Hunter Biden maintains he is not guilty and alleges the Justice Department is targeting him unfairly.
WILMINGTON, Del.—Prosecutors and defense attorneys made their opening arguments in the federal gun case for President Joe Biden’s son Hunter on June 4, one day after a jury was seated.
Prosecutors argue that Hunter Biden was, by his own admission, actively using crack cocaine between 2015 and 2019 when the firearm purchase was made and, therefore, lied on his federal application form.
The defense acknowledges Mr. Biden’s drug use before and after the purchase but maintains he was in “denial” about being a drug addict at the time. If, in his mind, he was not a drug addict when he filled out the form, he could not have lied, his attorneys argue.
Mr. Biden is facing three felony charges from a 2018 firearm purchase during a time when he was addicted to crack cocaine, according to his memoir. Authorities accuse him of lying to the federally licensed gun store by illegally claiming on his application that he was not a drug user at the time and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days.
Prosecutors opened by saying, “The law makes no distinction” regarding Mr. Biden’s case. They then discussed the order of events leading up to Oct. 12, 2018, when Mr. Biden purchased the .38 special revolver and multiple hollow point bullets. The store owner attested to seeing Mr. Biden fill out the form and check “no” on the box that asked him if he was a drug user or addicted to drugs.
He owned the gun for 11 days when his girlfriend at the time, Hallie Biden, his deceased brother Beau’s widow, found it in Mr. Biden’s car. Out of concern for his mental health, she threw it away.
Mr. Biden then called the police because the gun was lost, and they located the man who found it in a garbage can. Mr. Biden declined to take the gun when police offered it to him. The charges were then filed in 2021.
Prosecutors played excerpts from Mr. Biden’s self-narrated audiobook for his memoir that details his crack cocaine use between 2015 and 2019. At one point, Mr. Biden said he was up smoking crack every 15 minutes, seven days a week, and called his ability to find the drug anywhere a “superpower.”
They referenced a text message he sent close to the gun purchase where he asks the recipient, “Can you get baby powder, the really soft stuff?” which prosecutors say is coded language for cocaine.
Mr. Biden’s defense attorneys, instead, claim he did not lie when he purchased the gun because he did not believe he was a drug addict at the time. While prosecutors acknowledged he entered rehab in August 2018, they quoted his memoir, where he claimed to relapse after leaving rehab.
However, the defense maintains that he did not believe he was addicted to crack cocaine on Oct. 12, 2018, when he bought the gun and filled out the form, alleging that he had gone days without using the drug. The form only asks if the applicant is a current drug user or addict, not in the past. If Mr. Biden truly believed he was not a drug addict when he filled out the form, then he could not have knowingly lied, his attorneys argue.
They also plan to highlight receipts from the week he purchased the gun, indicating he was buying alcohol and drinking instead of using crack cocaine.
Prosecutors pointed out that the leather gun case had cocaine on it when police found it, but the defense said the drug traces could have come from Ms. Hallie Biden, the man who located the gun in the garbage, or another source after it was thrown out.
During their opening remarks, Mr. Biden’s attorneys appeared to stumble and lose their place multiple times while maintaining his innocence.
Mr. Biden has pleaded not guilty and argues the Justice Department is unfairly targeting him after Republicans labeled his failed plea deal a form of special treatment due to his father’s position as president.
During jury selection on June 3, a total of 65 potential jurors were screened before the court decided on the final 12. The names are not released to the public.
Mr. Biden will also face a September trial in California over his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes. That case would have also been resolved through a plea deal in July 2023 before it eventually fell apart.
The plea deal failed after Trump-appointed Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected its terms as too broad. It would have given Mr. Biden immunity on gun charges if he pled guilty to his alleged tax crimes.
Mr. Biden is facing up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted in the federal gun case, although first-time offenders typically receive less than the maximum sentence. It is also unclear if the judge will give him prison time.
Joseph Lord and The Associated Press contributed to this report.