(CN) — Prosecutors opened their case against Hunter Biden on Tuesday by repeating the phrase sung widely by Donald Trump's critics following his guilty verdict last week: "No one is above the law."
Lead prosecutor Derek Hines chose those words to begin his courtroom address to around 10 a.m., adding, "It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is."
The president's son sat at the defense table as his mother, First Lady Jill Biden, his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, his sister Ashley Biden and a longtime supporter, Hollywood entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris, sat behind him in the gallery.
Hunter Biden faces three felony charges centering on a firearm prosecutors say he bought illegally in 2018. Two of those focus on the form he filled out when buying the gun: Prosecutors say he knowingly lied about his drug use and/or addiction when he answered "no" on the form.
Prosecutors plan to show text messages from shortly after that Oct. 12, 2018, purchase, that show Hunter Biden was continuing to use drugs, Hines said in his openings.
In addition to text messages, government will present photos of crack cocaine and paraphernalia taken by Hunter Biden, Hines said. He told the jury that Hunter Biden kept his revolver in a leather bag, which also contained crack cocaine, and had left the weapon in the center console of an unlocked Ford Raptor truck with the windows down.
FBI officials observed a white powdery substance on the leather bag, believed to be cocaine, during the investigation.
Hines said there is "overwhelming evidence" that Biden was aware of his addiction at the time, including a text message sent just over one month following his firearm purchase in which he calls himself a user and an addict.
In his own opening statement, Hunter Biden's lead attorney Abbe Lowell emphasized that a person who recovers from addiction to alcohol and drugs always calls themself an addict.
“I’m Abbe Lowell, and I’m an addict,” the veteran white-collar defense attorney told the court.
Lowell said Biden’s revolver was never loaded, and that it was left in a lockbox for 10 of the 11 days it was in Hunter Biden’s possession.
His defense preview relied heavily on the assertion that Biden himself did not knowingly make a false statement when filling out Form 4473 (the firearm form in question) because he was not using drugs at the time and had not yet come to terms with his drug use.
Hunter Biden came to terms with his drug use only later, when he met his current wife, Melissa Cohen, Lowell said. He noted that question No. 11E — about his drug use and/or status as an addict — is the only question on the form that reads in the present-tense: “are you?”
“It does not say ‘Have you ever been?’ It does not say, ‘Have you ever used?’” Lowell said.
Hunter Biden admits his history of drug use and having “succumbed” to the emotional turmoil of his sister’s, and later his brother’s, deaths, Lowell said. He always called himself an addict, the attorney said, even as he sought to become a recovering addict.
Lowell called any evidence of Biden’s drug use in the months or years surrounding his firearm purchase irrelevant. He said Hunter Biden's Uncle Jimmy — who partially paid for Hunter Biden’s drug rehabilitation at California-based center The View — will testify in his nephew's defense.
After Biden completed his stay at The View and returned to Delaware, Lowell said, Biden gave up drugs and alcohol. His time in Delaware surrounding the firearm purchase was not indicative of an active drug user, Lowell argued.
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