Federal prosecutors used Hunter Biden’s own voice and text messages to make the case Tuesday that President Biden’s son was a drug addict who lied on paperwork to obtain a revolver in 2018.
Federal prosecutors used Hunter Biden’s voice and text messages to make the case Tuesday that President Biden’s son was a drug addict who lied on paperwork to obtain a revolver in 2018.
On the first day of testimony in the federal courtroom in Delaware, prosecutors played Hunter Biden’s audio narration of his memoir in which he detailed his drug use, and they showed jurors text messages in which he claimed to have smoked crack days after purchasing the weapon.
The jury also saw several videos, including one with a shirtless Hunter Biden holding what appeared to be a crack pipe. Another video showed a white substance on a scale.
Testifying for the prosecution, FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen detailed expletive-laced, panicked texts between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother, Beau, and his onetime romantic partner. In the texts, Hunter Biden angrily berated her for throwing away his gun and warned that it would trigger a federal investigation.
Ms. Jensen also verified in her testimony that a laptop recovered from a Delaware repair shop in 2019 belonged to Hunter Biden.
Prosecutors said Hunter Biden’s words prove he was abusing drugs when he filled out a federal firearms application in October 2018 claiming he was not an “unlawful user” of controlled substances. Hunter Biden faces three felony charges of lying on a gun form.
“Addiction may not be a choice, but lying and buying a gun is a choice,” prosecutor Derek Hines told jurors in his opening statement.
“No one is above the law, it doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is,” he said, echoing President Biden’s response to the Justice Department’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell told jurors that prosecutors can’t prove Hunter Biden knowingly lied on the gun form. He emphasized that much of the evidence presented by prosecutors involved instances before and after Hunter Biden purchased the gun.
Mr. Lowell said Hunter Biden didn’t consider himself an addict at the time of the gun purchase because he had just left rehabilitation.
