WILMINGTON, Del. — Opening statements in Hunter Biden’s federal criminal trial began Tuesday, with a prosecutor telling jurors that “no one is above the law.”
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is,” prosecutor Derek Hines said in explaining special counsel David Weiss’ case against President Joe Biden’s son.
Hines said the defendants would be tried for “their choices,” adding that Hunter Biden “chose to illegally possess firearms” and “chose to lie” about his drug use when he purchased the firearms.
Hunter Biden is charged with three counts related to possessing a gun while under the influence of drugs. Two of the charges allege he filled out paperwork stating he was not using illegal drugs when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver on Oct. 12, 2018. The third charges him possessing a gun while under the influence of drugs. “No one should be allowed to lie like that on a federal form, not even Hunter Biden,” Hines said.
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According to the indictment, Biden certified on a federally required form that he was “not an unlawful user of, or addict to, any stimulants, narcotics or other controlled substances,” but in fact, as he knew, his statements were false and fictitious.
Hines told jurors that Hunter Biden was smoking “every 15 minutes, seven days a week” at the time. He bragged in his books about having the “psychic ability” to find crack anywhere, Hines said.
“Addiction may not be a choice, but lying and owning a gun is,” Hines said.
Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Abe Lowell, acknowledged that his client had “purchased a small handgun” but said it was “unloaded” and that his client had “never used it.”
He said prosecutors would need to prove Hunter Biden “knowingly violated the law” when he bought the guns, suggesting they might not be able to do that.
He said his client had not violated the law “knowingly and with intent to deceive.”
Lowell told jurors there was no dispute that Biden abused alcohol as a teenager and used drugs as an adult, and cited some of Biden’s family history, including a 1972 car accident that killed his mother and sister and injured himself and his brother, Beau.
He disputed that his client was using crack cocaine at the time he bought the gun: “Some people may be alcoholics, but no one is addicted to crack cocaine,” he said.
A total of 12 jurors – six men and six women – plus four alternates were selected from a pool of more than 60 potential jurors on Monday. The trial was postponed for about an hour Tuesday morning after one juror withdrew, citing financial hardships. An alternate was sworn in to replace that juror.
In court on Monday and Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s mother-in-law, First Lady Jill Biden, was in attendance to support him. Both days she sat next to Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, in the courtroom.
Among the audience was former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler, who Hunter Biden is suing for violating state and federal data privacy laws in connection with his online publication of data he said he had taken from his oldest son’s infamous laptop. The lawsuit alleges that Ziegler and his nonprofit “accessed, tampered with, manipulated, altered, copied and damaged, at least to some extent, Plaintiffs’ data.”
Cohen Biden confronted Ziegler during a morning break, telling her, “You have no right to be here, you Nazi scum,” but she walked away before Ziegler could respond.
“Let me go on the record: I’m not a Nazi. I believe in the United States Constitution,” Ziegler told NBC News. He said he was “wise” to go to court and called the case against him “totally without merit.”
A source familiar with the matter said he expected a “stream of family and friends” of Biden to be in attendance throughout the trial.
At least 15 of the potential jurors had told family members, significant others or close friends that they had substance abuse problems, including the four ultimately selected. A source close to the president and first lady said they appreciate the many people affected by addiction and substance abuse and have long felt that people understand its complexities, and that was evident in the courtroom.
The prosecution’s first witness was FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen, who presented some of the prosecution’s evidence, including text messages that purportedly showed Biden had been using crack cocaine in the months before and after his gun purchase.
Among the messages prosecutors plan to present is one from the day after the purchase, in which he tells someone he’s “waiting for the dealer.” They also plan to present a message from Oct. 14, 2018, in which he allegedly writes he was “sleeping in his car smoking crack.”
Jensen also introduced passages from the audiobook version of Hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he detailed his drug use. The audiobook was read by Hunter Biden himself, allowing jurors to hear his account in his own voice. In one passage played for jurors, he said, “Walking into a high crime area and buying crack is like playing Russian roulette,” sometimes with as many as five bullets in the gun.
“There is no honor among us crack addicts,” he said in another statement.
Hines said he plans to call about eight witnesses in total, including three women Hunter Biden was romantically involved with, Hallie Olivia Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau, California woman Zoe Kestan and Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.
Hines said Buret “will testify about her crack use” with Hunter Biden. He said Buret and Kestin will testify under immunity agreements. Buret himself does not use drugs and does not have an immunity agreement, Hines said.
Lowell has said he wants to call the gun shop owner and two or three experts as witnesses. Weiss’s office has disputed some of the expert testimony.
Gary Grumbach, Daniel Barnes, Owen Hayes and Sarah Fitzpatrick reported from Wilmington, Delaware, and Dare Gregorian from New York.
