Hunter Biden goes on trial for federal gun charges. Here’s what to know

Hunter Biden’s trial on federal gun charges began with jury selection on Monday.

The first day of the trial, which is expected to last between three and six days, saw First Lady Jill Biden and half-sister Ashley Biden join the son of the president at the courthouse.

The 54-year-old is facing charges that he lied on a form to purchase a firearm, stating that he was not a drug user when he allegedly was frequently using crack cocaine.

Here’s what you need to know.

Prosecutors will rely on Hunter Biden’s memoir to make the case that he was a drug user when he bought a handgun at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply store in Wilmington on 12 October 2018.

While Biden didn’t mention buying a firearm in his memoir, Beautiful Things, he did outline his drug use. Prosecutors have called the book “incriminating.”

The prosecution has suggested that they possibly plan on attempting to prove that Biden used illegal drugs by pointing to text messageshe sent at the time.

A number of those text messages came from an iCloud account, that prosecutors got access to via a subpoena, and others were sourced from a laptop that Biden is reported to have left at a repair shop and never returned to collect.

Biden and some in his orbit have stated for years that material from the laptop cannot be presumed to be authentic. Operatives backing former president Donald Trump have publicized material from the laptop as part of their attacks on President Biden.

Allies of Hunter Biden have said that some of the material shared from the laptop has been altered or distorted and they have also never confirmed that Hunter Biden ever dropped anything off at a repair shop.

But prosecutors have said that they have confirmed the authenticity of large parts of