The first week of the Hunter Biden trial did not go well for Hunter’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell.
Hunter’s exes blew open a valley in the defense strategy, which led to Hunter’s attorneys scrambling to introduce late evidence, confusing the judge, the jury, and the witnesses.
Talking Points…
- Hunter’s defense
- Defense hit hard
- Analysis
The primary defense of Hunter Biden by attorney Abbe Lowell was that Hunter should have been able to own a gun because he was not using drugs at the time that he filled out the form. Hunter purchased the gun in October 2018, so the defense needed to prove that Hunter was clean at the time if he was to have any chance of using this to get out of the charges.
As the week progressed, Hunter’s exes took the stand, one by one outlining what Hunter was like when he was using. This even got to the point that some could not tell when Hunter was high because he had managed to cover up his use in front of family and friends, more or less being a functional addict.
The key to this defense, however, would be the testimony of Hallie Biden, who Hunter was involved with when he purchased the gun and it was discarded in a trash bin at a local supermarket. Hallie, Beau Biden’s widow, became romantically involved with Hunter less than a year after his death. Hunter introduced Hallie Biden to crack cocaine, a time she admits she is now ashamed of.
The defense was already reeling from the previous testimony, but Hallie Biden’s testimony more or less sunk the ship. Hallie could not confirm that she saw Hunter Biden using drugs during the window of the gun purchase, but what she testified was just as damaging.
For instance, she testified that on October 13, Hunter had texted her that he was waiting for a dealer named “Mookie.” Hunter had also text her that the reason he had not answered her calls was because he was sleeping on a car smoking crack. The defense responded that she had not seen Hunter smoking crack, so he could have just been making that up.
Hallie also testified how she regularly cleaned up Hunter’s truck when he came home to try to keep him sober. During that stretch of time, on multiple occasions, she found remnants of drugs in Hunter’s truck, but I guess we are to believe those remnants were from his friends, and Hunter was not using.
This led to Hunter’s defense team introducing a massive binder of communications between Hunter and Hallie Biden, allowing her to refer to the binder for the content of the text messages when she could not remember them. However, Lowell had not informed prosecutors of this data until roughly 11:00 p.m. the night before, and there was no key for Hallie to refer to. When Lowell tried to direct her to the right page for the text, at least twice, he gave her the wrong location, which confused the jury and the witness. The frustration by Judge Noreika was apparent, as she was not willing to sit there and wait while the defense got this all straightened out.
I am obviously not in the courtroom, but I have been reading every report on this trial, and the consensus is that it is not going well for Hunter Biden.
The prosecution has made the brilliant move of using Hunter Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” to call out many of the instances of drug use by Hunter Biden. Not only that, the defense strategy had been utterly gutted by Hunter’s text messages, as Lowell was selectively choosing when we should believe Hunter and when Hunter was lying.
Simply put, this has to be a guilty verdict, but the question then is if Hunter will do any jail time. I seriously doubt that will be the case unless Judge Noreika wants to make a statement by sending Hunter to jail for a few months. But, being a first-time offender, I don’t see that happening, nor do I see the DOJ being overly aggressive when making its sentence recommendation. As bad as all this is for Hunter, if he is found guilty, I suspect he will be given either probation or a small period of house arrest, along with some community service when all is said and done.
