WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – Federal prosecutors in Hunter Biden’s gun trial spent hours showing jurors evidence about his drug problem, trying to reveal the depth of his addiction through his own words and writing it down to show it was still going on when he bought a firearm and, they say, lied on a form to buy it.
Testimony was expected to continue Wednesday. Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, is expected to be among the witnesses; she was married to the president Joe Bidenson of about 20 years. They have three children, who divorced in 2016 after his infidelity and drug abuse became too much to overcome, according to her memoir titled ‘If We Break’ about the dissolution of their marriage.
She is one of several Biden family and friends expected to testify in a trial that has quickly become a deeply personal and detailed tour of Hunter Biden’s mistakes and drug use as the 2024 presidential election looms and allies worry worry about the toll it will take on the president. who is deeply concerned about the health and continued sobriety of his only surviving son. Prosecutors argue the testimony is necessary to show Hunter Biden’s state of mind when he purchased the gun.
He has been charged with three felonies stemming from the purchase of a gun in October 2018. He is accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and having illegally possessed the weapon for eleven years. to dawn.
“No one should lie on a federal form like that, not even Hunter Biden,” prosecutor Derek Hines told jurors on Tuesday. “He crossed the line when he chose to purchase a gun and lied on a federal background check. The defendant’s choice to purchase a gun is why we are here.”
“When the defendant filled out that form, he knew he was a drug addict,” and prosecutors do not have to prove he used the firearm on the day he purchased the firearm, Hines said.
First lady Jill Biden and her daughter Ashley spent much of Tuesday in the courtroom. Hunter Biden’s attorney argued that his client did not believe he was in the throes of addiction when he stated in the paperwork that he did not have a drug problem. In the short time he had the gun, he did nothing with it, and the gun was never even loaded, attorney Abbe Lowell said in his opening statement.
“You’ll see he’s not guilty,” Lowell said.
Lowell said the form asks if you “are” a drug user. “It doesn’t say ‘have you ever been there?’” and he suggested the president’s son did not consider himself as having a drug problem when he bought the gun.
It is necessary to take into account his state of mind at the time of the purchase, and not later, when, after getting sober, he wrote a memoir ‘Beautiful Things’ about some of his darkest moments. The jury heard long audio excerpts from the book that traces his lineage after his brother’s death from cancer in 2015.
The trial comes after a plea deal with prosecutors collapsed that would have resolved the gun case and a separate tax case and avoided the spectacle of a trial. Hunter Biden has since pleaded not guilty and said he was being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department after Republicans labeled the now-defunct plea deal as a love deal for the Democratic president’s son.
The 12-member panel heard opening statements and testimony Tuesday from an FBI agent who read some of his personal messages, including some that came from a laptop he left at a repair shop in Delaware and never retrieved. In 2020, the contents made their way to Republicans and were leaked publicly, revealing some very personal messages about his work and his life. He has since filed a lawsuit over the leaked information.
Speaking to Beau’s widow Hallie the day after he bought the gun, she wrote: “I’ve called you 500 times in the last 24 hours.” Hunter responded less than a minute later, telling her he was “sleeping in a car smoking crack at 4th Street and Rodney.”
“There is my truth,” he added in a follow-up text.
But under cross-examination, the FBI agent testified that Hunter Biden sent fewer messages about seeking drugs in October 2018, around the time he bought the gun, than in February 2019, a later period in which Lowell described his client struggling significantly with addiction.
Lowell also questioned drug rehab receipts and asked if the officer knew if he had been treated for drugs or alcohol. She said she couldn’t.
His sister Ashley Biden, who watched from the courtroom, dabbed her eyes with a tissue and eventually left.
Lawyers said jurors would hear testimony from the president’s brother, James Biden, who is close to Hunter and has helped his cousin through rehabilitation periods in the past. They also hear how Hallie Biden became addicted to crack during a brief relationship with Hunter.
Hallie took Hunter’s gun and threw it in the trash at a nearby market, afraid of what he might do with it. The weapon was later found by someone collecting cans and eventually handed over to police.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, although first-time offenders won’t get close to the maximum, and it’s unclear whether the judge would give him a prison sentence.
The trial comes shortly after Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 crimes in New York City. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underlines how the courts have been central to the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Biden also faces a trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were said to have been resolved through the deal with prosecutors last July, the result of a years-long investigation into his business dealings.
But Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated to the court by Trump, questioned some unusual aspects of the deal. The lawyers were unable to reach a resolution to her questions and the deal collapsed. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed a former U.S. attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel in August, and Hunter Biden was indicted a month later.
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Long reported from Washington.
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