Judge Blocks Key Evidence and Witness in Hunter Biden Trial

(UnitedHeadlines.com) – On June 2, the night before jury selection began, Judge Maryellen Noreika issued two rulings that could affect Hunter Biden’s defense in his gun trial.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to three federal gun charges related to his 2018 purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver. He faces charges of making a false statement on Form 4473, making a false statement to purchase the gun, and being unlawfully in possession of a firearm as someone using or addicted to a controlled substance after being indicted by Special Counsel David Weiss.

Noreika ruled in favor of Weiss, blocking testimony from one of Hunter Biden’s expert witnesses, a Columbia University-based psychiatrist, who planned to testify that Hunter Biden was unaware he was addicted to cocaine when he bought the gun in 2018. In her ruling, Noreika wrote the “inadequacy of Defendant’s expert disclosure” means the government is left “in the dark as to what his opinions” would be, meaning the government would not be able to prepare for the trial.

Noreika ruled against Hunter Biden’s attorneys’ request to use a version of the 2018 federal firearms form he completed when he purchased the gun that was then altered by the gun store employee in 2021, which they believed to be an essential piece of exculpatory evidence. Hunter Biden’s lawyers argued in favor of using the altered form, claiming it would undermine the credibility of the employees scheduled to testify for the prosecution.

However, in her ruling, Noreika wrote that using the altered form could mislead the jury, ruling it “irrelevant and inadmissible.” She also accused Hunter Biden’s attorneys of pushing “unsupported rhetoric” and “conspiratorial” theories” about the employees of the gun store.

The jury will only see the original ATF Form 4473, which Hunter Biden allegedly lied about when he stated he was not using or addicted to drugs. According to the prosecution, when Hunter Biden purchased the gun, he was addicted to crack cocaine, which he details in his memoir.