President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is scheduled to go on historic trial in Delaware on Monday as prosecutors are expected to delve into his crack cocaine addiction and gun purchases.
Biden’s trial begins Monday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. He is charged with three felony firearms offenses in connection with his purchase of a .38-caliber revolver at a gun shop in the state in 2018. Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The charges include making a false statement when purchasing a firearm, making a false statement regarding information required to be kept by a federally licensed firearms dealer, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance.
The charges carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years. Each charge carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years probation.
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Hunter Biden and his lawyers Abe Lowell (right) and Kevin Morris leave a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 10, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Biden has publicly acknowledged and is on record as having struggled with drug addiction, particularly crack cocaine, but said in a federal court deposition last year that he has since recovered and has been drug-free since 2019.
Prosecutors allege that Biden went to StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Wilmington in October 2018 to buy a Colt revolver, but lied about his drug addiction when filling out paperwork to buy the gun for federal authorities. On Biden’s form, he checked “no” when asked if he was an illegal gun user or addicted to controlled substances.
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For two charges related to the form, prosecutors are seeking to prove to the jury that Biden filled out the form and knowingly made false statements, and that he did so because he believed he would not be able to purchase a gun otherwise. For the third charge, related to Biden’s possession of a firearm while allegedly addicted to drugs, prosecutors must prove that Biden was an unlawful firearms user or a drug addict, and that as an unlawful user or drug addict, he knowingly possessed a firearm.
“Maybe it’s the ultimate test for anybody in recovery. I don’t know,” Biden told Axios earlier this year about the importance of staying sober, ahead of his father’s second presidential campaign against former President Trump.
“I have always looked up to people who have overcome tragedies and obstacles that most people never face and stayed clean and sober. They are my heroes and inspiration.”
Hunter Biden speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2023. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Pretrial motions are currently being debated over the definitions of “addict” and “illegal user” that will be presented to the jury ahead of final jury deliberations.
Biden has repeatedly acknowledged his own struggles with addiction, most notably in his 2021 autobiography, “Beautiful Things: A Memoir.”
“I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees scavenging on rugs and snorting anything that bore the slightest resemblance to crack cocaine. I’ve probably snorted Parmesan more than anyone I know,” he said in an interview promoting the book.
“I once went without sleep for 13 days, smoking crack cocaine and drinking vodka the whole time,” he added.
He has previously said his addiction dates back years, including when he began drinking heavily in the early 2000s while working at the law and lobbying firm Oldacre Biden & Belair. The New York Times He was discharged from the Naval Reserves in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine use, but reportedly returned to drinking after the death of his brother in 2015.
According to The New York Times, Biden said in 2016 his drug addiction had worsened, he was using crack cocaine and he was going through a tumultuous divorce from his wife of 24 years.
Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden taking a walk. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnick)
Biden’s lawyers had been trying to get the Delaware lawsuit dismissed even before the trial began, including a last-minute effort that was rejected by the court last week. They argued that Biden had just completed a rehabilitation program before buying the gun and was not a drug user at the time.
“Someone like Mr. Biden, who completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and subsequently lived with sober peers, can be confident that he is not a current drug user or addict,” Biden’s lawyer, Abe Lowell, wrote in court documents.
Biden had the gun in his possession for about 11 days before police were called to a trash bin behind a shopping market and found the gun there, Fox News Digital previously reported. Biden was in a relationship with his late brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, at the time, and she allegedly threw the gun in the trash.
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Hallie Biden may be called to testify at her trial, and the president reportedly paid her a surprise late-night visit last month ahead of the trial.
The White House said the president did not discuss the trial with Hallie, but instead visited her “as he approached the nine-year anniversary of Beau’s death,” the New York Post reported. Hallie’s late husband and the president’s eldest son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (right) speaks during a press conference surrounded by state and federal officials at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on February 5, 2013. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden is now married to Melissa Cohen and credits her with helping him overcome his drug addiction.
“The decision never felt rash, reckless or foolhardy. There was a sense of urgency,” Biden wrote in a book memoir of his 2019 marriage to Cohen. “I felt like I’d been given a reprieve, a sense of the incredible good fortune of a man who had agreed to meet a woman for coffee and fallen in love at first sight, when it was almost impossible to leave a hotel room without a pipe in hand.”
The trial begins on Monday with jury selection. Lowell slammed the case as a “selective indictment” of Biden for political purposes, referring to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who is the special prosecutor in the case.
Weiss was nominated by former President Trump to be the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware after being recommended by Delaware’s two Democratic senators, Chris Coons and Tom Carper. Biden retained her in the role after taking office in the White House. She also served as interim U.S. attorney under President Barack Obama.
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The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated by President Trump in 2017 and has the support of Democratic lawmakers, Fox News Digital previously reported that she has donated at least $15,000 to candidates in both parties since 1999.
Upon his nomination, Noreika received support and praise from Democrats in the state, including Coons and Carper.
“Delaware’s courts are renowned for the expertise of their judges. Maryeln Noreika and Colm Connolly are highly respected and popular attorneys who have demonstrated extensive knowledge of the law and a thorough understanding of the courts during their long careers working in the Delaware judicial system,” Carper said of Noreika’s appointment in December 2017.
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Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower on Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being convicted of 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. (Felipe Ramares for Fox News Digital)
The trial is expected to last at least a week and will not be televised. Biden also faces a criminal tax trial starting in September in California, where he was charged with three felony and six misdemeanor counts relating to $1.4 million in unpaid taxes. The taxes have already been paid. Biden has pleaded not guilty in the case.
The trial follows the unprecedented New York v. Trump trial, in which the 45th president was found guilty in the first degree of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Following the verdict, Biden stressed that “no one is above the law.”
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“It reaffirms the American principle that no one is above the law. Donald Trump was given ample opportunity to defend himself. This was a state case, not a federal case. And it was tried by 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 jurors like you, the millions of Americans who served on the jury,” Biden said at the White House. “This jury will be selected just like any other juror in America. Donald Trump’s lawyers participated in that process.”
