(Wilmington) In the small room of the federal court, the Biden clan stood tightly behind Hunter for this last day of trial. His second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. The one he calls “mom” and who raised him, first lady Jill Biden. His uncle Jim, the president’s little brother, of whom he is the identical compact version, and who dragged him from clinic to clinic. Plus a dozen family friends, generous with their hugs during breaks.
The jury set sail after an hour of deliberations, but everyone expects a verdict this Tuesday in this case, the impact of which is inversely proportional to the complexity.
Did Robert Hunter Biden knowingly lie about his use and addiction to crack cocaine when he purchased a Colt Cobra .38 revolver on October 12, 2018, here in Wilmington?
It is indeed a federal crime to lie on a gun purchase form about using an illegal drug. On the form, Biden Jr. answered “no” to the question. Two counts relate to this false statement.
The third charge involves possession of a firearm – prohibited for a drug addict.
This trial “like the others” takes place in a city where the station bears the name of the father of the accused, a tribute to the thousands of return trips of the ex-senator between the capital and his residence in Wilmington.
The “trivial” affair comes just as this father is trying to get re-elected as president of the United States – his portrait is displayed at the palace, as in all federal buildings. And it was an independent prosecutor who led the investigation and filed the charges. Let us add that the accused had agreed to “settle” the case last year by pleading guilty to this matter and a tax offense, but a judge rejected the agreement which granted immunity to Hunter Biden for any undiscovered crime.
Apart from these few details, it’s a completely normal trial…
Federal prosecutors told us again yesterday that the trial is not a drug case. “Addiction may not be a choice, but lying about it to buy a gun is,” Ms.e Leo Wise for the federal state.
Except that the five and a half days that the trial lasted focused almost entirely on the bottom of the crack barrel in which Hunter Biden was held for four years. Because to prove the lie in the form, it was necessary to prove drug addiction.
It’s no secret that the president’s son revealed (almost) everything about his “life of debauchery” in his memoirs in 2021.
What defense to present, then?
It’s all in the word “knowingly,” argued lawyer Abbe Lowell, hanging on the wire of not always reasonable doubt during two hours of pleading.
PHOTO HAIYUN JIANG, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, Monday
Of course, today, looking back, Hunter Biden “knows” he was a drug addict. He knew he had been in 2016, 2017 and even 2018. But in August, his uncle Jim had checked him into a rehab clinic. There is no definitive proof that on October 12 he was addicted to drugs, the defense lawyer said. Whereas at other times, it’s admitted, and there’s massive evidence: photos of his crack smoking equipment, photos of him smoking it, text messages, etc. And then, saying in a meeting “I am a drug addict”, it is not like on a form, it is not a legal position. What is an addict, anyway? The form doesn’t define it!
To this, state prosecutors counter that the law nowhere requires that the accused be frozen “the same day” of the purchase. Not even the week before. He must be aware that he is addicted to an illegal drug.
And there is indeed proof of Hunter’s very rapid and umpteenth relapse immediately after this treatment in August 2018, and his stay with a “sobriety coach”. His ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, said she saw him smoking crack on September 23 – 19 days before he bought the Colt. There are also his own text messages to Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, who died of cancer, with whom he had an affair. He writes to her in the middle of the night in October, says that he is not able to enter the house, that he is in the parking lot of a convenience store. And even that he sleeps “on his car smoking crack”. The day before the purchase, he said he was waiting for a guy named “Mookie”. It was often at the convenience store (7/11) that he made his transactions, as he often said.
The lawyer and lobbyist, who worked a lot professionally on the sidelines of political affairs, and therefore of his father, did not testify in his defense.
“Maybe he was at the convenience store to have a coffee while waiting for her to wake up, we have no proof, it’s pure conjecture,” argued his lawyer.
It wasn’t his best moment…
There is also that Hunter Biden withdrew $151,000 in cash between September and November 2018 from different ATMs.
“Who told us it was for drugs? Maybe it was for his detox, maybe it was renting his house in Malibu, or all sorts of other expenses,” M said.e Lowell, still balancing on his very thin wire.
The defense’s problem is that many of the “regular” payments that could account for these cash outflows end up in its official bank accounts.
“The central question,” said prosecutor Derek Heinz, “is this: Was he a drug addict? Did he know? We wouldn’t be here if he had just continued smoking crack every 15 minutes (as he writes in his book). We’re here because he lied about purchasing a dangerous firearm whose bullets expand when they hit a target. »
We should not make the connection between the two cases, which have no connection, but it turns out that the trial of Biden’s son ends 10 days after the conviction of Donald Trump. Their collision in the political calendar forces comparison, whether we like it or not.
In the case of Trump, it seems that we must emphasize it even if it is obvious, it is about his own actions as a politician, and not the escapades of his son.
Note that the Biden file at Justice was entrusted to an independent prosecutor, David Weiss, appointed under the Trump administration. Judging by the vigor of the two indictments yesterday, we do not seem to have given the president’s son any favors in this trial. However, the case was supposed to be closed last year, and without prison sentence. He will then have to face justice for a $400,000 tax case.
In an interview in France last week, the president announced that he does not intend to pardon his son.
If Hunter has benefited from his contacts and the value of the Biden name, so far, we have no proof of Joe’s interference in his son’s files, in business or in court.
Trump, for his part, announces a reform of the Department of Justice if he is elected and speaks of self-pardon (impossible in the New York case).
We will now see if the verdicts are similar…