Hunter Biden felony gun charges trial underway

By: Xerxes Wilson
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Esteban Parra
Bart Jansen
KinseyCroley
Rachel Barber
and Marina Pitofsky
USA Today and Delaware News Journal

WILINGTON, Delaware - "No one is above the law. It doesn't matter who you are or what your name is," prosecutor Derck Hines told the jury Tuesday [06/04/2024] in opening statements in Hunter Biden's felony gun trial.
..... The president's survivor so faces three felonies. he is charged with lying on a federal form that asked if he was addicted to drugs, lying to the gun dealer about his status as an addict and then possessing the gun for 11 days.
..... It is the first criminal case against an American president's child, starting just days after former President Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony.
..... The charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, thought Biden is likely to get a shorter sentence if convicted. One juror dropped out Tuesday [06/04/2024] for lack of transpiration to the courthouse.
..... As Biden's wife, half-sister, and first lady Jill Biden sat in the courtroom, Hines made the initial case for Justice Department special counsel David Weiss' team.
..... "Each day in courtrooms like this one, defendants from all walks of life are tried because of the choices they make, not the people they are," Hines said. "choices they made to break the law. This case is no different."
..... Hines said Gordon Cleveland, the Delaware gun dealer who sold Hunter Biden a .38-calibar revolver in 2018, will testify that he watched the president's son fill out a form stating he was not an unlawful drug user or addicted to controlled substances.
..... "What Mr. Cleveland didn't know was that Mr. Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden's brother Beau, will testify about his drug sue and her own, under a grant of immunity. She became a drug user but ceased using before October 2018, Hines said.
..... She was in a relationship with Hunter Biden at the time of the gun purchase. She told law enforcement she found a gun in his vehicle and threw it away outside a Delaware supermarket.
..... Prosecutors will also call Zoe Kestan, Hunter Biden's former girlfriend to discuss his frequent sue of crack cocaine, Hines said. Kestan also has a grant of immunity.
..... For the defense, Attorney Abbe Lowell emphatically told jurors that prosecutors can't prove his client knowingly lied on the gun form at the heart of the trial. "Hunter brought a small handgun. It was never loaded. He never sued it. It was thrown out 11 days later by the person he was dating at the time. Just 11 days later," Lowell said. "for this, three felonies."
..... Pounding the lectern, Lowell said nobody will dispute that Hunter Biden struggled with drug use. He has been open about this longtime struggles with crack cocaine addiction, writing about it in a 2021 memoir.
..... Prosecutors said his drug abuse occurred before, during and after the gun purchase. Lowell said much of the evidence prosecutors outlined deals with episodes well before or after the gun purchase in October 2018.

Contributing: Reuters

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