Washington – Hunter Biden’s gun trial has detailed his drug use through his own text messages and memoirs, as well as the testimonials from his exesProsecutors accuse him of lying on paperwork to obtain a firearm and illegally possessing the weapon while in the throes of addiction.
President Biden’s son could end up behind bars for decades if a jury in Wilmington, Delaware finds him guilty. He has denied being guilty of all charges. Below are the allegations against him.
What is Hunter Biden accused of?
Hunter Biden was charged with three firearms crimes in September following a proposed plea deal with federal prosecutors unraveled.
He is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun while addicted to crack cocaine. Federal law prohibits users of illegal drugs from possessing firearms.
Prosecutors allege the president’s son lied about his drug use on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives form when he bought a revolver, speed loader and ammunition on Oct. 12, 2018, at StarQuest Shooters and Survival Supply, a gun store in Wilmington.
Prosecutors say Hunter Biden owned the Colt Cobra .38 pistol 11 days before his brother’s widow, Hallie Bidenwhom he was dating at the time, found it in the console of his truck and threw it away in a garbage can outside a supermarket.
When she told Hunter Biden she had thrown away the gun, he was angry. “Are you crazy,” he allegedly texted her on Oct. 23, 2018, according to court documents. ‘Tell me now. This isn’t a game. And you are behaving completely irresponsibly and unhinged.”
“It’s hard to believe someone is so stupid,” he reportedly wrote in another post.
Hallie Biden went back to the dumpster to retrieve the gun, but it was gone. An elderly man looking for recyclables found the gun and took it home. Delaware police later recovered the gun from the man.
Years later, prosecutors charged Hunter Biden with gun crimes as they pursued him unrelated tax charges against him.
What is Hunter Biden accused of?
Two of the three counts are related to the ATF paperwork Hunter Biden filled out when he purchased the gun. The form includes questions about a person’s criminal record, whether they are purchasing the gun for themselves or someone else, their drug use and their mental health. Hunter Biden is accused of making a false statement on the application by saying he was not a drug user and lying to a licensed arms dealer.
The third count relates to his possession of the gun. Prosecutors say he knowingly possessed the gun for 11 days while battling an addiction to illegal drugs, a violation of federal law.
“When the defendant filled out that form on October 12, 2018, he knew he was a drug addict,” prosecutor Derek Hines said during opening statements this week. “The law does not require us to prove that he used drugs that same day. Just that he knew he was a drug user or a drug addict.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors must prove he was using drugs on the day he bought the gun. The form uses the word “his,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in his opening statements.
‘It doesn’t say you’ve ever been there. It doesn’t say you ever used it either,” Lowell said.
The defense has also argued that Hunter Biden was abusing alcohol, not drugs, at the time.
All three charges are felonies, and if convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and fines of up to $750,000.
