Federal prosecutors will begin making the case to a jury in Delaware on Tuesday that Hunter Biden allegedly lied about his drug use to purchase a gun in 2018.
They are set to argue as part of their opening statement that Biden was a compulsive addict when he allegedly falsely checked off on a federal form that he was not an “unlawful user” of any controlled substance.
The falsification, according to the government, allowed Biden to purchase a revolver from StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Wilmington and retain the gun for 11 days.
Biden’s defense team, led by prominent Washington, D.C.-based attorney Abbe Lowell, will then have a chance to deliver its own opening statement. His attorneys are expected to attempt to poke holes in the government’s charges and argue that the evidence is flawed.
Prosecutors, through court filings, have indicated they will highlight portions from Biden’s memoir Beautiful Things, in which the first son wrote about how he had a desperate crack addiction around the same time frame as the gun purchase.
They also plan to introduce messages and photos from Biden’s computer data, which have been a source of salacious headlines for years. After opening statements, the government’s first witness, it said, would be FBI agent Erika Jensen, who will confirm parts of the memoir and text messages.
“I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney,” Biden wrote in one such message on Oct. 14, 2018, two days after the gun purchase.
Biden, for his part, has indicated in court filings that he plans to dispute technicalities of his drug use, such as the definition of “user of controlled substances.” He also has signaled that he plans to raise authenticity questions about the computer data.
His defense attorneys are also expected to question the credibility of the gun form because prosecutors will be using as evidence a second version of the form with additional address information on it, rather than the original form.
Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Donald Trump appointee, dealt a blow to Biden at the start of the trial by prohibiting him from introducing the original version of the form as evidence. Still, Biden could raise the argument through questions to the government’s witnesses, such as the employees of the gun store.
Opening arguments follow a quick one-day jury selection on Monday. Twelve jurors and four alternates were chosen from an initial pool of roughly 250 people. Several of the jurors said during the selection process that they knew family members with drug addictions.
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Biden is facing three felony charges related to the gun purchase and up to 25 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.