Lawyers are expected to begin interviewing Hunter Biden’s ex-partners on Wednesday to ask them to share vile facts of his life and the depths of his crack cocaine addiction as the government reaches its defense.
The test resumed at 9 a. m., with Mr. Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell attacking what he sees as a major weakness in the administration’s situation: The lack of documentary evidence, in the form of texts to drug traffickers or the prosecutor’s written records, that prove he was using medications at the exact time he bought a gun in October 2018.
lawyers turned over texts showing Hunter Biden’s desperate search for crack cocaine in the spring and summer of 2018 on Tuesday. A day later, in his mix- examination, Mr. Lowell was able to find an F. B. I. broker to say that none of the material covered his activity in the fall.
In his effort to prove that Mr. Biden lied about his drug use on a federal firearms program in 2018, the special counsel, David C. Weiss, has signaled that lawyers may visit Mr. Biden’s previous partner, Kathleen Buhle, who is locked in a yearslong fight with him over divorce payment. After nearly a quarter-century of marriage, the two divorced in 2017 and have three daughters.
Ms. Buhle is one of three women who can be expected to provide evidence of their interactions with Mr. Biden and his struggles with alcoholism and addiction. The remaining witnesses will include Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother, Beau, who is his onetime girlfriend, and Zoe Keston, who dated Mr. Biden from December 2017 to October 2018.
The presence of Mr. Biden’s family and friends, including his mother, Jill Biden, who appeared on Wednesday in a pink pantsuit, has underscored how the trial is all but certain to be a painful and personal ordeal for President Biden’s family.
Like Mr. Biden, Ms. Buhle published a memoir of her own in 2022, detailing the toll of Mr. Biden’s yearslong addiction.
Prosecutors have said that even after her divorce from Mr. Biden, Ms. Buhle often searched Mr. Biden’s cars and found drugs and drug- related paraphernalia.
” I also found a few crack pipes. In a text message to Mr. Biden in March 2018, Ms. Buhle wrote,” I took them out because our daughter was driving the car.”
Mr. Biden is accused of lying to a federal firearms dealer, fabricating a false claim on an application for federal firearms, and possessing an illegal firearm in October 2018.
If convicted, Mr. Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and$ 750, 000 in fines. However, nonviolent first-time offenders who have not been charged with using a weapon in a different crime are less likely to face serious prison sentences.
Almost all of the events outlined in the trial took place in 2018, when Joseph R. Biden Jr. left office.
On Tuesday, police played excerpts from the audiobook of Hunter Biden’s memoir to narrate his descent into addiction. Mr. Biden, the first lady, Jill Biden, and other family members sat in rapt attention as his disembodied voice began to describe his drug abuse.
When Mr. Biden filled out the federal firearms application claiming he was n’t an “unlawful user” of controlled substances, the government’s case turns on a relatively straightforward question. ” Addiction may not be a choice, but lying and buying a gun is a choice”, Derek Hines, a top deputy to Mr. Weiss, told jurors on Tuesday.
Mr. Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he would disprove the government’s core contention that Mr. Biden “knowingly” broke the law by answering “no” on a question asking applicants whether they were using drugs at the time they sought to purchase a gun.
The gun’s handling was made clear by Mr. Lowell. According to Mr. Lowell, he never loaded the gun, never removed it from its lock box in his truck, and never used it during the 11 days he owned it. The gun was discovered by his girlfriend at the time, Hallie Biden, who took it out of the box, put it in a pouch with drug residue, and threw it in a trash can at a nearby grocery store.
One of two trials that Mr. Biden will be facing this year is this one. The other, expected to begin in Los Angeles in September, centers on a series of tax offenses related to Mr. Biden’s failure to file returns for a number of years.
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