Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abe Lowell, appeared to hint at a key element of his defense strategy in federal court in Delaware on Friday: Who filled out the key federal firearms forms that are at the center of the trial?
The crux of the government’s argument is that the president’s son checked a box on government paperwork stating he was not using or addicted to drugs at the time he purchased the firearm, a violation of federal law in October 2018.
During Friday’s hearing, Lowell said there was evidence that employees had changed documents after the sale, while prosecutors said there were only minor additions unrelated to Hunter Biden’s entries.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abe Lowell, appeared in federal court on Friday for a hearing regarding Hunter Biden’s 2018 federal gun control form. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
There are two versions of the particular form Hunter Biden filled out: the first was emailed on Oct. 26, 2018, and U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika admitted that form into evidence.
Actual paperwork filled out at the gun shop also exists, and it was revealed at Friday’s hearing that a gun shop employee, Gordon Cleveland, helped Hunter Biden fill out the paperwork that day.
Cleveland is likely to be called to the stand, and Noreika suggested the government will likely ask him to testify that Hunter Biden filled out and signed the documents.
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“I want to know who wrote what on the form,” Lowell said in court, while Noreika asked, “Is there any evidence he didn’t check the box?”
“We know they falsified the paperwork…Cleveland received IDs that he didn’t have. [Ron] Palmieri [the gun store owner] We changed the form,” Rowell said.
Noreika told Rowell that what matters is what clients put on the forms, and Rowell again suggested that all of this is “subject to investigation.”
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on December 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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.
The trial is set to begin with jury selection on June 3. Both sides have agreed that the trial will continue until around the 14th, or 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?”
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Hunter Biden has acknowledged that he was battling substance abuse when he purchased the firearms, but his lawyers have charged that the case is politically motivated.
Hunter Biden leaves a meeting of the House Oversight Committee at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 10, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
President Biden’s son also faces federal tax charges in Los Angeles, and Judge Noreika ruled that the special counsel cannot speak about that case, nor about Hunter Biden’s alleged unpaid child support payments or his Navy discharge.
Judge Noreika allowed jurors to watch excerpts from Hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which Biden speaks candidly about his struggles with alcoholism and drug use.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have unsuccessfully sought to have both the tax and gun charges dismissed, arguing that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict him after a plea deal fell apart.
The lengthy federal investigation into the president’s son was expected to end with a plea deal last year, but the deal fell apart after a judge raised doubts and Hunter Biden was subsequently indicted.
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The deal would have seen him receive two years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor tax evasion charge, and he would have also avoided being charged with a firearm if he had stayed out of trouble.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
