{"id":2255544,"date":"2024-05-30T07:25:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T11:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/son-of-a-gun-hunter-biden-to-fight-felony-firearm-charges-in-delaware-trial\/"},"modified":"2024-05-30T07:32:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T11:32:41","slug":"son-of-a-gun-hunter-biden-to-fight-felony-firearm-charges-in-delaware-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/son-of-a-gun-hunter-biden-to-fight-felony-firearm-charges-in-delaware-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Biden is set to battle felony firearm charges in Delaware trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fson-of-a-gun-hunter-biden-to-fight-felony-firearm-charges-in-delaware-trial%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2255544&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Hunter Biden faces trial on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-doj-mulling-charges-for-hunter-biden\/\" title=\"REPORT: DOJ Mulling Charges For Hunter Biden\">gun-related charges<\/a> amid GOP scrutiny over his foreign dealings and lingering questions about preferential treatment. \u200dProsecutors aim to delve into \u2064personal and addiction \u2064issues, highlighting drug \u2062use challenges. The trial, featuring personal testimonies and digital evidence, could influence gun rights discussions. Joe Biden&#8217;s unexpected visits have\u200c sparked controversy, adding complexity to the legal saga.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>Hunter Biden will stand trial next week on gun-related charges just as the GOP\u2019s effort to untangle his web of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/son-of-a-gun-the-hunter-biden-cases-that-never-were\/\" title=\"Hunter Biden: The Unfounded Accusations\">foreign moneymaking fizzles<\/a> out. While the political will to impeach President Joe Biden over any involvement in his family\u2019s influence peddling has all but disappeared, the belief that the Justice Department gave Hunter Biden favorable treatment has not. In this series, the <\/em>Washington Examiner<em> will look at where the saga stands on the eve of his first trial. Part 3 previews what to expect during the gun trial. Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3017475\/son-of-a-gun-the-hunter-biden-cases-that-never-were\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>part 1<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3020354\/son-of-a-gun-joe-biden-impeachment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>part 2<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hunter-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Hunter Biden\">Hunter Biden<\/a> is set to appear as a defendant in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/delaware\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Hunter Biden\">Delaware<\/a> next week in what could be a short but sensational trial featuring the son of a Democratic president advocating his gun rights while facing his exes and questions about his past addiction to crack.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s defense team has indicated in court filings that it plans to showcase the nuances of drug addiction at the trial as a jury weighs charges that the first son lied about his addiction in 2018 to purchase a revolver.<\/p>\n<p>Special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the prosecution, has alleged that Biden committed three felonies surrounding the purchase: lying on a federal form about his drug use, allowing the form to exist as a federal record, and possessing the firearm for 11 days while he was a drug user.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Hunter Biden departs after a court appearance, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prosecutors plan to get deeply personal to prove their case, according to court filings.<\/p>\n<p>They plan to call on Biden\u2019s ex-wife and ex-girlfriends as witnesses. They also plan to enter into evidence excerpts from Biden\u2019s memoir about his struggles with substance abuse, as well as messages and photos from numerous iterations of his computer data, widely referenced in media under the umbrella term \u201claptop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barring parties reaching an eleventh-hour plea deal or Biden successfully convincing the judge to grant a late-stage trial postponement, the trial will begin with jury selection on Monday. Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is presiding over the case, estimated the trial could last up to two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Below is a look at what to expect during it.<\/p>\n<h2>Drugs and romance<\/h2>\n<p>Prosecutors revealed this year that after Biden was charged last September, investigators tested white residue they found on his leather gun pouch and that the substance was cocaine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be clear, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/special-counsel-rips-hunter-biden-attempt-to-dismiss-gun-charges-we-found-drugs-on-his-gun-pouch\/\" title=\"Special Counsel finds drugs on Hunter Biden's gun pouch, dismisses attempt to drop charges\">investigators literally found drugs<\/a> on the pouch where the defendant had kept his gun,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s defense attorneys aggressively pointed to flaws with that evidence, but prosecutors have doubled down on it and said they plan to bring in a witness at trial to verify the lab results.<\/p>\n<p>If the cocaine is not convincing enough to a jury, though, prosecutors\u2019 evidence of Biden\u2019s drug use goes beyond the post-indictment powder discovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe evidence will be overwhelming that he was a drug user and addict and that he was therefore not honest when he completed the form to purchase the firearm,\u201d former U.S. Attorney John Fishwick of Virginia predicted to the <em>Washington Examiner.<\/em> \u201cAlthough folks are sympathetic to addiction, it will be difficult for Hunter Biden to argue he did not know what he was doing when he completed the form to purchase a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden has said he grappled for most of his life with drug and alcohol addiction and that he became sober in mid-2019. The gun purchase at the center of his charges took place on Oct. 12, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors have said that they plan to present the jury with numerous damning excerpts from Biden\u2019s memoir <em>Beautiful Things<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the book, the first son shares vivid details about his desperation for crack, including in the months before and after the gun purchase. In early 2019, for example, he wrote that he had \u201cno plan beyond the moment-to-moment demands of the crack pipe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis book is replete with admissions that establish he knew he was an addict and knew he was using crack cocaine throughout 2018, including in October 2018 when he purchased and possessed the gun,\u201d prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n<p>They also plan to introduce messages and photos they extracted from Biden\u2019s digital data, including from the hard drive of a laptop he left at a repair shop and from his iCloud accounts, to make their point further.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney,\u201d Biden wrote in one message on Oct. 14, 2018, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Photo from Hunter Biden\u2019s iCloud data, according to the Department of Justice. (DOJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Additionally, prosecutors have found that some of the best firsthand witnesses to Biden\u2019s addiction battles are his past love interests.<\/p>\n<p>They <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3011512\/hunter-biden-exes-felony-gun-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>said<\/a> they plan to call to the witness stand Biden\u2019s ex-wife,\u00a0Kathleen Buhle; an Arkansas woman named\u00a0Lunden Roberts with whom Biden has a daughter; and his late brother Beau Biden\u2019s widow, Hallie Biden, whom he dated after Beau died of brain cancer.<\/p>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Joe Biden\">Joe Biden<\/a>, for his part, has been largely silent about his son\u2019s upcoming trial, but he raised eyebrows when he visited Hallie Biden over Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors have said Hunter Biden was romantically involved with Hallie during the alleged gun purchase and that she will testify that she disposed of the firearm in a public trash can.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Biden\u2019s surprise visit to his daughter-in-law\u2019s home on Monday evening prompted critics, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), to accuse the president of witness tampering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know the frequency with which Joe Biden visits other members of the family, and many presidents do that,\u201d Cruz said Wednesday on his podcast. \u201cWhat they don\u2019t do with great frequency is do it \u2026 when you\u2019re meeting with a key witness who is about to testify in the trial against your son. That is a dramatically different context, and it raises obvious questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the accusation in a press conference, saying the visit was because of the upcoming anniversary of Beau Biden\u2019s death and unrelated to her anticipated testimony.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Clean vehicle\u2019 to push gun rights<\/h2>\n<p>Hunter Biden sought to dismiss his charges in the lead-up to the trial, saying the accusation that he illegally possessed a gun while addicted to drugs was incompatible with the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>The district and appellate court both denied his request, ruling that it was premature and that he could argue it again later once the merits of his case were established at trial.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s attorneys have persisted with the Second Amendment claims in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bronx-daycare-owner-allegedly-deleted-over-21k-texts-after-infant-opioid-death\/\" title=\"Bronx daycare owner accused of erasing 21k texts following infant opioid fatality.\">recent court documents<\/a> in a sign that they plan to shape their defense around it.<\/p>\n<p>They have demanded more tailored definitions of \u201cuser of controlled substances\u201d and \u201caddict.\u201d They have called for Noreika, a Donald Trump appointee, to raise the threshold prosecutors must meet to prove exactly when Hunter Biden was on drugs. They have also emphasized their perspective that the gun possession statute in question requires prosecutors to prove that the first son was \u201csimultaneously armed and actively intoxicated\u201d and that he in some way jeopardized the safety of others with the weapon. Weiss \u201ccannot meet that burden,\u201d the attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter Biden\u2019s case is taking place in the aftermath of a \u201csea change\u201d in gun regulation, as his attorneys put it. The change can largely be attributed to <em>New York State Rifle &#038; Pistol Association v. Bruen<\/em>, a Supreme Court decision in June 2022 that relaxed gun regulations and effectively opened the door for defendants such as Hunter Biden to claim they were lawfully armed despite their controversial circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter Biden\u2019s Second Amendment arguments have created an awkward scenario for Joe Biden, a proponent of stricter gun laws. The president responded to <em>Bruen<\/em> at the time by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2022\/06\/23\/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-supreme-court-ruling-on-guns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>saying<\/a> it should \u201cdeeply trouble us all.\u201d Now it could save his son from a felony conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Swearer, a Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow, said the national attention Joe Biden brings to his son\u2019s case, coupled with the high-powered lawyers working on it, such as Hunter Biden\u2019s lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell, creates a unique opportunity for Second Amendment advocates.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Hunter Biden, left, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O\u2019Neill House Office Building for a closed-door deposition in a Republican-led investigation into the Biden family, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is set up to be one of the high-profile Second Amendment cases of the next year or two,\u201d Swearer told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>If Hunter Biden is convicted, he could raise his claim with an appellate court that his charges were unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is actually a really good vehicle in a really unique way because you have someone who wasn\u2019t picked up for a bunch of other charges,\u201d Swearer said. \u201cHe just sort of admits very publicly, \u2018Oh, you know, I was using drugs that whole time,\u2019 and so it creates this weirdly clean vehicle for challenging the statute in a way that is not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Evidentiary challenges<\/h2>\n<p>Hunter Biden\u2019s defense attorneys plan to attempt to discredit the cocaine finding on the leather gun pouch and the claim that the first son knew he was a drug addict in October 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The first son\u2019s yearslong efforts to ignore, deny, or otherwise combat the prolific and salacious headlines that stemmed from operatives obtaining his laptop hard drive in 2020 will also come to a head at the trial, as his attorneys plan to dispute the authenticity of the data.<\/p>\n<p>His attorneys have identified two expert witnesses, a forensic toxicologist and a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction, whom they plan to call to the stand to testify.<\/p>\n<p>The toxicologist will raise chain of custody concerns because the leather pouch was found abandoned in a trash can and the drug test was not performed until October 2023, five years after it was found and a month after Hunter Biden was charged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe evidence was held, touched, and controlled by others before the government obtained it from a trash collector\u201d and \u201cthere is no dating history whatsoever,\u201d Hunter Biden\u2019s attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The psychiatrist is expected to testify that addicts commonly are in a \u201cstate of denial\u201d about their addiction to suggest that the first son thought his gun form responses in 2018 were truthful.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As for the computer data, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooter-sentenced-to-death-by-jury\/\" title=\"Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Receives Death Sentence\">defense attorneys requested<\/a> at a recent hearing that they be permitted to raise questions about the authenticity of it at trial, and Noreika said she would allow them to do so. She warned, though, that it could lengthen the duration of the trial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefense counsel has numerous reasons to believe the data had been altered and compromised before investigators obtained the electronic material from Apple Inc. and The Mac Shop, such that the Special Counsel\u2019s claim that the underlying data is \u2018authentic\u2019 \u2026 is mistaken,\u201d the attorneys wrote in a filing.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Next week, Hunter Biden faces trial for gun-related charges while GOP&#8217;s scrutiny on his foreign dealings weakens. The push to impeach President Joe Biden over family influence has waned. Questions persist about Justice Department&#8217;s treatment of Hunter Biden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2255545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24145650700943-1-1024x682.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24145650700943-1-1024x682.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2255545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}