Hunter Biden did not knowingly lie when he filled out a form to buy a gun in 2018 and checked a box contending that he wasn’t using drugs, his lawyer told a jury during opening statements on Tuesday for his trial in Delaware federal court.
“He didn’t knowingly violate the law,” Mr Biden’s lead defence lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told the jury as the unprecedented criminal trial for the son of a sitting president started. “The charges against Hunter are not minor. They are serious.”
Biden’s defence to a charge brought by special counsel David Weiss appears to hinge on a technical reading of the form when he answered “no” to a question about whether he was an active unlawful user of any controlled substance. Mr Lowell picked apart the definition on the form, saying the law prohibits someone who “is” using drugs and asks an applicant if they “are” using drugs.
The jury was selected Monday to decide the first of two criminal cases against the son of US president Joe Biden. Another trial on tax charges is scheduled for September in Los Angeles.
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The politically charged trial comes after the conviction of former president Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to an adult film star before the 2016 election. Both criminal cases are unprecedented and have the potential to add uncertainty to the expected 2024 presidential election face-off between Trump and the elder Biden.
[ Hunter Biden’s troubles cast shadow over his father’s re-election bidOpens in new window ]
Mr Lowell said the prosecution won’t be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what Hunter Biden’s state of mind was when he filled out the form. He said there’s no doubt that Biden (54), used drugs in the time before and after the purchase, but didn’t believe that he was lying on the day he bought the gun.
Prosecutors plan to present what they believe is a straightforward case.
“No one is above the law,” prosecutor Derek Hines said in his opening remarks. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is.”
The law does not require the prosecution to prove he was using drugs on the day he bought the gun, Mr Hines said.
“If he had told the truth about his addiction, he would not have been able to buy the gun,” Mr Hines said. “Addiction may not be a choice but lying when buying a gun is a choice.”
Mr Hines said evidence will show that Mr Biden continued to use drugs while he owned the gun until it was taken away from him by his ex-girlfriend 11 days later.
Some of the gun counts carry a prison term as long as 10 years, and another is punishable by as many as five, though judges rarely impose maximum sentences.
– Bloomberg