DRUGGIE IN DOPEY DEFENSE
But Delaware jury is Biden-friendly
ON the first day of his trial, Hunter Biden spoke to the jury . . . against himself. The prosecutors in his Wilmington gun trial read long excerpts from Hunter’s book on his long addiction to drugs and his self-proclaimed “superpower — finding crack anytime, anywhere.”
Listening to himself was the president’s son, whose counsel had just suggested that Hunter may have had a brief moment where he was drinking as opposed to snorting or smoking.
Accordingly, defense counsel Abbe Lowell suggested, Hunter did not “knowingly” deny that he was using drugs when he purchased a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver from the StarQuest Shooters and Survival Supply in Wilmington, Del.
Somehow the argument is that — for a brief moment on Oct. 12, 2018 — Hunter forgot that he was a superpowered junkie.
The problem is that the next prosecution witness is likely to be, again, Hunter Biden.
The day after he bought the gun, Hunter was texting a guy named “Mookie” to score drugs behind a minor league baseball stadium.
Mookie appears to have come through for Hunter since the next day (two days after denying that he used drugs), Hunter allegedly texted Hallie Biden that he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie.”
‘Smoking crack on 4th St.’
Then, two days after the gun purchase, Hunter texted, “I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney.” That corner appears less than a mile and half from the federal courthouse where Hunter is sitting. It is roughly 5 miles from the gun shop where he denied using drugs.
Hallie will also testify. She was the widow of Hunter’s deceased brother
and started an intimate relationship with Hunter after Beau’s death. She was also allegedly doing crack.
Yet when Hallie saw the gun in the console of Hunter’s car, she had the presence of mind to realize he was an unstable addict. She took the gun and threw it into a dumpster behind a restaurant.
The brutal start of the hearing raises the question — again — of why Hunter decided to go to trial. There is no viable defense.
The most that the defense can come up with is a claim that someone else may have completed the form, or that he had a moment of sobriety before heading off to meet Mookie.
In his book, Hunter describes an addiction that led him to smoke crack almost every 15 minutes. That would seem likely to come to mind when you are given a form asking “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug or any other controlled substance?”
Certainly his need for drugs was much on Hunter’s mind when he was texting Mookie. Indeed, not long after the purchase, the Biden family held an intervention at their Delaware home to deal with Hunter’s raging addiction.
These defenses are about as convincing as saying that your client got locked into the bank vault after losing his way to the restroom . . . hours after the bank closed.
First lady in audience
So why present unbelievable defenses in Wilmington? Because it is Wilmington. This is Biden’s hometown. The president maintains his residence in the city and remains the town’s favorite son.
As if the jury needed any reminder, First Lady Jill Biden sitting behind Hunter brings home that this is a Biden trial in Bidentown.
The combination of sympathy for a reformed addict and identification with the Bidens could be enough for a jury-nullification strategy. The defense is not asking the jury to consider the evidence. It is asking the jury to ignore it.
Every juror appeared to confirm knowing someone with a drug addiction, including siblings or other relatives.
Given that panel, Hunter could well take the stand to describe his addiction and lack of clarity of thought. Hunter’s book offers moving descriptions of his struggle with addiction and could sway some jurors, especially given the relatively minor criminal charges.
Wilmington for Biden is the opposite of Manhattan for Trump. This is a town that overwhelmingly voted for Biden in 2016 and 2020.
Viewed through a nullification defense, it does not matter how absurd the actual defense is.
It is merely a pretense. Whether it is sympathy for a drug addict or a Biden, the defense clearly hopes that the jury will look beyond the evidence and the crime in this case.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.