随着亨特·拜登因持枪指控接受审判，以下是他的律师计划如何为一个“简单的案件”辩护
联邦检察官正在对乔·拜登总统的儿子进行定罪亨特·拜登三项重罪枪支指控将即将到来的审判描述为“一个简单的案件”——指控文件中呈现的事实显然支持这一说法。
根据特别顾问魏红星办公室的说法，2018年10月，亨特·拜登故意在联邦表格上撒谎关于他为了购买柯尔特眼镜蛇38SPL左轮手枪而吸毒的行为，从表面上看，这将构成联邦犯罪。他被控两项与购买枪支时的虚假陈述有关的罪名，以及第三项在吸毒时非法获得枪支的罪名。
但亨特·拜登的法律团队认为，这可能会打破韦斯条理清晰的叙述。在最近的审前听证会上，拜登的一名律师表示，案件核心的枪支形式“比特别顾问指出的要复杂得多。”
审判的陪审团遴选定于周一开始。如果12名特拉华州居民接受政府的说法，总统唯一在世的儿子可能面临监禁。
反对这一结果的任务落在了资深辩护律师阿贝·洛威尔身上，他曾代理过其他几位知名人士，包括贾里德·库什纳和伊万卡·特朗普。
洛厄尔计划如何应对这些指控仍不明朗。他已经向美国地方法官玛丽·埃伦·诺雷卡表示，他的案件将在很大程度上取决于检察官如何进行审判。
但在法庭记录和审前听证会上，他提供了一些茶叶-并表示他将试图对政府的一些最重要的证据和证人产生怀疑。
“篡改”或“注释”?
例如，洛厄尔在法庭上披露，本案的核心是联邦枪支表格的两份副本，称为ATF表格4473。当亨特·拜登在2018年购买枪支时，一名商店员工创建了原始文件。它将拜登的护照列为他向商店员工出示的身份证件。
然而，多年后，一个副本被制作出来。这份复印件上有一张手写的便条，上面写着“DE Vehicle Registration”，在空白处写着“政府发布的补充文件”。商店员工在2021年这样做是为了纠正一项要求，即枪支购买者必须出示包含地址的身份证件，而护照则没有。
洛厄尔认为枪支商店的员工“篡改”了文件，并提出了“谁在表格上写了什么，什么时候写的”的问题。
维斯的办公室表示，枪支商店的员工只是对文件进行了“注释”。但是他们认真对待洛厄尔的论点，于5月16日重新采访了枪支商店老板罗纳德·帕利米尔。
根据案件卷宗中的记录，帕利米尔在采访中表示，亨特·拜登的法律纠纷正在成为“一个大丑闻，人们对此事非常关注”，商店的员工“都吓得要死”
根据笔记，帕利米尔“认为有必要对4473表格进行注释，因为他觉得他们只会因为反对拜登而惹上麻烦。”
如果陪审员被洛厄尔的策略所说服，这一论点可能会破坏一些关键的政府证人的可信度——那些向拜登出售枪支的人——并可能产生一个合理的怀疑，即亨特·拜登是真正检查那个盒子的人。
包括帕利米尔在内的至少两名枪支商店员工预计将在审判中作证。
“是”的定义
洛厄尔还可能提出这样的论点，亨特·拜登可能被ATF表格4473上的语言弄糊涂了。他勾选了“否”的方框，询问买家，“你是否非法使用或沉迷于”各种麻醉剂。
洛厄尔在法庭文件中写道，“这里的问题是拜登先生对这个问题的理解，这个问题以现在时态询问他是不是‘使用者’或瘾君子。”
“表格上没有定义‘使用者’或‘瘾君子’这两个词，也没有向他解释，”他继续说道。“像拜登先生这样的人，刚刚完成了11天的康复计划，之后与一个清醒的同伴住在一起，肯定会相信他不是现在时态的使用者或瘾君子。”
最后，洛厄尔提出了“监管链的问题”,一个据称装有亨特·拜登购买的左轮手枪的皮袋。在今年早些时候提交的法庭文件中，检察官说这个袋子上有可卡因残留。
在2018年购买枪支后，亨特·拜登拥有它不到两周，然后他当时的浪漫伴侣哈利·拜登——也是他哥哥博的遗孀——发现了武器和袋子，并将其丢弃在垃圾箱中。
这支枪很快被当局收回，但直到五年后的2023年，这个袋子才进行药物残留测试。洛厄尔在审前听证会上说，他想询问证人，在被警方拘留的五年里，邮袋发生了什么，看看它是否被“篡改”。
洛厄尔计划为辩方传唤的证人之一是一名化学残留物专家。
政府的情况
检察官希望这些论点不攻自破，陪审员依靠他们计划提交的大量证据来认定亨特·拜登犯有他面临的三项重罪。
检察官似乎准备用亨特·拜登自己的话来指控他——摘自他2021年的回忆录《美丽的事物》(Beautiful Things)，以及他在购买枪支时交换的短信——来证明他在填写ATF表格4473和购买武器时实际上是一名吸毒者。
在法庭文件中包括的一条检察官短信中，亨特·拜登在据称购买枪支两天后写道:“我睡在第四街和罗德尼街的一辆汽车上，”指的是威尔明顿的一个十字路口。
韦斯的办公室还计划向陪审员展示ATF表格4473的原件，其中拜登表示“他不是任何兴奋剂、麻醉药品或任何其他受管制物质的非法使用者或上瘾者”——尽管据称知道这不是真的。
检察官表示，他们计划传唤多达12名证人包括哈里·拜登和亨特·拜登的前妻凯瑟琳·布勒。
洛厄尔还没有决定亨特·拜登是否会为自己辩护作证。
审判于周一开始，预计将持续两到三周。如果他被判有罪，拜登可能面临最高25年的监禁，尽管法律专家认为，作为第一次非暴力犯罪，他不太可能服刑。
去年12月，韦斯的办公室还指控亨特·拜登犯有九项重罪和轻罪，原因是他在吸毒成瘾的痛苦时期连续三年未缴纳140万美元的税款。欠税和罚款最终由第三方全额支付，ABC新闻称该第三方是亨特·拜登的律师兼密友凯文·莫瑞斯。亨特·拜登有拒不认罪所有指控。
该案的审判原定于6月20日在加利福尼亚州开始，但洛厄尔成功地请求法官将其推迟到9月5日-这增加了陪审团在2024年大选的最后几周审议是否以几项重罪判决总统儿子有罪的可能性。
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Federal prosecutors pursuing a conviction of President Joe Biden's sonHunter Bidenon three felony gun charges have characterized their upcoming trial as "a simple case" -- and the facts presented in charging documents certainly appear to support that claim.
According to special counsel David Weiss' office, in October of 2018, Hunter Biden knowinglylied on a federal formabout his drug use in order to procure a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver -- conduct that, at face value, would constitute a federal crime. He is charged with two counts related to false statements in purchasing the firearm and a third count of illegally obtaining a firearm while addicted to drugs.
But Hunter Biden's legal team believes it can throw a wrench in Weiss' tidy narrative. At a recent pretrial hearing, an attorney for Biden suggested the firearm form at the heart of the case was "much more complicated than [the] special counsel indicates it is."
Jury selection for the trial is set to begin on Monday. And if 12 Delaware residents accept the government's story, the president's only living son could face a prison sentence.
The task of fighting that outcome falls to Abbe Lowell, a veteran defense attorney who has represented several other high-profile figures, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
How Lowell plans to fight the charges remains somewhat unclear. He has signaled to U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika that the contours of his case would depend in large part on how prosecutors proceed at trial.
But in court records and at pretrial hearings, he has offered some tea leaves -- and suggested he will attempt to cast doubt on some of the government's most crucial evidence and witnesses.
'Tampered' or 'annotated'?
Lowell has, for example, latched onto revelations in court that two copies exist of the federal gun form at the heart of the case, called an ATF Form 4473. A shop employee created the original document when Hunter Biden purchased the firearm in 2018. It lists Biden's passport as the ID he presented to the shop employee.
Years later, however, a copy was made. The copy included a handwritten note, "DE Vehicle Registration," on a line left blank for "Supplemental Government Issued Documentation." Store employees did so in 2021 to rectify a requirement that gun buyers present a form of ID that includes an address, which passports do not.
Lowell contends that gun store employees "tampered with" the document, and that it raises questions about "who wrote what on the form, and when."
Weiss' office has said the gun shop employees merely "annotated" the document. But they took Lowell's argument seriously enough to re-interview the gun store owner, Ronald Palimere, on May 16.
During the interview, according to notes filed on the case docket, Palimere said Hunter Biden's legal tribulations were becoming "a big scandal and there was intense attention on the incident," and that employees at the store "were all scared to death."
Palimere "felt it was necessary to annotate the Form 4473 because he felt they were going to get in trouble just for going up against Biden," according to the notes.
If jurors are persuaded by Lowell's tack, the argument could undermine the credibility of some key government witnesses -- the people who sold Biden the gun -- and potentially create a reasonable doubt that Hunter Biden was the one who actually checked that box.
At least two gun store employees, including Palimere, are expected to testify at the trial.
The definition of 'is'
Lowell may also advance the argument that Hunter Biden may have been confused by the language on the ATF Form 4473. The box he checked "no" asked of the buyer, "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to" various narcotics.
"The issue here is Mr. Biden's understanding of the question, which asks in the present tense if he 'is' a user or addict," Lowell wrote in court papers.
"The terms 'user' or 'addict' are not defined on the form and were not explained to him," he continued. "Someone like Mr. Biden, who had just completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and lived with a sober companion after that, could surely believe he was not a present tense user or addict."
Finally, Lowell has raised "an issue of chain of custody" with a leather pouch that allegedly held the revolver Hunter Biden purchased. In court documents filed earlier this year, prosecutors said this pouch had cocaine residue on it.
After purchasing the firearm in 2018, Hunter Biden possessed it for less than two weeks before his then-romantic partner, Hallie Biden – who is also the widow of his brother, Beau – discovered the weapon and the pouch, discarded them in a dumpster.
The gun was soon recovered by the authorities, but the pouch was not tested for drug residue until five years later, in 2023. Lowell said at the pretrial hearing that he wants to question witnesses about what happened to the pouch during those five years when it was in police custody to see if it was "tampered with."
One of the witnesses Lowell plans to call for the defense is a chemical residue expert.
The government's case
Prosecutors hope these arguments fall flat, and that jurors rely on the voluminous evidence they plan to present to find Hunter Biden guilty of committing the three felony charges he faces.
Prosecutors seem poised to use Hunter Biden's own words against him -- excerpts from his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," and text messages he exchanged around the time of the gun purchase -- to demonstrate that he was in fact a drug user when he filled out the ATF Form 4473 and procured the weapon.
In one text message prosecutors included in court filings, Hunter Biden wrote two days after allegedly purchasing the gun: "I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney," referring to an intersection in Wilmington.
Weiss' office also plans to show jurors the original ATF Form 4473, in which Biden represented that "he was not an unlawful user of, or addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance" -- despite allegedly knowing it not to be true.
Prosecutors indicated that they plan to call as many as12 witnesses, including Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.
Lowell has not yet decided whether Hunter Biden will testify in his own defense.
The trial begins on Monday and is expected to last two to three weeks. If he's found guilty, Biden could face a prison sentence of up to 25 years, though legal experts suggest that, as a first-time and nonviolent offender, he would not likely serve time.
Weiss' office also charged Hunter Biden in December with nine felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes for three years during a time when he was in the throes of addiction. The back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden's attorney and confidant, Kevin Morris. Hunter Biden haspleaded not guiltyto all charges.
The trial in that case was scheduled to begin on June 20 in California, but Lowell successfully petitioned the judge to postpone it until Sept. 5 -- raising the likelihood that a jury could be deliberating whether to convict the president’s son on several felony counts in the waning weeks of the 2024 election.
