Prosecutors have rejected Hunter Biden's proposed jury instructions, which could have placed his gun purchase in a positive light.
Hunter Biden, a son of president Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements on a federal form while purchasing a firearm in October 2018 and of illegal gun possession while being a drug user, specifically of crack cocaine.
He is the first offspring of a sitting president to go on criminal trial.
A jury was chosen at a Delaware court on Monday and the prosecution case is likely to finish on Friday or Monday.
Newsweek sought email comment from Biden's attorney on Friday.
The trial judge had asked both sides for their proposed jury instructions, the list of instructions that judges routinely read to juries to help them understand the charges in a criminal case.
Biden's lawyers wanted the judge to instruct the jury that Biden could have been acting in "good faith" when he wrote on the form that he didn't have a drug addiction.
In a court filing on Thursday, Biden's suggestion was strongly rejected by prosecutors. His team wrote that, to be guilty of the crime, Biden would have to "knowingly" fill out the form incorrectly, and therefore his actions could not be both "knowingly" wrong and also be done "in good faith."
They wrote that both sides have already agreed on a definition for "knowingly" which reads: "A person acts 'knowingly' if that person acts voluntarily and intentionally and not because of mistake or accident or other innocent reason."
Judge Maryellen Noreika will now have to decide the right jury instructions based on both sides' submissions.
However, the definition of the crime has already been agreed, it's unlikely that Noreika will allow Biden's "good faith" insertion to be included.
Prosecutors have focused on Biden's own words to prove that he knowingly misled the gun shop while declaring that he was not a drug addict.
The first evidence the jury heard on Tuesday was Biden reading from his audiobook memoir in which he talks about being addicted to crack cocaine for four years. His addiction years include the time he purchased a pistol in Delaware and filled out a form declaring that he was not addicted to drugs.
David Ring, a Los Angeles trial attorney, told Newsweek: "His own words will likely sink him, as the prosecution has played the audio portion of his memoir in which Hunter Biden explains in detail how egregious his drug use was at the time he bought the gun. How could a jury not convict him?
"Biden will argue that he was in a 'sober period' of his life when he bought the gun. But, he had been using almost daily up to that point," Ring said.
Hunter Biden, a son of president Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements on a federal form while purchasing a firearm in October 2018 and of illegal gun possession while being a drug user, specifically of crack cocaine.
He is the first offspring of a sitting president to go on criminal trial.
A jury was chosen at a Delaware court on Monday and the prosecution case is likely to finish on Friday or Monday.
Newsweek sought email comment from Biden's attorney on Friday.
The trial judge had asked both sides for their proposed jury instructions, the list of instructions that judges routinely read to juries to help them understand the charges in a criminal case.
Biden's lawyers wanted the judge to instruct the jury that Biden could have been acting in "good faith" when he wrote on the form that he didn't have a drug addiction.
In a court filing on Thursday, Biden's suggestion was strongly rejected by prosecutors. His team wrote that, to be guilty of the crime, Biden would have to "knowingly" fill out the form incorrectly, and therefore his actions could not be both "knowingly" wrong and also be done "in good faith."
They wrote that both sides have already agreed on a definition for "knowingly" which reads: "A person acts 'knowingly' if that person acts voluntarily and intentionally and not because of mistake or accident or other innocent reason."
Judge Maryellen Noreika will now have to decide the right jury instructions based on both sides' submissions.
However, the definition of the crime has already been agreed, it's unlikely that Noreika will allow Biden's "good faith" insertion to be included.
Prosecutors have focused on Biden's own words to prove that he knowingly misled the gun shop while declaring that he was not a drug addict.
The first evidence the jury heard on Tuesday was Biden reading from his audiobook memoir in which he talks about being addicted to crack cocaine for four years. His addiction years include the time he purchased a pistol in Delaware and filled out a form declaring that he was not addicted to drugs.
David Ring, a Los Angeles trial attorney, told Newsweek: "His own words will likely sink him, as the prosecution has played the audio portion of his memoir in which Hunter Biden explains in detail how egregious his drug use was at the time he bought the gun. How could a jury not convict him?
"Biden will argue that he was in a 'sober period' of his life when he bought the gun. But, he had been using almost daily up to that point," Ring said.
