Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abe Lowell appeared to hint at a key element of his defense strategy in Delaware federal court on Friday: who filled out the key federal firearms application at issue in the case.
The core of the government’s case is that Hunter Biden checked a box on government documents, specifically Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Form 4473, stating that he was not using drugs or addicted at the time he purchased the gun.
There are two versions of the document filled out by Biden: the first was emailed on October 26, 2018, and U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika admitted it into evidence.
Hunter Biden is in court in Delaware. Here’s what he doesn’t want the jury to hear.
Hunter Biden is in court (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But another version of the form exists — a physical version that was filled out at a gun shop. In court on Friday, it was revealed that a gun shop employee, Gordon Cleveland, helped Biden fill out the physical form that day.
Cleveland is likely to be called to the stand, and Noreika suggested the government will likely ask him to testify that Biden filled out and signed the documents.
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President Biden’s son Hunter Biden (second from right) and attorney Abe Lowell attend a House Oversight Committee meeting in Washington, DC on January 10, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“I want to know who wrote what on the forms,” Rowell said in court.
Noreika asked him. [Biden] Didn’t check the box?
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A photo evidence shows Hunter Biden signing a document certifying he is eligible to buy a gun in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 12, 2018. (U.S. Department of Justice)
“We now know that they falsified the paperwork. … Cleveland received IDs that he didn’t have,” Lowell said. [Ron] Palmieri [the gun store owner] The form has been changed.
“What matters is what your client puts on the form,” Judge Noreika said.
Lowell again suggested that everything was “on the table.”
Hunter Biden appears at pretrial hearing in Delaware state court on federal firearms charges
A courtroom sketch depicting Hunter Biden in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 26, 2023. (Courtesy of William J. Hennessy Jr.)
Judge Noreika said he would decide later whether to admit the documents into evidence, but appeared to agree that gun shop employees could be questioned.
“Why can’t he question his own credibility?” she asked.
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The trial began with jury selection on June 3, and the parties have agreed that the trial will continue until approximately June 14, or possibly into the following week.
As he left the courtroom, Hunter Biden, who wore orange reading glasses at times during the hearing, patted sketch artist Bill Hennessy on the back and asked, “How are you doing?”
