. >> of course, ken, standing by with you. meanwhile, jeff, talk to us about these three charges. we are showing there on the screen these three counts against hunter biden. can you find of go down each one of those and what they mean and what the possible probable, you know, sentences could be if someone is found guilty on any or all of these? >> sure, we have hunter biden arriving right now. >> excuse me? >> sorry, jeff, this is just live, and we are all watching this together. so hold for just a second. it looks as though somebody is arriving. you can see there that there's -- looks like hunter biden. >> reporter: we believe that's hunter biden. >> yep, hunter biden is now arriving to the courtroom -- to the courthouse. clearly that's one of the requirements, right, jeff? so meanwhile, jeff, if you could, talk to us about these three counts. >> joe, false statements on a firearms purchase is a criminal violation, obviously. but i have to tell you, josé, these kinds of cases are not frequently brought, and sometimes they're put together with an armed robbery as well and if you are found guilty of them, i think it would be unlikely that he would receive jail time. most of the time, just like the diversion he plead guilty to, most of the time judges put defendants in a rehab center and try to rectify the underlying problem. unless something political comes in here, and i don't think it has, i think the judge has run a fair trial, generally biden, as a defendant, if convicted, would not get jail time. >> so either -- and these are all -- we are looking at the three counts, right? maximum prison sentence on one, ten years, and the third one also ten years, and they would not be concurrent if, jeff? >> well, they could be concurrent. they could be consecutive. based on hunter biden's background, i think the judge may really cut him a break here. he has not been convicted yet, so let's see what the verdict is. we're just speculating. i have to tell you that if he's convicted, i would imagine his presentence interview would be a lot longer than donald trump's presentence interview, because generally those interviews take quite sometime and it's a thorough background investigation of the defendant who has been convicted, including health issues, employment history and drug tests. certainly with hunter biden, there would be drug tests and period drug tests indefinitely, probably. >> ken, it's important to say that this case and this trial is being carried out because there was an agreement earlier that fell through. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, josé. there's a lot of legal experts who wonder why we are here. as jeff said, this is a case that is rarely brought as a standalone charge. under that plea agreement, hunter biden was going to enter into a diversion agreement where there wouldn't be a felony conviction on his record in connection with the case if he satisfied the terms of the agreement. it was linked with the other case against him, which is the tax evasion and tax fraud case. he's facing a trial on that, also felonies, and under those charges he was going to be pleading to a misdemeanor, and no jail time, and it fell apart over a disagreement on whether that granted hunter biden immunity for other conduct including foreign lobbying violations, and the judge raised questions about it. they went back to negotiating. this is where it gets loss. the judge scratched the plea agreement on that day, and at the end of the day hunter biden's team would not agree to the terms that the prosecution was offering. our understanding, our reporting was most of that was on the table, a no-jail deal, and hunter biden's team was concerned it didn't hold him harmless by other investigations by the justice department, and they decided to take their chances and we will find out if that was a smart decision. it has been a year since that plea agreement fell apart. there has been no signs of any other federal investigations of the conduct of hunter biden, and they decided they couldn't live with the terms of the agreement and they decided to go to trial. here we are, we will find out very soon whether or not that was a good decision, josé. >> jeff, walk us through what is happening right now, vis-a-vis, inside that courtroom. we saw hunter biden just coming in, literally minutes ago. what is the process we can expect now? >> sure, the process is the council be seated with the defendant, and the jury will enter the courtroom and the judge will ask if you have a verdict, and the foreperson will say yes, and it will be handed to the judge and the judge will give it back to the court clerk and then the foreperson will read it. probably if the defendant is convicted, they will want to poll the jury, which it means you ask each jury individually if they agree with the verdict, and then there's the verdict and the jury is let go, and presumably there's confidential confidentiality there, and then the judge will warn them about that. if he's acquitted, it's not clear what could happen. once the jury is let go, the judge will set a sentencing date. 99.9% sure hunter biden would not be incarcerated pending sentencing. they would schedule a time for a presentence interview, and sentencing will take place probably in two months or so. >> ken, what do we know about those jury members? you mentioned a little at the beginning of our conversation, one of them. what else do we know about the jury members? >> reporter: you know, josé, i have to tell you i don't have that information in front of me. we have sort of basic demographic information about the jury and i don't have it in front of me so i can't share it for you. >> i apologize for asking about something i didn't know you didn't have the information on that, and i want to apologize to you for that, ken. the process that we see here, and this is what -- as much as we do know about it, six men, six women, two members own or previously owned firearms, and three members with family members who own or previously owned firearms, and four members of a close friend or family member that struggled with drug or alcohol addiction, which is what ken was telling us at the beginning of the conversation, and one member works for the u.s. secret service, and one watches cbs evening news regularly. jeff, with that information, if you are a defense attorney working with and for hunter biden, how do you focus on those jury members and what do you focus on those jury members, or can you? >> well, you clearly look at them when they come back in the courtroom and see who makes eye contact, who doesn't. really, it's hard to say. i have to tell you as a defense attorney, and i am sure the defendant feels the pressure, but this is a very pressurized moment, because you know the verdict is coming in. you have no clue what the verdict will be. you know there's a verdict. you know it's not a hung jury. you know there's a possibility of jail time for a defendant and the defense counsel feels it at this point. >> ken, would you agree with him? >> reporter: yeah, 100%. this is, you know -- and particularly when we have a special counsel, they have one case at this point, and that's all they have been focusing on, the hunter biden case. there's two cases, the gun case and the tax case, and this is what they devoted their professional lives to doing, hunter biden, and some say there's a lot at stake for the prosecution, and a lot at stake for the defense attorneys, and abby lowell has a reputation as a gun-slinging attorney, and she has decided to go guns blazing in defense of hunter biden, and a strategy not just in this case, but in the congressional investigations, he's been firing with both barrels. today is the moment of truth here. he took a chance here trying to raise reasonable doubt on a case that they thought was pretty straightforward and the evidence the government had was overwhelming, and we will see if that gamble succeeded today. >> and today -- >> sorry, jeff, sorry to interrupt, but i want to bring in a white house correspondent, aaron gilchrist. ken? >> count one, guilty. count two, the jury finds hunter biden guilty. and on count three, which is possession of a firearm by a drug user or drug addict, guilty. hunter biden has just been found guilty on all three of the counts against him. ken? >> reporter: yeah, i have to say, i mean, that's not a surprising verdict, particularly after three hours of jury deliberations. there's a lot of questions here about whether there would be -- nobody predicted an acquittal, but a hung jury, whether there would be one juror that held out being sympathetic that nobody was harmed by this gun, and now we see the jury has adopted the view of the prosecutors, that hunter biden knowingly violated the law when he purchased a handgun while using drugs, and now he's going to live with the consequences that this is a felony conviction. as jeff said, it's extremely unlikely that hunter biden will be incarcerated by the judge today. what is more likely, she will set a sentencing date two to three months from now and he will have to do an interview with the probation department. right now a big moment for hunter biden and for the president of the united states and the first lady. the first lady has been here for many days of the trial. she's not here today. again, hunter biden found guilty on all three counts of the felony gun charges, josé. >> aaron, the first lady has been by hunter biden's side almost every day, including flying back from france to be by his side. is there any reaction by the white house or by the biden family? >> we're still waiting for that reaction to come in. obviously it has only been a few seconds that was read, and ken noted, as you said, the first lady had been in court for most of the proceedings over the course of the last week, and she was there on day one setting behind her stepson and only missed court on thursday when she was overseas in france with the president on d-day commemorations to be back in court on friday, and then returning to france on saturday to continue with the state dinner in that country. but the family in a significant way has been behind hunter biden, really, from day one. we know obviously today his wife was there with him. we believe his aunt may have been in the room as well. other members of the family had been present in court throughout the week. president biden's part, he committed to not really talking about this case. he's saying in a statement last week on the first day of jury selection in the case that he was not going to comment on something that was part of the work of the justice department. he did, though, during an interview with abc news last week saying he would accept the outcome from this jury. now with these three guilty verdicts from the jury, we would expect that president biden will stand by that. he was asked directly if he ruled out pardoning his son, and he said yes to that question, pardoning his son was not something he was going to be doing. and at this point we wait to see if there's more reaction from the president in the form of a statement, and the president has said that he loves his son, that he and the first lady love their son, and they are proud of him and the person he has become, referencing his ability to combat a drug addiction and to seemingly come out on the other side a better person. at this point, josé, we will wait to see if we hear more from the president. >> thank you, aaron. misty, 3 1/2 hours of deliberations over two days. what did you think? >> once i heard the verdict was in i suspected it would be guilty. keep in mind, the charges themselves very technical. prosecutors made the argument, do not leave the common sense at the door. you are looking at all this evidence of drug use during this time, the critical timeframe, october 2018. that's not to say the defense didn't raise very clever arguments to really poke holes in that, and the jury went with the prosecution's case and turned around very quickly. we were actually here just in the last hour saying, well, we don't expect anything until this afternoon. it seems the jurors were pretty much on the same page here and came back with the guilty verdict. >> we understand first lady jill biden recently headed into the courthouse. there we have the images of her heading into the courthouse. >> as of now, it's not likely that hunter biden will be taken into custody or anything like that. what is going to happen is there's going to be a sentencing hearing. it will be scheduled down the road. in the interim, both sides, the prosecution and defense will submit briefs that will basically present the argument as to what the penalty should be for that sentencing phase. so again, we're talking about a case that is not typically charged, where the gun was not used in any other crimes, where this was not a case of a felon in possession. that's usually where you see these charges. we are also talking about something that happened in 2018. there's not a violent history in between. all of those factors are taken into account as to whether or not the defendant in this case, hunter biden, is actually taken into custody in the interim or released on their own recognizance, which is what i would expect to happen here. then the pathway to the sentencing hearing will begin. >> jeff, what options after the sentencing hearing gets underway, which as we understand it has not been set as of right now, but jeff, what are hunter biden's options going forward as far as appealing and et cetera going forward? >> he certainly has a right to appeal the verdict. when he meets with the probation office, if he intends to appeal the verdict it will go to how much remorse he shows, and on the other hand, he cannot deny and has not denied that he's an addict or was an addict, and that's certainly something he will discuss with the probation office. i have to say as a side note, josé, jill biden was in court most of the time in the front row. >> uh-huh. >> defense counsel also encourage to have family members support them, and here you have the first lady and the jurors disregarded it really and found him guilty. it could be that it doesn't really have much of an impact on a jury. >> it's also back to the role and responsibility of a jury and the sacred responsibility that they have to carry out in their -- during their duties as a member of the jury. i want to bring in a former fbi, andrew weissmann. he's now an msnbc legal analyst. andrew, what are your thoughts? >> yeah, i'm less interested in the particulars of the case. this is a gun charge. the proof was overwhelming. i agree with your other panelists that it's rarely charged, in my experience of over 21 years at the department, i never saw a case like this brought. it would normally be a felon in possession of a gun that would be charged. i am more interested in what it tells us about the rule of law in this country in two ways. one, the son of the sitting president was pretty quickly tried. he was given due process and he was found guilty. and you have the current president, the father of the defendant, making it absolutely clear that he is not pardoning him, that he could have ordered at any time his justice department to get rid of the case and he did not do that. he said he's not planning on pardoning him as well. i really think that if you look at the case, what is the big picture here? it's not a drug addict that possessed a gun for two weeks. it's that you have a president of the united states who is living embodiment of the rule of law even respect to his only living son. you can really contrast that to the former president's denigration of the rule of law, anytime he's found guilty in a criminal case or found liable in a civil case, he says the system is rigged against him. i think that that, to me, is the reall