Special counsel David Weiss plans to introduce Hunter Biden’s laptop as evidence against him at his upcoming trial on felony gun charges. The laptop is at the center of a legal and political saga dating back to the 2020 election, with Republican officials and right-wing outlets using the embarrassing emails and images to attack Biden. Prosecutors have asserted that the laptop is real and contains significant evidence of Biden’s guilt, and Weiss plans to use it to support his claim that Biden was addicted to illegal drugs when he purchased a gun in 2018 in violation of federal law. Biden has pleaded not guilty to three gun crimes, and the trial is set to begin on June 3 in Delaware.
In response to Weiss’s intention to introduce the laptop as evidence, Hunter Biden’s lawyers have expressed their desire to contest the authenticity of the materials on the laptop. They have raised concerns that the data may have been altered and compromised before investigators obtained it, citing the actions of the repair shop owner where Biden dropped off the laptop in 2019. The shop owner admitted to accessing sensitive material in the data and potentially tampering with it before the FBI seized the device. Prosecutors have countered these claims by stating that the messages exchanged with Biden on the laptop will be supported by testimony from individuals and that the laptop materials are just a fraction of the digital evidence collected against Biden, including messages subpoenaed from Apple.
Since 2020, material from the laptop has been published in various media outlets, including sexually explicit videos of Biden with women, photos of him doing drugs in hotel rooms, emails, and financial records related to overseas business dealings in China, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Weiss’s team has emphasized that the evidence in the case is reliable and authentic, discrediting the defense’s theory about the laptop as a conspiracy with no supporting evidence. They have also requested the judge to reject several expert witnesses Hunter Biden intends to call at trial, including a clinical researcher focused on addiction treatment, arguing that this testimony would be an attempt to substitute the defendant’s testimony.
Prosecutors have raised objections to the defense calling a forensic toxicologist to undercut evidence regarding alleged cocaine residue found on Biden’s gun pouch, as well as an expert on handwritten signatures. Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is presiding over the case, has yet to rule on these pretrial motions regarding expert witnesses and how the laptop evidence can be presented in front of the jury. The mental state of Hunter Biden is a key issue in the case, with allegations that he knowingly made false statements while purchasing a firearm as a user of illegal drugs. Whether Biden will testify in his own defense remains uncertain, and the prosecution maintains that expert testimony on these matters should not be allowed in a criminal trial.
