Hunter Biden was not on the witness stand, but his voice filled the courtroom.
On the opening day of Biden's trial on gun charges Tuesday, federal prosecutors played page after page of his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” while playing an audiobook of his voice recounting the difficult years of his cocaine abuse. crack.
Jurors heard the president's son describe how he developed a crack habit and learned to cook the drug, which he wrote takes you “to the darkest corners of your soul, as well as the darkest corners of the community.” ”.
In graphic detail, Biden talked about dangerous drug deals on Los Angeles' Skid Row, drunk driving and his time as a “bloodhound” chasing crack cocaine in Nashville. His superpower, he wrote, was to get crack anywhere, shelling out tens of thousands of dollars as he settled into a series of luxury Los Angeles hotels as well as budget motels dotted along the East Coast.
“I could get off a plane in Timbuktu and get a bag of crack,” he wrote.
The president's son, 54, remained stoic during the delivery of his remarks, while first lady Jill Biden sat in the front row with her daughter, Ashley, and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, along with a circle from family and supporters, including a Los Angeles attorney. Kevin Morris.
Some in the courtroom became emotional, Ashley Biden appeared to wipe away tears and her mother put an arm around her.
The harrowing account of Hunter Biden's drug- and alcohol-fueled descent confirmed federal prosecutors' promise to delve into his sordid past, subpoenaing his ex-wife and two ex-girlfriends, including his late brother's widow, to testify in the following days. – when they began the trial in a Delaware court.
Biden also faces trial on tax charges in Los Angeles later this year.
“No one is above the law. It doesn't matter who you are or what your name is,” Senior Assistant Special Prosecutor Derek Hines told jurors as Biden sat a few feet away, flanked by defense attorneys.
In his opening statement, Hines boiled the case down to two elements: that Biden was addicted to crack cocaine for years and that he had lied about his illicit drug use on a federal background check form in October 2018, when he purchased a Colt revolver. in a Delaware gun shop.
“No one is allowed to lie on a federal form like that, not even Hunter Biden,” Hines said, noting that federally licensed gun dealers lack a “crystal ball” to determine whether customers are telling the truth about the use of illegal drugs.
Moments later, defense attorney Abbe Lowell focused on the form his client filled out in 2018 and, with excerpts projected on a large screen, asked jurors to study language that asked: “Are you an illegal user of narcotics or controlled substances?”
“It doesn't say, 'Have you ever been?' Have you ever used?'” Lowell said, pointing to other questions in the document that did rely on the words “Have you ever used?”
The distinction was critical, Lowell said, because his client's years of drug addiction were marked by multiple stays in rehab and periods of sobriety. At the time of the gun purchase, Lowell said, Biden had completed his rehabilitation in Los Angeles, where his uncle James Biden and his daughter visited him, and he had returned to Delaware.
Lowell urged jurors to consider how Biden would have understood the drug use question on the form and what he had done “knowingly.”
“What was your mood when you entered the armory?” Lowell said. “Did he consciously think that he was someone who shouldn't buy that gun?”
David Weiss, U.S. Attorney for Delaware and Special Prosecutor Appointed by the U.S. Attorney. General Merrick Garland, in charge of Hunter Biden's investigations, sat in the front row of the courtroom with his colleagues.
Weiss' team charged Biden with three felonies: two related to lying about his substance abuse to buy the Colt revolver, and the third for the 11 days he had the gun but never fired it.
If convicted, Biden could face years in prison. But as a non-violent, first-time offender, he is less likely to end up behind bars.
The same prosecution team also charged Biden in Los Angeles with multiple allegations of tax violations, and that trial, a more complex case that will delve into his overseas consulting business, is scheduled for September.
Biden's fate rests with a jury of 12 Delawareans (six men and six women, with three women alternates) drawn from all corners of the First Family's home state.
The trial is expected to shine a spotlight on the Biden family's secrets, struggles and tragedies. Prosecutors are expected to show jurors a ream of text messages from Hunter Biden in which he describes his drug use and organizing drug deals, messages intended to reinforce the power of his own words in the memoir. he.
But Lowell urged jurors to examine the timeline of events in the case, telling them in his opening statement to “pay attention to the dates” and focus on October 2018 and what came before.
On Tuesday night, while questioning FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen, Lowell provoked the investigator into admitting that there were indeed times when Biden was sober.
“I think there were…periods where there was no use,” Jensen said.
