This weekend, the Hunter Biden team is reportedly debating whether to have him take the stand on Monday, a move rife with risk. Most criminal defendants avoid such appearances given the potential damage of a withering cross examination. Those risks were evident in the recent testimony of Hunter’s daughter, Naomi, which backfired badly on key points.
I have sometimes been in the minority among defense attorneys and legal commentators on this question. In celebrity trials, a jury can feel alienated or even disrespected by a defendant not taking the stand. That was the case, in my view, with Martha Stewart. When a defendant brings forth a host of others to speak for him or her, the refusal to testify can become more glaring and concerning.
Hunter Biden is in that position. He has had a host of relatives testify, including his daughter Naomi. When you put your daughter on the stand and subject her to a tough cross examination, many jurors can wonder how you can stay safely behind the defendant’s table.
Yet, Naomi’s testimony is precisely why defense counsel are risk adverse on the question. She gave moving testimony on her love for her father and his struggle with addiction. However, her attempt to establish that Hunter was not using drugs at the time of his gun purchase fell apart on cross examination. She testified that she was thrilled during this period with how “healthy” and clean her father appeared: “He seemed like the clearest I had seen him since my uncle died…I told him I was so proud of him and I was proud to be able to introduce Peter to him.”
Prosecutors showed her text messages that told a different story. In some, Naomi appears alarmed by her father’s conduct and lack of responses. On October 18, for example, she texted “I’m sorry daddy, I can’t take this, I don’t know what to say.” That message coincides with messages from Hunter seeking to score drugs from a guy named Mookie and stating that he was doing crack in a car. In other messages, Naomi complains that he was not responding. She finally received a response when, at 2 a.m, Hunter asked her to have her boyfriend drop off keys to a truck for him in Manhattan. Naomi was asked if she saw the drug residue or paraphernalia in the truck.
Any cross examination would focus less on Naomi than it would on Mookie.
Any decision to put Hunter on the stand is obviously dependent on your defense strategy. As I have previously written, all of the defenses suggested by Abby Lowell in his opening argument collapsed within two days. That includes the suggestion that someone else checked the box on the form denying that Hunter was using drugs. These claims seem so unbelievable and unsupported that they might insult a jury. However, the real strategy in this open-and-shut case appears to be simple jury nullification. The defense is trying to get one or more jurors to ignore the law and the evidence to acquit Biden.
Nullification efforts in the case appear to be a combination of both political and social association. First and foremost, this is Bidentown. It is the hometown of President Joe Biden and voted overwhelmingly for him in past elections. It is the opposite of the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump. This is the best possible jury pool for a Biden.
Second, all of the jurors testified to knowing someone with drug problems. Hunter has written moving accounts of his struggle with addiction. Some jurors may resist convicting someone who has seemingly overcome the scourge of addiction.
So, if this is a nullification strategy, does Hunter testifying help or hurt? The answer is that it could seal the deal or shatter it with jurors. Hunter will make a good witness on his struggle to overcome drugs and alcohol abuse. He can claim little or no memory of the gun store purchase. Hearing from him directly can establish a connection, even a bond, with jurors that could reinforce a nullification vote.
However, it will also subject him to cross examination by prosecutors who have been lethal in their well-planned and well-executed case. They can delve into his texts and the later intervention by his family to deal with his self-destructive lifestyle. He also faces the potential of triggering new criminal offenses through perjury.
That latter concern is particularly real after the formal referral of three House committees to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Hunter is accused of lying to Congress in his recent testimony on key issues under investigation. While many expect Garland to ignore the referral to protect the President and his family, the allegations are compelling and the Justice Department has previously prosecuted individuals in cases with far less support. This would appear a relatively easy perjury prosecution, but the politics may be insurmountable for Garland.
Most attorneys would advise Hunter to remain behind the defense table and not take the stand. After all, this is a great jury rendering a verdict on a Biden in Bidentown with the First Lady seated behind him for much of the trial. They just need one. The risk of testimony is that Hunter could burst into flames on the stand and torch any chance to nullify the crime.
We will know soon. However, if Hunter checks this box and testifies, it is the one decision that he will not be able to blame on others.
We have a leprosy outbreak in central Florida and the experts are telling people not to eat armadillos. Just in case you were wondering how it’s going down here…
Republicans talk about “liberty” and then make laws against men wearing dresses in public.
Lipstick seriously frightens them.
Inam speaking from personal experience, you maga morons, so dont deny it.
What don’t you understand about anonymous gay sex through bathroom stall glory holes? That’s the Republican way.
Is it true that Donald Trump wears enough makeup to be legally considered a drag queen?
I ask because i only date drag queens.
Note that he only started wearing orange make up after Epstein’s enterprise was taken down.
If you barely got a C in HS Chemistry class, but think every scientific body on Earth is wrong about Climate Change based on something you read online, then you have the critical thinking skills of a carrot.
That goes for all of you maga morons!!!
Now, if you got an A in cock sucking like me, you can get a job in the biden administration.
If you maga morons dont believe in climate change, i have a $12M estate on martha’s vineyard i would like to sell you. Its an idyllic spot for paddle boarding.
Now get over here and give me that big beautiful maga cock tight in my creampie receptacle!!!
Who would like to see MJT and Adam Schiff in the Octagon?
Winner picks the President.
If you think a highway pile-up is a mess, behold this catastrophe:
“. . . barely got a C in HS Chemistry class . . .” “. . . every scientific body on Earth . . .” “. . . critical thinking skills of a carrot . . .”
If you were absent the days when fallacies were taught, then you have no business commenting on a public blog (on any topic).
BREAKING NEWS: SAMUEL ALITO’S FLAG SEEN AT HALF-MAST; BLAMES WIFE
(for slow witted MAGA, this is about erectile dysfunction)
Only limp jokes need explaining
Is that right, you maga moron??
I will overlook that rude comment if you will let me suck your big beautiful maga cock!!!
This site is getting a little raw.
Elon Musk – Dead at 52 – Says There Is No Need for Misinformation Laws
Good point, you had us fooled.
We always come to turleyville for some spastic to give us out news.
Haha! I got you to respond you maga moron!!
Now get over here and shove that big beautiful maga cock in my ass!!!
BREAKING:
Donald Trump becomes the first actor from Home Alone 2 to be convicted of 34 felonies stemming from hush money payments to a porn star
Oh, and did i mention I sucked him off in the bar?
Abraham Lincoln and now Stormy Daniels.
Two heroes who when history called, stepped up to save America.
I’m here all day, ya spastic piece of shit.
A former president, a felon, and a guy with a tiny mushroom dick walk into a bar
Stop me if you’ve already heard this one.
Ok, I will continue then.
I sucked each of them off and ate the peanuts out of their shit.
It’s time to replace Trump’s Secret Service detail with the Uvalde Police Department.
Come on you maga morons. You dont think thats funny?
What if i offer to suck all of your maga cocks tonight?
I have abnormally large hands and enough shit hole to go around.
Come on!!!
BREAKING: The market was so worried about Donald Trump going to jail that the Dow Jones had its best day ever.
An observation about the Trump rallies. Five years ago 20,000 people would be in a venue that cost $500 k to rent. There would be Jumbotrons inside and out. But he never paid any of those venues and now he’s giving rallies in parks and in fire houses in the middle of nowhere and he’s lying about the size of the crowd, and there are no Jumbotrons so the overflow crowd if there is any in a small Venue can’t see him.
I’m sorry but I find it shocking that the man who has been ripping off vendors, contractors, etc. since the 80’s didn’t pay any of those venues.
I am so mad that this man ripped me out of my due for mowing his grass!!
I know because the played video of me on those jumbotrons, sucking 8 maga cocks in a row.
Trump never paid me either
Remember she MAGA told us that Trump shouldn’t be impeached and that we should let him have due process through the criminal justice system?
Was Donald Trump’s felony conviction legitimate?
We asked five emotionally inadequate politicians who want to be his vice president.
None of you maga morons are gonna reply???
You know you want to!!!!
This is how you treat your favorite maga jiz repository??
After i sucked all of those maga cocks last night???
Come on!!!
My mom is so proud of me!!
If I were elected president the very first thing I would do is to sign an executive order declaring all of America’s port-o-potties to be renamed to “Kyle Shittenhouses”
You can contribute to my campaign at
Ilovemagacocinmyass@spasticforpres.com
I hope everyone noticed how Kevin McCarthy never said a word about Matt Gaetz paying teenagers for sex until AFTER he was ousted from the speakership
Didnt notice
Yawn
Dr. Fauci graduated top of his class at Cornell whereas Marjorie Taylor Greene graduated top of her class at the dumpster behind the Dairy Queen
Marjorie Taylor Greene has all the sophistication of a miniature blonde sasquatch in disguise
“We believe Marjorie Taylor Greene is the missing link”
Even if you found a sasquatch cub near the dumpster behind a Dairy Queen and educated it on nothing but Jerry Springer reruns and dog food nutrition facts that sasquatch cub would still make a better congressional rep than Marjorie Taylor Greene
Trump has more felony convictions than Baskin-Robbins has flavors
My favorite baskins flavor is maga-cocky-road
I like mine with a nice sauce of maga diarrhea
I got a plastic Home Depot bucket full of decorative landscaping rocks that are smarter than these Trump voters
The only thing better than a bucket of maga rocks is a bucket of maga cocks up my ass
“We went to a Trump rally. All we got was heatstroke, an expensive ambulance ride and thousands in medical bills.”
I went to Trump rally one time and all the women smelled like corn dogs
I wont all your maga corn dogs up my swollen ass