Prosecutors intend to use Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as evidence in an upcoming trial to show that the president’s son illegally obtained a handgun in 2018.
Special counsel David Weiss wrote on Wednesday that “the defendant’s laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and contains significant evidence of the defendant’s guilt.”
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Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges in October, after prosecutors allege he obtained a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver and lied on a federal form about his drug use at the time. Biden’s attorneys stated he had the pistol for eleven days but never shot it.
In recent years, the laptop has come to represent the legal and political controversies surrounding the president’s son. Weiss’ office intends to use the laptop to show that Biden was on drugs when he purchased his gun in October 2018.
The younger Biden detailed his significant drug use in his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” and acknowledged the poor behavior that resulted.
The trial for his gun possession will start on June 3. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty on three criminal counts.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys had previously attempted to exclude the laptop as evidence, claiming that there are “numerous reasons to believe the data had been altered and compromised before investigators obtained the electronic material.”
However, in his answer on Wednesday, Weiss argued that Biden “has not provided any evidence or information demonstrating that his laptop contains false information, and the government’s evidence shows the opposite.”
“Any argument that suggests his laptop is not authentic would be inappropriate because there is no foundation for such questioning, and it risks creating juror confusion about the evidence actually at issue in this case,” Weiss stated.
The discovery occurred on the same day that a federal court postponed Hunter Biden’s Los Angeles tax trial until September 5, creating the possibility that a jury might be debating whether to condemn the president’s son on many felony counts in the last weeks of the 2024 race.
On Wednesday, Judge Mark Scarsi granted Hunter Biden’s legal team’s plea to delay the trial from June 20 to September, allowing them enough time to prepare.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys had previously stated that a June 3 trial would make it difficult for them to appropriately represent their client.
“There was an assumption that he could do both, but it’s becoming complicated,” Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a hearing on Wednesday.
Prosecutors in Weiss’ office opposed the delay.
In court documents and during a hearing on Wednesday, they asserted that a delay would cause inconvenience to their office and numerous witnesses who had already received subpoenas to testify in the June and July trials.
In December, Weiss’ agency charged Hunter Biden with nine felony and misdemeanor counts in California for failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes over three years while suffering from addiction. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to all allegations.
A third entity, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden’s attorney and confidant, Kevin Morris, had previously paid all of the outstanding taxes and penalties.
The revised trial timetable increases the chance that Hunter Biden will stand trial as voters begin to cast their ballots. The sides anticipate that the trial could continue for up to six weeks, with jurors deliberating a verdict in mid-October.
