Defense attorney Randy Zelin suggested that Hunter Biden taking the stand in his federal gun trial starting Monday could lead to a jury convicting him.
Hunter Biden is confronting three federal gun charges brought by Special Counsel David Weiss in September, which consist of providing false statements and knowingly possessing the gun while being a drug addict. Zelin, on “CNN News Central,” said Biden’s defense strategy to deny his knowledge he was a drug addict will compel him to take the stand, and suggested doing so could go poorly for the defendant. (RELATED: ‘Every Angle… Hurts Joe Biden’: Hunter’s Latest Stunt May Have Thrown His Dad Into A Messy Tangle, Strategists Say)
“Biden’s defense team has wanted to kind of lean into this argument that Hunter Biden did not think he was an addict at the time that he was buying the gun. One of the questions on the federal form, you have to fill out involves this question: ‘Are you an unlawful user of or addicted to illegal drugs?’ How much gray area do you see in that?” host Kate Bolduan asked Zelin.
“That’s a tough one because, first of all, that means Hunter’s going to have to take the stand. Good luck with that,” Zelin said. “They got hurt. The defense got hurt in two ways just now. Number one, they can’t call an expert basically to talk about, well, was Hunter thinking at that time since he completed rehab, ‘I’m no longer a drug addict?’ Judge said ‘no, that’s not helpful to the jury. We’re not letting you call an expert. And we’re not letting you bring in another application where you’re saying it was doctored. The man from Mars came down, doctored my application and the application should be thrown out.’”
Bolduan then asked Zelin if these decisions hurt the Biden defense.
“To me, I think you have to go into this thinking ‘we’re going to lose, but we’re going to win at the appellate court level,’” Zelin said. “Because courts are saying ‘you can’t say I can’t have a gun because I was a drug addict.’ And also remember he had a plea deal that the judge blew up and that will also be tested in the appellate courts.”
Zelin on Friday accused the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s trial of disregarding the U.S. Constitution with his jury instructions.
“I hate to do this, but I would be remiss if I didn’t,” Zelin said. “Whether you are driving in a Ford or a Ferrari, if someone gives you bad directions, you’re going to end up lost. And those jury instructions were just a complete, just take the Constitution, throw it out a window, burn it, shoot it and hang it.”
He predicted on Monday appellate courts will reverse both Trump’s conviction and Hunter Biden’s potential conviction.
“Brothers in arms. Starting backwards, you have a decision excluding a defense expert in the Biden case, like in the Trump case,” Zelin said. “And then take it back. You’ve got a defective indictment in the Trump case where he doesn’t even know what the other crime is. You’ve got this notion of, is it constitutional to prosecute someone for being a drug addict against the backdrop of the Second Amendment? You’ve got a Trump-appointed judge overseeing the Biden case. You have Justice Merchan, who had a relationship with the Democrats in the Trump case.”
“The parallels are eerie, they are stunning,” Zelin continued. “And of course the way each side handles it, Hunter Biden you don’t hear a word about it, this being rigged, this being a conflicted judge, and of course we had the exact opposite. Both of those cases, however, will be resolved favorably for the defendants on appeal.”
