In a pre-trial hearing before Hunter Biden’s upcoming trial for gun charges in Delaware, a judge made crucial rulings determining the evidence that will be presented to the jury. The judge allowed contents from a laptop left at a repair shop by Hunter Biden as well as evidence of his drug use to be shown during the trial. Hunter Biden’s attorneys argued that some material on the laptop is not authentic, but prosecutors disagreed, stating that no evidence has been presented proving the material is fake. A computer repair shop owner provided the FBI with the laptop in 2019, and gave a copy of the data to Rudy Giuliani, who Hunter Biden sued last September for allegedly hacking data from the laptop. The lawsuit has not been resolved.
Special counsel David Weiss alleged that Hunter Biden unlawfully purchased and kept a revolver for 11 days, making false statements on a form claiming he was not an unlawful drug user. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the gun charges which were filed in Delaware. The judge ruled that prosecutors cannot mention Hunter Biden’s tax case in California, his child support case in Arkansas, or his discharge from the Navy during the trial. However, they are allowed to discuss how he paid for drugs. The trial is set to begin on June 3 after a federal appeals court rejected Hunter Biden’s bid to dismiss the charges based on claims of them being “unprecedented” and “unconstitutional.”
During the pre-trial hearing, Hunter Biden’s attorney raised issues regarding a discrepancy on the form that Hunter Biden signed when he purchased the gun, stating that new information was added to the digital version of the form after the criminal investigation began. The discrepancy raised questions about the credibility of the gun store employee and owner, and whether they filled out the form correctly. Prosecutors argued that the discrepancy was not relevant to the case. The trial is expected to include up to 12 witnesses for the prosecution and a handful for the defense, with the possibility of lasting about two weeks.
The judge’s rulings during the pre-trial conference were a mix of wins for both sides, allowing Hunter Biden’s attorneys to raise issues with the laptop evidence at trial while siding with prosecutors on the need to prove Hunter Biden’s drug use at the time of purchasing the gun. Prosecutors must show he was using or addicted to drugs around the time of the purchase. Some issues, such as potential testimony from Hunter Biden, were left undecided, as the judge stated she would need to see how the case progressed before making a decision. Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys did not rule out the possibility of him testifying in his own defense during the trial.
