The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s gun trial blocked one of his chosen expert witnesses, on the eve of jury selection, giving the defense a headache, plus she excluded a ‘key piece’ of evidence Hunter Biden hoped to use.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden has pleaded not guilty to illegally owning and purchasing a gun while using illegal drugs. Judge, Maryellen Noreika granted a request from David Weiss, special counsel, 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 illustrate weaknesses in prosecutors’ assertions that The President’s son was aware he was an addict when he bought the firearm in 2018 that led to his serious criminal charge.
“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 blocked evidence that his defense team hoped to use was ‘exculpatory’ evidence in the form of an edited gun license he filled out in 2018 and was since edited in 2021 by the gun store employees.
Lawyers for the President’s son stated they wanted to use the doctored form to undermine the credibility of the employees, who are due to testify on behalf of the prosecutors. They also claimed it illustrated prosecutors were politically “biased.”
However, Judge Noreika, ruled the evidence as “irrelevant and inadmissible.” She also called the Biden defense’s line about the gun store workers political bias as “unsupported rhetoric”
Only the standard form Biden filled in: an ATF Form 4473 will be shown to the jury.
On the form, Hunter Biden is accused of falsely swearing he wasn’t addicted to or using drugs, which permitted him to buy a firearm. Prosecutors contend he was still addicted to crack cocaine at that time, as he has written in accounts of his life.
In criminal law, exculpatory evidence is evidence, such as a statement, tending to, justify, excuse or absolve the alleged guilt or responsibility of a defendant.
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