WILMINGTON, Del. — First son Hunter Biden had “lost the power of self-control” when he lied about his crack cocaine addiction to buy a gun in the fall of 2018, federal prosecutors told jurors in their closing argument Monday.
Prosecutor Leo Wise told the panelists in his summation that the government had proven a pattern of behavior by Hunter, now 54, that showed he was hooked on drugs beginning as far back as 2015 and continuing through at least 2019 — including through his own words to his loved ones.
“We see in these messages [Hunter] buying drugs, telling other people he was using drugs, and describing himself as an addict,” Wise said. “He had lost the power of self-control. That’s why he kept going to rehab. He couldn’t stop on his own.”
The Biden scion is charged with three felony counts connected to his claim on a gun application form that he didn’t use illegal drugs the day he walked out of a Wilmington gun store with a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver.
Prosecutors from special counsel David Weiss’ office are not required to prove Hunter Biden was high on the day of the purchase, Oct. 12, 2018, but only that he was addicted around that time.
“The evidence was personal. It was ugly, and it was overwhelming,” Wise said. “It was also absolutely necessary.”
During their arguments last week, prosecutors included audio excerpts from Hunter’s memoir “Beautiful Things” in which he described finding crack cocaine as his “superpower.”
Witnesses for the prosecution included Hunter’s ex-wife and two of his former girlfriends, one of whom recounted that he used the street drug “every 20 minutes.”
“The defendant used crack and was addicted to crack and knew he used crack and knew he was addicted to crack during the relevant time period,” Wise said.
“He didn’t use drugs by accident,” the prosecutor went on. “He knew he was using drugs and he knew he was addicted to drugs. Maybe if he’d never been to rehab, he could argue he didn’t know he was an addict.”
Hunter’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, has argued that his client didn’t knowingly lie about his addition when buying the gun — claiming instead that the first son was in a “deep state of denial.”
This is a developing story; refresh the page for updates.
