Hunter Biden’s trial on gun-related charges begins, his words are what’s causing him trouble
Hunter Biden was not present as a witness, but his voice echoed the courtroom.
On the opening day of Biden’s trial on gun charges on Tuesday, federal prosecutors interpolated page after page from his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” while an audiobook of his voice describing his difficult years of crack cocaine abuse was played.
Jurors heard the president’s son describe how he developed a crack habit and learned to make the drug, which he wrote takes you “to the darkest corners of your soul, as well as the darkest corners of the community.”
Biden spoke in vivid detail about dangerous drug deals on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, drunk driving and his time as a “bloodhound” chasing crack in Nashville. He wrote that his superpower was being able to acquire crack anywhere, spending tens of thousands of dollars and staying at many luxury hotels in L.A. as well as budget motels on the East Coast.
“I can get off the plane in Timbuktu and get a pack of crack,” he wrote.
The president’s son, 54, sat quietly during his speech while first lady Jill Biden sat in the front row with her daughter Ashley and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, along with a group of relatives and supporters, including Los Angeles attorney Kevin Morris.
Some in court became emotional, with Ashley Biden seen wiping away tears as her mother hugged her.
The harrowing tale of Hunter Biden’s drug and alcohol abuse has vindicated federal prosecutors’ promise early in the morning that they would get to the bottom of his sordid past — they have called his ex-wife and two former girlfriends, including the widow of his late brother, to testify in the coming days before the trial begins in a Delaware court.
Biden also faces trial on tax charges in Los Angeles later this year.
“Nobody is above the law. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is,” senior assistant special counsel Derek Hynes told jurors while Biden sat with defense lawyers a short distance away.
In his opening statement, Hynes narrowed the case down to two elements: first that Biden had been addicted to crack cocaine for years, and second that he lied about his illegal drug use on a federal background check form in October 2018, when he purchased a Colt revolver from a Delaware gun shop.
“Nobody is allowed to lie on a federal form like that — not even Hunter Biden,” Hines said, noting that federally licensed gun sellers lack a “crystal ball” to determine whether customers are telling the truth about illegal drug use.
Moments later, defense attorney Abbe Lowell focused on a form his client filled out in 2018 and projected excerpts from it on a large screen, asking jurors to study the language that asked applicants if they were illegal users of narcotics or controlled substances.
“It doesn’t say, ‘Have you ever been there? Have you ever used it?'” Lovell said, and pointed to other questions in the document that relied on the words “have you ever.”
Lowell said the distinction was significant, as his client’s years-long drug addiction included multiple stays in rehab and multiple sobriety periods. Lowell said that at the time of the gun purchase, Biden had completed rehab in Los Angeles — where his uncle James Biden and daughter were visiting him — and had returned to Delaware.
Lowell urged jurors to focus on how Biden might have understood the question about drug use on the form and what he had done “knowingly.”
“What was his state of mind when he went into the gun store?” Lovell said. “Did he consciously think of himself as someone who shouldn’t be buying a gun?”
US Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, who was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland to handle the Hunter Biden investigation, sat in the front row of the courtroom with his colleagues.
Weiss’ team has accused Biden of three felonies: Two charges relate to lying about substance abuse in order to buy the Colt revolver, and a third charge relates to the 11 days he owned the handgun — but never fired it.
If Biden is convicted, he could face several years in prison. But as a nonviolent, first-time offender, he is unlikely to end up behind bars.
The same prosecution team has also indicted Biden in Los Angeles on multiple charges of tax violations, and that trial — a more complex case that will involve his overseas consulting business — is scheduled for September.
Biden’s fate is in the hands of a jury of 12 Delaware residents — six men and six women, plus three female alternates — selected from all corners of the first family’s home state.
The trial is expected to shine a harsh light on the Biden family’s secrets, struggles and tragedies. Prosecutors are expected to show the jury a trove of text messages from Hunter Biden in which he describes his drug use and arranging drug deals – messages meant to amplify the power of his own words in his memoir.
But Lovell urged jurors to examine the timeline of events in the case, and told them in his opening statement to “pay attention to the dates” and focus on events in October 2018 and before.
Late Tuesday, while cross-examining FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen, Lowell obtained an admission from the investigator that there were in fact times when Biden was calm.
“I recognize there were times … when it wasn’t of any use,” Jensen said.