WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hunter Biden’s attorney told jurors during opening statements at the first son’s trial Tuesday that Biden was in denial about his drug addiction in 2018.
Abbe Lowell, who is leading Biden’s defense, argued his client could not be guilty of lying on a federal form about his addiction so that he could purchase a gun because Biden did not consider himself an addict at the time.
Prosecutors “left out the word ‘knowingly’” when they detailed Biden’s charges, Lowell said at the start of his presentation.
As Lowell spent the morning chipping away at various aspects of special counsel David Weiss’s charges, Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, first lady Jill Biden, first daughter Ashley Biden, and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris watched from the front row in the courtroom. It was the second day the foursome came to support Hunter Biden after they all attended jury selection one day prior.
Lowell made clear that his client’s alleged lack of knowledge and intent to commit the crimes he is facing would be pivotal to their defense. Knowledge and intent are “high standards,” Lowell said.
Weiss alleged Hunter Biden, who has said he became clean in 2019 after years of drug and alcohol abuse, violated the law by lying on the form to buy a revolver from a Wilmington gun shop on Oct. 12, 2018.
The form asked, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, controlled substances?”
Lowell argued the government could prove neither that Hunter Biden was a drug user on the day of the purchase nor an addict. He repeatedly emphasized the present tense of the question.
“It most clearly uses the word ‘are,’” Lowell said of the form.
He also said a feature of addicts is they are often in a “deep state of denial.”
Lowell said he expects evidence to show Hunter Biden was across the street buying a cellphone when he decided, impulsively, to walk into the gun shop. Lowell said the gun store owner, who will testify later in the trial, encouraged Hunter Biden to purchase the Colt Cobra 38 Special, along with a speed loader and full metal jacket ammunition.
During the 11 days that Weiss alleged Biden illegally owned the gun, Lowell said, “It was never loaded.”
“He never used it,” the attorney said.
Lowell noted the gun stayed stored away in a lockbox until Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend and his late brother Beau’s widow, took it and disposed of it in a public trash bin. Hallie Biden is among the women of the first son’s past who are set to testify later in the trial.
Derek Hines delivered the opening statement for the government’s side. Hines said evidence from Hunter Biden’s memoir, the audio version of which Hunter Biden read in his own voice, proved he was aware of his addiction.
Hunter Biden had an “active addiction” and was “shaking every 15 minutes, seven days a week,” Hines said, noting that “those were his words.”
“The law does not require us to prove he was using drugs on that very day” that he purchased the gun, Hines said, a point that conflicts with the defense’s position.
But, Hines added, prosecutors will still show “overwhelming evidence” that Hunter Biden knew he was an addict when he filled out the form.
Hines also appealed to several jurors who said during jury selection they had friends or relatives who suffered from substance abuse problems.
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“Addiction is not a choice, but lying and buying a gun is a choice,” the prosecutor said.
After opening statements, the prosecution introduced its first witness, FBI agent Erika Jensen, to confirm parts of Hunter Biden’s memoir and various messages pulled from Hunter Biden’s computer data. Jensen was still testifying into Tuesday afternoon.
