Hunter Biden gun trial live updates: Ex-wife set to testify about his addiction before purchasing gun

Proceedings will resume at the J Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware today where defense attorneys are expected to continue cross-examination of FBI agent Erika Jensen.

If the defense finishes cross-examination, prosecutors will move to introduce and question their next witness: Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.

The prosecution and the defense in the Hunter Biden trial on federal gun charges agree on one thing: The president’s son struggled with substance use disorder.

What’s disputed is whether he was an active drug user when he bought a gun in Wilmington, Delaware on 12 October 2018.

The prosecution used extensive excerpts from Biden’s 2021 memoir Beautiful Things to argue that he was. The defense says he didn’t knowingly break the law as Biden didn’t consider himself an active user at the time.

Hunter Biden’s entourage exceeded a dozen people, including First Lady Jill Biden, half-sister Ashley Biden, and close friend and financial benefactor Kevin Morris.

Gustaf Kilander is reporting from Wilmington, Delaware

Prosecutors will rely on Hunter Biden’s memoir to make the case that he was a drug user when he bought a handgun at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply store in Wilmington on 12 October 2018.

While Biden didn’t mention buying a firearm in his memoir, Beautiful Things, he did outline his drug use. Prosecutors have called the book “incriminating.”

The prosecution has suggested that they possibly plan on attempting to prove that Biden used illegal drugs by pointing to text message she sent at the time.

A number of those text messages came from an iCloud account, that prosecutors got access to via a subpoena, and others were sourced from a laptop that Biden is reported to have left at a repair shop and never returned to collect.

Biden and some in his orbit have stated for years that material from the laptop cannot be presumed to be authentic. Operatives backing former president Donald Trump have publicized material from the laptop as part of their attacks on President Biden.

Allies of Hunter Biden have said that some of the material shared from the laptop has been altered or distorted and they have also never confirmed that Hunter Biden ever dropped anything off at a repair shop.

District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, 57, was initially assigned to the case, brought by special counsel David Weiss, back in June 2023.

At the time, the president’s son was expected to take a plea deal after striking an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser tax charges and avoid the gun charges altogether.

But the federal judge was thrust into the spotlight when she suddenly rejected the deal in the 11th hour – calling it “not standard.”

Judge Noreika’s decision caused Biden’s cases to be split, leading to a three-count indictment on gun-related charges in Delaware and a nine-count indictment on federal tax charges in Los Angeles.

Now, the judge continues to preside over Biden’s case in Delaware where he is accused of lying about his previous drug use on a federal firearm purchasing form.

Hunter Biden’s sister, Ashley Biden, appeared to leave the courtroom in tears on Tuesday as jurors heard lengthy details about his prior drug use.

Ashley Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were among more than a dozen family members and friends who showed up to support the president’s son on the first day of his trial in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden is accused of lying on a federal firearm form about his prior drug use in order to unlawfully obtain a handgun in October 2018.

Ariana Baio and Gustaf Kilander report:

During opening statements, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell told jurors that Biden never loaded the revolver he purchased and kept it in a locked box – insinuating he handled the firearm responsibly.

Rather it was Hallie Biden, Beau Biden’s widow whom Hunter dated briefly, who put the gun in a bag and discarded it into a dumpster behind a grocery store.

“Hunter put the gun in the locked box of the Ford Truck,” Lowell said. “Hallie put it in the bag.”

Calling her “insane,” he asked her to say if she took the handgun that the defense said was located in a lockbox in Biden’s Ford pickup truck.

“This is no game. And you’re being totally irresponsible and unhinged,” Biden wrote.

“Did you take that from me, Hallie?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, I just want you to be safe, this is not safe,” she said.

A seemingly relaxed Biden was seen laughing with defense attorney Abbe Lowell before the proceedings began in the wooded courtroom in downtown Wilmington on Tuesday.

FBI agent Erika Jensen testified under cross-examination that Hunter Biden did not use drugs, or crack cocaine, continuously during the period when he would have purchased the firearm.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell refused the prosecutor’s previous claim that Biden was in “active” addiction from 2015 to 2019 – something Biden mentions in his memoir.

But Jensen said she “didn’t get the sense” that was necessarily true and there were stretches of time Biden did not use crack cocaine.