Hunter Biden was a habitual cocaine user who drove his father’s Cadillac and illegally bought guns, his criminal trial heard as US First Lady Jill Biden watched in court .
The US president’s son is accused of intentionally making false statements to buy a revolver and ammunition from a gun store in Wilmington, Delaware on October 12, 2018.
The defense said Mr. Biden, 54, was recovering at the time so he was truthful when he wrote in his application that he was not an illegal drug user.
This is the first time the son of a sitting US president has appeared in court.
Mr. Biden could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of all three federal charges in the case.
He was charged with lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, lying on an application by saying he did not use drugs and illegally possessing a gun for 11 days.
On Tuesday, the court heard from the government’s first witness, FBI agent Erika Jensen, who will return to the stand on Wednesday. She testified about bank records and messages from Mr. Biden’s device that were related to drugs.
Through the trial, the jury will learn how Hallie Biden – the widow of the president’s late son, Beau Biden – also became addicted to cocaine during her brief relationship with Hunter Biden.
She took the gun from him and threw it in the trash at the grocery store 11 days after he bought it, concerned about what he might do with the weapon.
“No one is above the law,” prosecutor Derek Hines said in his opening statement Tuesday to jurors. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is.”
Mr. Hines said Mr. Biden “crossed the line” when choosing to buy the gun and allegedly lied about a federal background check.
The prosecutor also told jurors that Mr. Biden was not charged with any act of violence, but the jury will hear how guns were “pointed in his face” during the drug deals. drugs and he “learned to defend himself”.
But the defense argued that this statement had nothing to do with when Mr. Biden purchased the gun in Delaware.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Abbe Lowell said the Cobra Colt .38 revolver was an impulsive purchase, under pressure from a pushy gun store owner.
He said his client drove his father’s Cadillac to a cell phone store that day before going across the street to the gun store.
The core of the defense’s argument is the argument that the federal gun purchase application form only asks whether the buyer is a drug user – not whether they have “used to” .
Biden at the time was recovering after attending a rehab clinic in California and did not consider himself an addict, Mr. Lowell said.
“Hunter was not using drugs when he bought that gun,” he said.
Hunter Biden sat with his defense team, pen in hand and glasses constantly reading documents.
The Yale-educated lawyer regularly observed the jury and appeared to closely monitor the proceedings.
The American First Lady sat right behind him. President Joe Biden, who has long been extremely protective of his son, was present at the White House in Washington DC.
The first lady and Hunter Biden’s half-sister, Ashley Biden, appeared emotional as she listened to an audio recording aired in court of Hunter describing his descent into addiction. The audio is taken from his narration of his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things.
Ashley Biden rested her head against the first lady’s head as she appeared to wipe her eyes.
At one point, Jill Biden put her arm around Ashley Biden’s shoulder, who then left the Wilmington courthouse and did not return.
The defense said Mr. Biden did not deny his previous drug abuse, arguing that this was the result of repeated tragedies in his life.
This included the deaths of his mother and sister in a car accident in 1972 when he was three years old and the death of his older brother, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.
Also present in court was Mr. Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, who angrily confronted a former Trump aide.
According to a reporter from BBC partner CBS, Ms. Cohen Biden launched an obscene tirade at Garrett Ziegler in the hallway outside the courtroom.
According to other American media, she called Mr. Ziegler – who spread embarrassing messages and pictures from a laptop that once belonged to the president’s son – “a Nazi”.
Mr. Biden is currently suing Mr. Ziegler for releasing data from the laptop.
Hunter Biden also faces trial in California in September on charges of not paying $1.4 million in taxes.
