Historic criminal trial of Hunter Biden to probe drug addiction

WILMINGTON, Delaware — The criminal trial of Hunter Biden on gun charges kicks off next week, with federal prosecutors likely to dissect lurid details of his crack cocaine addiction that could provide fuel for opponents of his father’s presidential reelection bid.

Hunter Biden will be the first child of a sitting president to be a criminal defendant when jury selection begins on Monday, coming just days after another historic first: the criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

The son of President Joe Biden has pleaded not guilty to three federal criminal charges related to his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt revolver.

He was charged in September by U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee, with lying about his use of illegal drugs when he bought the handgun and with illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days in October 2018.

If convicted on all charges, Hunter Biden faces a maximum punishment of 25 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.

Republicans have spent years in vain trying to prove that Hunter Biden illegally profited off his father’s power. In September, he faces a separate federal criminal tax trial in Los Angeles, a case that was also brought by Weiss.

He has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.

Hunter Biden’s gun trial in the family’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, could last more than two weeks. Federal prosecutors have said in court filings they will present photos, testimony and messages to show that Hunter Biden was an illegal drug user around the time he bought the gun and failed to disclose that as required on a federal gun purchase form.

The government said it might call his ex-wife and solicit her testimony about incidents such as removing drugs from Hunter Biden’s car to protect their daughter.

Prosecutors also said they may use details gleaned from his phone, iCloud account and a laptop that he allegedly abandoned at a repair store, including photos of Hunter Biden smoking crack and texts arranging meetings with illegal drug dealers.

And they may use his own words against him.

“I was a crack addict,” he wrote in his 2021 autobiography “Beautiful Things,” which prosecutors said they may show the jury. “I had no plan beyond the moment-to-moment demands of the crack pipe.”