To convict Mr Biden, prosecutors will have to convince jurors that he knowingly made false statements on the form in a bid to deceive the store that sold him the pistol.
Additionally, they will have to prove that Mr Biden was a drug user or addicted to drugs, and took possession of the gun despite knowing as much.
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika has already ruled that defence lawyers cannot argue that the prosecution can only get a guilty verdict by proving Mr Biden was using drugs on the day he bought the weapon.
Instead, in a pre-trial hearing, the judge agreed with prosecutors’ argument that they need only prove that “unlawful use (had) occurred recently enough to indicate that the individual (was) actively engaged in such conduct”.
In court filings made ahead of the trial’s start, prosecutors suggested that they would rely, in part, on deeply personal text messages and other communications made while Mr Biden was in the throes of addiction.
In one such text message cited in court documents, Mr Biden refers to himself as a “liar and a thief and a blame and a user and I’m delusional and an addict unlike beyond and above all other addicts that you know”.
The prosecution is also expected to rely on the testimonies of witnesses including ex-wife Kathleen Buhle and Mr Biden’s ex-partner Hallie Biden – who is also the widow of Mr Biden’s brother Beau.
Prosecutors will also be able to point to Mr Biden’s own 2021 memoir, in which he detailed his experiences as a drug user who was “up twenty-four hours a day, smoking every 15 minutes, seven days a week”.
“All my energy revolved around smoking drugs and making arrangements to buy drugs – feeding the beast,” he wrote in the book.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
