WILMINGTON, Del - Hunter Biden did not take the stand, but the jury heard him loud and clear.
They listened to a recording of the president’s son as he narrated an unvarnished account of his life as an alcoholic and a drug addict.
“I’ve bought crack cocaine on the streets of Washington, D.C. and cooked up my own inside a hotel bungalow in Los Angeles,” Biden’s voice filled a courtroom in Delaware on Tuesday, where he is being tried on federal firearms charges. “I’ve been so desperate for a drink that I couldn’t make the one-block walk between a liquor store and my apartment without uncapping the bottle to take a swig.”
But it was precisely his brutal honesty which was being used to prove him a liar by federal prosecutor Derek Hines, who played an excerpt from Biden's audiobook memoir, "Beautiful Things." The book is written and narrated by Biden himself.
Hines was making the case that Biden lied on a federal background form when he bought a gun in 2018 by not checking the box asking if he was “addicted to or an unlawful user of controlled substances.” The book, published in 2021, details his struggle over a four-year period of “active addiction,” after his brother Beau Biden’s death of cancer, his failed 24-year marriage and his romantic relationship with Beau’s widow.
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In his opening remarks to the jury, Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said addicts are often in “deep state of denial” of their drug use and that Biden did not “knowingly” lie on the form. He also talked about how after losing his mother and sister in a car crash at a young age and later, his brother to cancer, Biden had “succumbed” to the “trauma” and found an escape in drugs and alcohol.
The surreal, history-making courtroom drama was brought into sharp relief as First lady Jill Biden, dressed in a pistachio-colored skirt suit set, returned for Day 2 of the proceedings. Like the day before, she sat in the front row with her daughter Ashley and Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, often hugging and consoling the two women by her side.
“No one is above the law,” Hines began with his opening remarks to the Delaware jury. “The law makes no distinction for Hunter Biden.”
Witnesses for the prosecution will include Kathleen Buhle, Biden’s ex-wife, and Hallie Biden, his brother’s widow with whom he was romantically involved.
Back in 2018, as Hunter was in and out of rehab, Hallie discovered a Colt Cobra .38 handgun in his truck and “freaked out.” She took the gun to a local grocery store’s trash can, fearing for Hunter’s safety. When Hunter realized what she had done, he sent her back to retrieve it. The ensuing chain of events got the police involved and the incident became a matter of public record.
Hallie is also expected to testify for the defense on getting hooked on crack, a habit she was introduced to by Hunter, according to Hines. The Biden trial rivals former President Trump's courtroom drama which ended last week with a guilty verdict, in its salacious details.
In March 2019, some six months after Hunter became enmeshed in the gun drama, he left for Los Angeles, according to the memoir.
“My first call off the plane was to a drug connection,” Biden narrates in his audiobook as the jury listens. “I took an Uber to my car, which I’d stored in the garage of someone who managed a place I had stayed at. I went straight from there to pick up some crack.”
The first lady and her daughter, who become emotional during some of the audio readings, were not present in the courtroom during the second half of the proceedings. Cohen Biden -- whom Hunter married in 2019 and who is credited with helping him finally kick the habit -- was seen shaking her head at many points expressing strong disagreement with the characterization of events by Hines.
In the afternoon, Jill Biden was off to host the Congressional picnic with the president at the White House and is expected to join him as he travels to France to mark D-Day and participate in other engagements.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY.You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SwapnaVenugopal
