Prosecution expected to rest case in Hunter Biden's gun trial

[June 06, 2024]  By Jack Queen and Tom Hals
 
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - Prosecutors are expected to rest their case against President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden on Thursday, after presenting evidence aimed at showing that he lied about his drug use to illegally buy a gun in 2018.

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, holds a copy of his memoir "Beautiful Things" as he and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden depart the federal court during his trial on criminal gun charges, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., June 5, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/ File Photo

The jury in the first criminal trial of a U.S. president's child has heard testimony from witnesses including his ex-wife and a former girlfriend about 54-year-old Hunter Biden's past prolific drug use, which he has publicly acknowledged.

Federal prosecutor Derek Hines said the government could call its last witness on Thursday. Hunter Biden and his attorneys have not said if he will testify in his own defense, a risky move that most criminal defendants avoid because they expose themselves to questions from prosecutors.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought the gun in October 2018 and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.

He told the judge in the case at a 2023 hearing that he had been sober since 2019.

Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell told jurors during opening statements that Biden was not using drugs when he purchased the gun and did not intend to deceive because he did not see himself as a drug user at the time.

The trial in Wilmington, Delaware, federal court follows another historic first - last week's criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be found guilty of a felony. Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election.

On Wednesday, jurors heard that Hunter Biden would prepare crack at the ritzy Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles or spend days in hotel rooms getting high in the months before his 2018 gun purchase, according to his former girlfriend.

"He would want to smoke as soon as he woke up," Zoe Kestan told jurors, as she described meetings with a "scary" drug dealer and hunting for instructions on the internet to cook powder cocaine into crack.

Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhele briefly testified about finding crack pipes and drugs in their home and in Hunter Biden's cars before they split up in 2017.

Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s late son Beau Biden, is also set to testify about Hunter Biden’s drug use.

(Reporting by Jack Queen and Tom Hals; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)

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