Hunter Biden had been expected to be a key witness in his trial related to three gun felony charges, but his lawyers told the Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom Monday he won’t be testifying. The defense called his daughter Naomi Biden to the stand and she backed her dad’s sobriety efforts during testimony.
By contrast, the prosecution’s witness list included at least 10 names, including Biden’s ex-wife and former love interests, who painted a jarring picture of Biden’s rampant drug use before and around the time he purchased a firearm in October 2018.
He is facing three charges related to purchasing and possessing a gun for 11 days while allegedly being a drug user.
The defense rested its case on Monday morning. Judge Maryellen Noreika, presiding over Hunter Biden’s trial, is running a tight ship as the court proceedings moved to closing arguments after lunchtime.
As NBC News reported, Biden’s close circle showed up to court on the final day of arguments. His stepmother, first lady Jill Biden, his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden and his sister Ashley Biden appeared to support the president’s son nearly every day last week. On Monday, they were joined by a few others, including Biden’s friend Kevin Morris, his aunt Valerie Biden Owens and her husband, Jack Owens.
President Joe Biden has kept his distance from the courtroom. Last week, he was in France for the commemoration of D-Day. He arrived in Wilmington Sunday night and is headed to the White House Monday to deliver remarks at a Juneteenth concert.
After the defense rested its case, prosecutors called back FBI agent Erika Jensen to the stand for a rebuttal and presented text exchanges between Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden around the time he purchased the firearm. The conversations showed the president’s son discussing buying drugs from someone close to a 7-Eleven. The geolocation attached to the texts confirms he was by the convenience store.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell pressed the FBI agent about details, asking if other stores are located around the 7-Eleven and whether the location data could confirm when Biden was in the area. Jensen confirmed other stores exist in the area, and that they couldn’t verify the time of Biden’s visit to the 7-Eleven.
Closing remarks
The prosecution delivered closing arguments first. Attorney Leo Wise, started off boldly, saying “no one is above the law,” as he dissected each count Hunter Biden is charged with. The question at the heart of this trial is whether Biden was a drug addict when he bought his gun. According to The Daily Beast, Wise said, “The evidence was personal, it was ugly, it was overwhelming.”
“It was also absolutely necessary,” he added.
He noted Biden checked he wasn’t a drug user or addict on federal forms required for gun purchases. Wise recalled Hallie Biden’s testimony from last week, where she she said she threw away Hunter Biden’s firearm, and said there wasn’t any evidence the gun was in anyone else’s possession, as The Associated Press reported. Ultimately, it comes down to Hunter Biden’s “pattern of use.”
The defense pushed back, saying the evidence doesn’t indicate whether Biden took the gun out of its original lockbox before Hallie Biden tossed it away in a grocery store trash can. “On Oct. 23, Hallie did something incredibly stupid,” Lowell said. “She may have done it for love.” Or, he argued, she did it to seek revenge after suspecting Hunter Biden was involved with another woman, ABC News reported.
Lowell also argued the federal forms required Hunter Biden to answer in present tense about his drug use. He also downplayed Biden’s intention to buy a firearm, saying he decided to do so on a whim.
Hunter Biden faces another trial in California over an alleged failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were almost resolved last summer when Hunter Biden reached a plea deal with prosecutors, before that fell apart under scrutiny.