Prosecutors rested their case against Hunter Biden in Delaware on Friday morning, paving the way for the first son to begin presenting his defense in a trial over felony gun charges.
The government’s case, led by special counsel David Weiss, included questioning 10 witnesses over four days and presenting pages of text messages, emails, and receipts. It also featured Biden’s own voice reading from his memoir about overcoming drug addiction.
Biden is facing charges that he lied on a federal form about his drug use to purchase a revolver in October 2018 and that he illegally possessed the gun for 11 days.
The form asked “are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to,” controlled substances, and Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is presiding over the case, ruled that the language on the form meant prosecutors did not have to prove Biden was using drugs on the exact day he filled out the form.
Prosecutors presented ample evidence of Biden’s drug use around the general time of the purchase, including two ex-girlfriends who testified that they witnessed him doing crack cocaine repeatedly in 2018, including in September 2018.
They also entered into evidence text messages of Biden texting one of them, Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother, about how he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie” and that he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack” within two days of purchasing the gun.
She also testified that when she found the gun in his truck, she found crack cocaine residue and drug paraphernalia with it.
The first son’s defense team sought to paint Hallie Biden’s memory as hazy, pointing out how there were certain details about times and sequences of events that she could not recall.
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His attorney Abbe Lowell established that the pair’s relationship was intense and complicated. Under cross-examination, she testified that he sometimes lied to her, undermining the credibility of his communication with her.
Lowell also emphasized repeatedly throughout the week that the form was written in the present tense and that addicts can often be in a state of denial, suggesting Hunter Biden thought he answered the gun form truthfully.
The trial will now flip to the defense to present its case, and Lowell previously indicated that he would call only a couple witnesses and could rest his case by the end of the day on Monday.
