Hunter Biden (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite), special counsel David Weiss (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
After Hunter Biden’s appeal of a judge’s refusal to toss out his Delaware gun indictment flopped, the Special Counsel’s Office has responded with a slew of pre-trial motions, including one that seeks to use book “admissions” about drug use against President Joe Biden’s son at trial.
Special counsel David Weiss and his prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika to allow Hunter Biden’s book and audio book “Beautiful Things,” and the “admissions” therein, to be used as evidence that he falsely “certified” to the ATF that he was not an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs and that he unlawfully possessed a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver from Oct. 12, 2018 to Oct. 23, 2018 — for 11 days — while “knowing” he was an addict.
Weiss attached as an exhibit the portions of Biden’s book that government wants in evidence. At the same time, the special counsel argued that Biden should not be allowed to use “self-serving and irrelevant statements from other portions of the book and audiobook” that Weiss did not cite in his exhibit.
The motion in limine pointed out that Biden write at length about being addicted to crack during the time period of the charged offenses.
“In Chapter 11 of his book,” Weiss explained, “the defendant admitted that he was actively addicted to crack cocaine between 2015 and 2019.”
“The government has identified excerpts from the book in which the defendant makes statements that evidence his addiction. These excerpts include his admissions during a 2.5-year period between the fall of 2016 and spring of 2019 (which is within the four-year period he identified as being an active addict),” he added. “The excerpts include his return to Delaware in October 2018 (when he purchased the firearm as alleged in the indictment) and his admission that: ‘I hardly went anywhere now, except to buy. It was me and a crack pipe in a Super 8, not knowing which the fuck way was up. All my energy revolved around smoking drugs and making arrangements to buy drugs—feeding the beast.””
The exhibit included images of the portions of the book that the prosecution identified as relevant and admissible evidence.
“Beautiful Things” book excerpt cited by Hunter Biden prosecutors (via court docs)
Weiss said that because Biden has already agreed he wrote those words and spoke them on his audio book, Noreika should “find that the government has satisfied the ‘slight’ burden for authentication.” He also asked the judge to conclude that the book excerpts are, therefore, admissible — unlike other parts of the book.
“The excerpts identified in Exhibit 1 are not hearsay because the defendant made the statements and those statements are being offered against him,” Weiss said. “The excerpts are relevant to the charges in this case because his admissions show his addiction and drug use and have a tendency to make the fact that he was an addict and user more probable than it would be without the evidence.”
“Moreover, the fact that he was addicted to crack between the fall of 2016 and the spring of 2019 is a fact of consequence relevant to all three charges in the indictment,” he added, arguing that the evidence is more probative than prejudicial.
The special counsel otherwise filled the docket with motions in favor of preventing Biden’s defense from exploring several avenues of attack at trial.
Weiss argued the defense should not be able to argue that the case is unconstitutional, should not be allowed to bring up Biden’s “potential punishment, plea negotiations” and the “diversion agreement” that fell apart, and should not be permitted to repeat claims that Weiss is doing Russia’s bidding and vindictively or selectively prosecuting him.
The special counsel further asked that the defense be barred from mentioning that Biden did not face state charges in Delaware.
In another blow for the defense on Tuesday, Noreika declined to push the trial start back to September.
Read the motion here.
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