Former DOJ official says it’ll be ‘tough’ for Hunter Biden defense to convince jury of his innocence

Former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tom Dupree said Hunter Biden’s argument that he did not believe he was a drug addict when he purchased a gun will be challenging to get a jury to believe.

Biden is facing three federal gun charges brought by Special Counsel David Weiss in September, which include providing false statements and knowingly possessing a gun while being addicted to drugs. Dupree on “CNN News Central” said Biden’s defense strategy to deny his knowledge he was a drug addict poses challenges because of the evidence against him.

WATCH:

“I think that is going to be a critical point in this trial, and I strongly suspect that’s actually going to be the primary defense that we hear from Hunter Biden’s team,” Dupree said. “What they are going to argue is that even if he was abusing drugs at the time, he thought genuinely, in their view, that maybe he wasn’t addicted to drugs, maybe he wasn’t abusing them. And so, therefore, he can’t be held criminally accountable for checking the box ‘no on the federal form.”

“I think it‘s a tough argument for the jury. I don’t know if the defense has a whole lot of other options available to it,” he continued. “This may be the best they can do, but I think it’s going to be tough persuading the jury that well when he checked a box, he didn’t really realize that he was abusing drugs at the time.”

Prosecutors obtained some messages and material from Biden’s abandoned laptop, showing it to the jury that was selected on Monday as evidence of his drug use around the period of the gun purchase in 2018, according to CNN.

Criminal defense attorney Bernarda Villalona had suggested Biden plead guilty on Monday, asserting Weiss’ evidence against him is “strong.” She also offered advice based on the potential jail sentence the president’s son could face if convicted, claiming a guilty plea may be his “best” course of action to evade incarceration.

Biden also faces nine federal tax charges, including tax evasion and tax fraud for tax years 2016 through 2019, according to the indictment against him. Biden’s attorneys appealed the case, but Judge Mark Scarsi rejected it, with the trial scheduled to commence on June 20.

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