Watch live as Hunter Biden’s criminal trial on gun charges begins in earnest on Tuesday 4 June with opening statements and potentially lurid testimony about drug use from his autobiography and phone messages that prosecutors say incriminate president Joe Biden’s son.
The 54-year-old is accused of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought a Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days in October 2018.
He has pleaded not guilty to the three felony charges.
Hunter Biden is the first child of a sitting president to be criminally tried.
The trial is expected to centre on his years-long crack cocaine use and addiction, which he has discussed publicly and which was a prominent part of his 2021 autobiography Beautiful Things.
He told US District Judge Maryellen Noreika at a hearing last year that he has been sober since the middle of 2019.
Prosecutors will seek to prove that Hunter Biden knew he was lying when he ticked the box “no” next to a question on a federal gun purchase form asking if he was an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
