By Jack Queen and Tom Hals WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - The ex-wife of U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is expected to testify on Wednesday about the younger Biden's drug use, which prosecutors contend he lied about to illegally buy a gun.
Prosecutors told jurors hearing the historic first trial of a U.S. president's child that evidence will show Hunter Biden knowingly lied about his drug use on screening paperwork when he purchased a revolver in October 2018, while his defense lawyer countered that Hunter Biden was not using drugs at the time and did not intend to deceive.
Jurors were shown text messages, bank records and clips of the audiobook version of Hunter Biden’s memoir that prosecutors say prove he was routinely using crack around the time he bought the gun, including the day after he made the purchase. "Addiction is not a crime. Lying is," prosecutor Derek Hines said.
Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought the gun and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days. The trial follows another historic first - last week's criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first U.S.
president to be found guilty of a felony. Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election.
Nothing said at Hunter Biden's trial directly addressed that issue, though the prosecution said “no one is above the law.” Hines told jurors they would n.
