WILMINGTON, Delaware — Prosecutors began making their case against Hunter Biden at his gun trial on Tuesday by presenting the courtroom with the first son’s well-known laptop and showcasing photos and messages from it.
Biden’s chief defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, glanced at Judge Maryellen Noreika, with the silver laptop in view, and stated no objection to the government submitting it as evidence. However, Lowell also had the chance to present his arguments to the jury.
The jury, composed of 12 Delaware residents selected the day before, listened as both sides gave opening statements and questioned the first witness, FBI agent Erika Jensen.
Jensen confirmed the laptop’s authenticity and provided evidence from Biden’s computer data alongside excerpts from a memoir detailing his addiction struggles.
Biden, required to attend court daily, faces three felony charges. Special counsel David Weiss accuses him of lying about his drug use on a federal form to purchase a revolver and possessing the gun for 11 days.
Hunter Biden’s Actual Laptop
Government prosecutor Derek Hines surprised the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon by presenting Biden’s MacBook Pro and bringing it to the witness stand for Jensen to verify.
Jensen displayed the silver laptop, encased in clear plastic, for the entire courtroom to see. Hines then officially added it to the exhibit record and began examining substantial evidence from it with Jensen.
This significant moment follows years of scandalous headlines about the “laptop from hell.” These stories emerged when Republican operatives obtained Biden’s computer data and shared it with the media right before the 2020 presidential election.
Biden has never confirmed the laptop’s content’s authenticity and has filed a lawsuit against its principal disseminators, alleging the data was illegally accessed and manipulated. He may raise chain of custody issues during his trial.
Hines informed the court that the FBI subpoenaed the laptop from a repair shop in 2019 following a tip-off.
Jensen verified that some data on the laptop “sometimes” matched Biden’s iCloud backup data obtained from Apple through a subpoena. She confirmed it was Biden’s laptop as the serial number matched the subpoenaed data. Additionally, an email from the iCloud data showed an invoice for the laptop repair addressed to Biden, dated April 2019.
Cocaine on Leather Pouch
Hallie Biden, Hunter’s romantic partner at the time, is expected to testify later in the trial. She reportedly retrieved the revolver from Hunter Biden and placed it in a leather pouch “he used to store his crack cocaine,” according to Hines.
She will testify that she discarded the pouch in a grocery store trash bin.
Hines mentioned that a chemist might be called to testify about cocaine found on the pouch five years post-retrieval.
Lowell argued in his opening statement that the lab reports on the pouch would be flawed due to the government’s failure to test for fingerprints or any dating information.
“The evidence, like the pouch, will tell you nothing that supports the charge,” Lowell stated.
Cash Withdrawals
Prosecutors presented three months’ worth of Biden’s bank records, showing he withdrew an average of $50,000 per month in cash from September to October 2019.
On October 12, 2018, the day of the gun purchase, he withdrew $5,000.
During this period, Biden withdrew “hundreds and sometimes thousands” of dollars almost daily, behavior “consistent” with drug addiction, Hines remarked.
Hines also introduced a receipt from Biden’s gun store purchase, totaling $886.81. The items purchased included a Colt Cobra revolver, a BB gun, a box of ammunition, and a speedloader, all paid for in cash.
Evidence showed Biden frequented a rehab center in Los Angeles multiple times in August 2018. At the end of the day on Tuesday, Lowell began his cross-examination of Jensen, during which he suggested that Biden’s significant expenses included rehab visits, without directly addressing the cash withdrawals.
Did He Know He Was an Addict?
Biden’s acknowledgment of his addiction issues and the specific days of his drug use are already contentious points.
The defense highlighted the unpredictable nature of Biden’s addiction, noting how the evidence sometimes left open the question of whether he was using alcohol or drugs.
Lowell remarked in his opening statement that prosecutors “left out the word ‘knowingly’” in their description of the charges against Biden.
He suggested that addicts often experience “a deep state of denial,” implying that Biden may have believed he was truthful when he declared himself not a drug user or addict on the form.
Prosecutors must prove Biden committed the crimes “knowingly and with intent to deceive,” Lowell emphasized.
“They cannot do that,” he asserted.
Hines, on the other hand, promised jurors “overwhelming evidence” of Biden’s awareness level.
To support this, he highlighted months of Biden’s WhatsApp and text messages with Jensen, which referenced drug transactions in 2018 and early 2019.
During cross-examination, Lowell pointed out that prosecutors had meticulously introduced numerous messages but failed to indicate that some were exchanged in one-day bursts, such as 62 messages on a single day in February 2019.
Lowell noted that February was four months after the gun purchase, implying that prosecutors could not prove Biden was using drugs on the purchase day. Judge Noreika has ruled that the form’s language does not require proving drug use on the exact day.
Memoir
Biden’s 2021 memoir Beautiful Things might have complicated his defense. The memoir vividly describes his addiction to alcohol and crack over several years.
In the trial, Hines played excerpts from the audio version, with Biden’s voice broadcasted in the courtroom, making explicit admissions about his drug use. Prosecutors cross-referenced details from the memoir with Biden’s computer data.
Under cross-examination, Lowell clarified that Biden began writing his memoir in November 2019.
“It’s not a diary,” he noted, emphasizing that Biden wrote it retrospectively, not in real-time.
Witnesses on Deck
In his opening statement, Hines outlined the witnesses he plans to call during the trial.
Following Jensen, he intends to bring Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, ex-lovers Zoe Kestan and Hallie Biden, to the stand.
Hallie, who is Hunter Biden’s late brother Beau’s widow, had an “intense” relationship with him, Lowell indicated.
According to Lowell, Biden may have been dishonest with Hallie in text messages about his drug use, shown as evidence.
The former romantic partners are expected to fill in the timeline from fall 2018, Hines stated.
Hines also plans to call the gun salesman who sold Biden the gun, two policemen, the individual who found the gun in a trash bin, a Drug Enforcement Agency official, and possibly a chemist to discuss the pouch’s lab report.
Lowell has requested to call a toxicologist to challenge the lab report’s findings. It remains uncertain if Biden will testify in his defense.
