l tough call. >> who are you if you look at the latest data? you're probably going to need a, lot of, those purple sprinkles. >> how this guy really knows his stuff cnn, breaking news and good morning. you were alive in the cnn newsroom. i'm sure costa in washington, breaking this morning, hunter biden's defense attorney indicates that the president's son will not testify in his own defense. that means closing arguments could soon get underway in his federal gun trial. cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez joins us from outside the court. evan, how big of a risk would it have been for hunter biden to take that stand it's a big risk jam. >> i think that's the reason why you had the defense spent the weekend weighing the pros and cons of this one of the things that they wanted to do if he took the stand was to argue that and to tell the jury that hunter biden has been sober since 2019, and so that would perhaps in their view, at least go a little bit of a way of reversing some of the damage from all of this testimony this volumes of testimony from the from the prosecution about his drug use from 2015 through 2019 that's part of what they're trying and to figure out how to limit the damage of now, if he were to take the stand, the the prosecution had a warrant that among the things that we're going to bring up was the fact that he was discharged from the navy after testing positive for drugs about a decade ago. and also that he had pleaded agreed to plead guilty i think to all of these charges as part of a plea deal that fell apart last summer here at this very courthouse. so in the end, we anticipate that when the defense and the prosecution rests are case and they go to the jury, will hear officially formally that hunter biden is not going to take the stand. one of the things that the defense attorneys have been arguing behind the scenes and what they've agreed on is that the jury will be told that if the defendant doesn't take the stand, that they can't hold that against him what are the jurors likely to hear in the closing arguments? do you think while the big thing that that abbe lowell a hunter biden's attorney, wants to bring home to the jurors. >> is that from out from all of the four-and-a-half days of testimony, ten witnesses, what the prosecution has not shown is that 100 did drugs on in october of 2018, which is when he bought this gun. and why we're here. that's what those are. the three charges he is facing. and the other thing is that they want to argue that he never need he didn't knowingly lie on those forms that he filled out the federal form in order to get the background check to tbi, the gun. and also that in his mind, he didn't believe he was addicted to drugs at that time. now, we're going to hear from the prosecution. but again, to remind people about some of his own family members who have testified that they believe he was doing drugs during that time. and in the end, what what the judge has already ruled is that prosecutors don't have to prove that hunter biden was doing drugs on that day in october only that he was used doing drugs and using drugs around that time. what that around that time exactly actually means. it'll be up to the jury to interpret that jim. >> all right. evan perez. thank you very much. let's continue this conversation, joining me now, cnn senior legal analyst and former state and federal prosecutor elie honig, and defense ternary and former federal prosecutor shan wu. >> le. year. your take on hunter biden, apparently not taking the stand yeah absolutely. >> the right move. absolutely. his right. it would have been way too risky for him to take the stand. there's no upside and to the extent the defense wants to make the case, which they do that well, the prosecution has not proved that he was an addict at that key time in october 2018, they've already done that. they called naomi biden, hunter biden's daughter or to the stand? she testified that as far as she knew he was sort of in recovery than she did see him using drugs at that point that's more than enough. if you want to make your defense it's the right move not to call him. it's a constitutional right not to take the stand. they did the right thing. good call. can you think? >> yeah, i think it's a sign when they don't call the defendant, there are different reasons, different sort of atmospherics that come from that here to me, it's a little bit of a sign that the defense's ceiling pretty confident that the moment as confident as they can in the case like this putting a defendant on sort of a hail mary pass, i mean, a you got to think he's gonna do really well. and b, you got to think we really need him to come across to the jury a little bit of a choice here for them, that tough one, which is they think the atmospherics have been looking pretty good. i mean, the first lady has been in the audience ceos lot of sympathy going on. here so as a lawyer, you're thinking defense council, am i going to regret not putting them on if there's a conviction or if there's a conviction. and i got to think might have done this as an acquittal. but for the fact that he didn't do well, i think they're feeling pretty good, right now as well as they can be and no need to take that risk. >> yeah. le what do you think? >> i mean, is the defense looking good heading into closing arguments? it's such an unusual case because the facts are really largely not contested, right? >> there's two parts of this crime. one, did he possess a firearm? >> the defense has conceded that there's no way they can and they have not argued that he did not. >> of course, see possess a firearm. so it's all going to come down to this term of addiction. and i was talking with sham before. i mean, this was a crime we never charged where i was at in the southern district of new york in part because it's obscure and in part because how do you define when someone's an addict or not? and so what the defense is doing, the language in that gun for it, it's yeah, it's very broad. yeah. >> and what the defense is arguing here is sure he was an addict before and after the time period, but they haven't proved necessarily within that 11 day time period that it was an addict. so i think the evidence is strong for the prosecution here, but the defense has given itself a fighting chance and and they've given a jury if the jury feels any sense of sympathy for hunter biden or antipathy towards the prosecution. they've given the jury a way to say, now, we're throwing this out. and if there's a conviction, shan't could we see 100 biden going to jail? oh absolutely. yeah. i mean, he definitely faced president's son. >> yeah, absolutely. good. definitely face that question. and just to add to what i was saying, it it's even harder than proving these quote, an attic. they also have just showed he thinks he is an addict during that time period. so there's a lot of fuzziness there. and i think defense has done a good job working at in la. you were saying that this is not prosecuted? >> you'd have very much why not? >> well, a couple of reasons when we would do these cases, there's a whole category of what we call prohibited persons, people under federal law who are not allowed to possess firearms far and away. the most common category that's prosecuted is prior felons, people had previously been convicted of felony crimes it doesn't come up that often for one thing, it's also like i said, there's fuzziness around the term and addict and frankly, they're seen as the less important of the prohibited persons categories. there's seven or eight categories and this one is just seen as sort of small potatoes. so it was something i never even really heard of what i was a prosecutor. it exists for sure. it is charged hunter biden's is not the only person ever to be charged with it, but it's rare to see he the charge, especially in isolation, hunter biden has the tax charges separately in california, but it's rare that you see essentially a case entirely based on an addict and possession. what do you think can usually you want to see that before you charge it, that the gun had been used and so this is just like a purely possession kind of crime. >> do want to say this idea of him testifying. we might have touched upon this, but part of that decision, as evan was reporting, was the idea that the prosecution says, we're going to bring up this honorable discharge. they also seem assert that they're going to bring up his plea agreement, which i just think is totally off. i mean, if they were successful in doing that one, it's appealable to you, bring that up because i'll say yeah, well, you guys were willing to play this out. the diversion. that's going on here. so that seemed will be questionable du me. do our variance two guys will be watching. >> thanks so much could have talked to about you coming up in just a few moments, secretary of state tony blinken will meet with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he's trying to push for a ceasefire deal as it israel's war cabinet is facing a major shakeup is coming up do 19th, cnn celebrated juneteenth with special performances by john legend, hadi lewbel, smokey robinson. we still have a lot of work to do. >> g10, celebrating freedom and legacy wednesday, june 19, when cnn what's brilliant boring, think about it. boring is the unsung catalyst for bold. what's drops bold, do a rocket hurdles and into space or boring makes vacations happen, early retirements possible, and startups start off because it's smart, dependable, and steady all words you want from your bank for nearly 160 years, pnc bank has been brilliantly boring. so you can be happy to fill, which is pretty unvarying if you think about it with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, my skin was no longer mine. my active psoriatic arthritis joint symptoms held me back don't let symptoms to fine. you emerge as you withdrawn via most people saw 90% clear skin. eye four months and the majority stayed clearer at five years from phi is proven to significantly reduce joint pain, stiffness, and swelling. it's just let's dose a year after to starter doses. >> cbd is allergic reactions may occur, can fire, may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them until you dr, if you have an infection or symptoms for if you had a vaccine, are plan to emerge as you emerge trim fired, ask your doctor about trump via this is a premium hand selected begun rapidly mignon that's aged for tenderness and trimmed to perfection. >> this is a neck tie. what do you think dad wants for father's day visit omaha steaks.com slash tv to order the dad wants date package today for just 99, 99. and we'll include eight additional burgers free. >> so get him not this this go to omaha steaks.com slash tv today because dad deserves it just a little. father's day wisdom from omaha steaks nine out of ten people don't get enough fiber. bennett fiber is the easy, gentle solution for every day. it's plant-based prebiotic fiber nerves parishes, good bacteria in your gut working with your body to promote digestive health with so many ways to enjoy benefit number is your fiber, your way? 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>> it could have a significant impact. it could certainly give netanyahu confidence that he can free hostages through military operations and not need to do it through these negotiate patients. it could easily make hamas receipt and say, we have almost 300 people according to them, who had been killed. we're not going to talk about a ceasefire right now. so it is a very fraught time and secretary blinken on the tarmac in cairo just moments ago, he only spent a few hours in cairo speaking with the egyptians. really emphasizing sense of urgency right now to try to get this use fire across the finish line the ninth month of this war just started. you have over 100 hostages who are still alive in the us really sees this ceasefire as a way to ending this war. and so secretary blinken is going to countries that have relations with hamas, egypt just left heel in qatar later this week to really pressure them, to pressure hamas. because the us has been insisting that the onus is on hamas to accept this deal. is it a guarantee that if hamas accepted a deal that then israel would. i don't think it is, jim, because netanyahu has stated clearly that unless hamas is completely destroyed, they will not agree to a permanent ceasefire and hamas is saying, well, we're not going to regrade your release any hostages without without a permanent ceasefire deal. so in israel. >> blinken is certainly wanting to get assurances on that, but also gym for the day after because one criticism the us has had israel is that israel has not been engaging in political or diplomatic discussions about what comes after this war is over. >> and alex, the israeli military says hostages were being held in civilian buildings. what does that tell us that the israelis are putting that out? >> well, it tells us that these are extremely complicated operations. it tells us that the remaining hostages are not necessarily all down and rafah with a large part of the palestinian population. this was a refugee camp in the central part of the gaza strip in civilian apartment buildings. and we're certainly a hamas militants were killed as part of this raid. there were certainly scores we believe of palestinian civilians who were killed as part of this raid. israel and the us will argue when they are arguing that this just goes to show that hamas is hiding behind civilians and using them as civilian in shields on the pro-palestinian side, this is going to reinforce the argument that hamas, that israel doesn't care about killing civilians as long as they reach their, their military objectives and getting these hostages home. so it's obviously an extraordinarily complicated situation, but this will give a little bit more leeway netanyahu, who has been criticized for not doing enough to get the hostages home. now he has proven he can get some hostages home, and he may try to free more through operations like this one, right? >> he's been under tremendous pressure on that front. alex, very important reporting there. let me go to paula hancocks our international correspondent. she's joining us as well. >> paula how ami just talking about this with alex a few moments ago. >> how does this raid impact the ceasefire talks? does it make life a little more difficult for tony blinken? >> well, jim, we've certainly heard from an egyptian official that this does jeopardize things. this certainly will be taken into account when the man yahya sinwar, who is going to decide whether or not this deal will be agreed to by hamas looks at the civilian casualties of this right now as alex was just saying, they were almost certainly hamas militants that were killed in the raid. we saw from the images, from mars cnn producer on the ground of those coming into the al-aqsa martyrs hospital, there were women and children everywhere. there were certainly significant numbers of civilians that were killed. two, we don't have a breakdown of civilian versus militants at this point, but it will have an impact. now we've heard from the israeli sayyed, we heard the missing families the hostages four, and this is the families of those that are still being held saying that they hope this won't make a difference. we are hearing also from the mother of one of those almog meir jan, who was rescued on saturday she has said beyond thanking the idf and being delighted that her son is back clearly that there needs to be a deal. so even those who are have just had their loved ones handed back to them in this raid, in this mission they are also calling for a deal that this is the way to get more, more of these hostages back. and this is really a unified voice. we're here hearing from all the hostage families, even those that have had their loved ones rescued. and in such a dramatic fashion, gym alright, paula hancocks and alex mark ward, thanks to both. >> you really appreciate it. i want to bring in former name maybe you seal commander of dan o'shea. he was also the coordinator of the hostage working group at the us embassy in iraq dan, thank you very much for joining us apparently, these hostages were being held in people's homes and gaza. what does that tell you about the execution of this rate? >> well, it on top of the fact that they were held in a civilian homes, the fact there was a daylight raid your reports are coming in that israeli, the idf course, they infiltrated the area in broad daylight under the cover of the coming in as gazan refugees. so felkel aerobes and that's when they got, again, the critical thing for hostage rescue mission as, the thought that these horses are always on the standby being killed and murdered by those that are guarding them. so that's why this subterfuge or ruse to get in was critical to the mission set and obviously the escalation when they entire neighborhood as he quote, a civilian neighborhood the, entire idf rescue force came under fire as they were evacuating the actual hostages after they'd secured them. and then the hoyer, it blew up into a pretty significant firefight. and that's when we know idf helicopters and others engaged, which is why the