His lawyers said Monday that prosecutors’ move to introduce Hunter Biden’s trove of communications into evidence will likely work against him in his federal firearms trial.
Biden’s trial, brought by special prosecutor David Weiss on three firearms-related charges, including making false statements and possessing a firearm while knowingly under the influence of drugs, began with jury selection on Monday. Florida State Attorney Dave Aronberg and former federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin told MSNBC that the “word” of the president’s son will be used against him as “compelling evidence.” (Related article: ‘Harming Joe Biden from every angle’: Strategists say Hunter’s latest stunt may have landed his father in a sticky mess)
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“Biden’s own statements, his text messages, are going to come back to haunt him because he was texting that he was smoking crack cocaine on the streets of Wilmington around the time he bought his gun,” Aronberg said. “So that’s strong evidence. And when he says, ‘You know, I just got out of rehab. I didn’t think I was still in the throes of addiction,’ I mean, your own words from that time are going to come back to haunt you. So jury nullification is probably their best defense.”
Prosecutors in May unveiled evidence they planned to introduce to prove Biden lied about his drug use on a 2018 federal firearms purchase application, including 75 pages of text messages highlighting his struggle with addiction. message include Filing It reveals claims that he has quit drugs, discussions of his drug use, and photos of drugs and Biden smoking crack cocaine.
“I was sleeping in my car smoking crack cocaine on 4th Avenue and Rodney Street,” Biden wrote in an Oct. 14, 2018 message.
“I’m interested in the text messages, the books and so on,” Zeldin said. “Those are words out of the defendant’s mouth. … Remember, he would have been a drug user at the time of the purchases. So if they can say he was using drugs during this time period, and there’s evidence that he was loosening up, he wasn’t loosening up, he denied it at times, all of that undermines any broad notion that other witnesses might bring up that he was a drug user in general. So I think the most compelling evidence for the prosecution is going to be the words out of Biden’s own mouth at the time of the purchases.”
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – JUNE 3: Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, arrives with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 3, 2024. Biden is on trial on felony firearms charges. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The prosecutor also plan The documents were taken from Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which references a section of Biden’s drug use in 2018. Some of the messages and documents were taken from a laptop Biden left behind.
“Any word Hunter Biden ever uttered through text messages or emails could be used against him,” Aronberg said. “The laptop that Republicans are bragging about, the so-called business transactions, they’re not going to be turned over. That’s not the subject of this trial. This is about buying a gun while he was intoxicated, and anything he says that shows he was intoxicated at the time he bought the gun will be held in confidence. You’ll see that in the laptop.”
Criminal lawyer Bernarda Villalona advised Biden to plead guilty, saying Weiss’s evidence against Biden was “strong.” She also based her advice on the prison sentence Biden could face, arguing that pleading guilty might be the “best” course of action to avoid incarceration.
Biden also faces nine federal tax charges, including tax evasion and tax fraud for tax years 2016 through 2019. according to Biden’s lawyers appealed, but Judge Mark Scarci rejected the appeal and the trial is now scheduled to begin on June 20.
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