Judge blocks key defense evidence and witness on eve of Hunter Biden gun trial

By CNN

Published June 2, 2024 2:28 PM

CNN

By Marshall Cohen, CNN

Wilmington, Delaware (CNN) — The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s gun trial dealt his defense two setbacks Sunday, on the eve of jury selection, by blocking one of his expert witnesses and excluding a key piece of evidence the president’s son hoped to use.

The rulings from Judge Maryellen Noreika resolved some of the sticking points that were still simmering before the trial begins Monday. Taken together, these decisions could make a tough case for Hunter Biden even more challenging to win. President Joe Biden’s son has pleaded not guilty to illegally buying and owning a gun while abusing illicit drugs.

Noreika granted a request from special counsel David Weiss to block one of Hunter Biden’s expert witnesses from testifying. The defense had lined up a Columbia University-based psychiatrist who would’ve tried to poke holes in prosecutors’ assertions that Hunter Biden knew he was an addict in 2018 when he bought the gun that led to his indictment.

“The inadequacy of Defendant’s expert disclosure for Dr. (Elie) Aoun leaves the government in the dark as to what his opinions about the facts of this case will be, thus rendering the government unable to prepare for trial,” Noreika wrote in her ruling.

The judge also blocked Hunter Biden’s lawyers from using what they thought was a key piece of exculpatory evidence: an altered version of the federal firearms form he filled out when he bought the gun in 2018 that was tweaked in 2021 by the gun store employees.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers recently argued in court that they wanted to use the doctored form to undermine the credibility of the employees, who are slated to testify on behalf of the prosecutors. They also claimed it showed prosecutors were politically “biased.”

But Noreika ruled the altered version of the form was “irrelevant and inadmissible,” and she went on to blast Hunter Biden’s team for pushing “conspiratorial” theories and “unsupported rhetoric” about the motivations of the Wilmington gun store employees.

“Any probative value it arguably has is substantially outweighed by a danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of issues, and misleading the jury,” she wrote, further adding that any attempts by the defense to use the altered form to demonstrate the employees’ alleged political bias would have been “unduly prejudicial and invites (jury) nullification.”

Only the original form – known as ATF Form 4473 – will be shown to the jury.

On that form, Hunter Biden is accused of falsely swearing that he wasn’t using or addicted to drugs, which allowed him to purchase the gun. Prosecutors contend he was still addicted to crack cocaine at that time, as he has described in his memoir.

Jury selection for the trial is slated to begin Monday morning in Wilmington.