Hunter Biden ‘crossed a line’, gun trial told

Hunter Biden dragged his family into a web of addiction and lies when he concealed his drug abuse to buy a gun, prosecutors have alleged in court.

Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, leave court in Wilmington, Delaware. Picture: Getty Images.

Hunter Biden dragged his family into a web of addiction and lies when he concealed his drug abuse on a form to buy a gun, federal prosecutors have alleged in court.

President Joe Biden’s only surviving son “crossed the line” when he lied about his addiction to buy the revolver in 2018, prosecutors said at the start of his criminal trial in the President’s home state of Delaware.

Hunter Biden, 54, faces three charges over his purchase of the gun. A plea deal that would have shielded him from jail and spared his father the spectacle of a trial as he campaigns for re-election collapsed last year. The trial comes less than a week after Donald Trump became the first former president to be found guilty of a crime when he was convicted of 34 offences in his New York hush money case.

In their opening statement, prosecutors told the court that Hunter Biden had tried to buy drugs days after acquiring the gun. They played a reading from his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, in which he said finding crack cocaine was his “superpower” and confessed his struggles with addiction.

“The evidence will show that the defendant was addicted to crack cocaine before, during and after the time he bought the gun,” Derek Hines told the court, adding that there was “overwhelming evidence” that Hunter Biden knew he had not told the truth on the form. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is … The law makes no distinction between Hunter Biden and anyone else.”

Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said his struggles with addiction were not disputed but denied that the President’s son was using drugs or would have considered himself an addict at the time he bought the gun on October 12, 2018.

Mr Lowell noted that the transaction form asked if you “are” a drug user, not “have you ever been”, and said Hunter Biden had just returned from rehab in California in another attempt to get sober. He would relapse again a few days later.

The defence will argue that Hunter Biden was guided through the purchase of the gun and the completion of the form by staff at the shop, who “wanted to make a sale”.

Mr Lowell told the court: “A sale is a sale, and that was their goal that day,” and argued that proper advice was not offered. “You will see that he is not guilty.”

The first lady, Jill Biden, and Hunter Biden’s second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, were in the gallery. There was a confrontation in a corridor outside the court when Hunter Biden’s wife turned on Garrett Ziegler, a former White House aide to Mr Trump. According to NBC News, she pointed at Ziegler and said: “You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of shit.”

The President has not attended the trial but said in a statement on Monday that he had “boundless love” for his son, as well as confidence and respect for his strength. “I am the President, but I am also a dad,” he said, adding that he would make no further comment on the case. “Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.”

The Times