Day: June 5, 2024

WILMINGTON, Del. (NewsNation) — The federal gun trial against President Joe Biden’s son continues Wednesday following an emotional day in court for the Biden family Tuesday.

Hunter Biden has been accused of lying on a federal form when he bought a .38-caliber Colt Cobra Special in 2018. Hunter Biden falsely said he was not a drug user, despite being addicted to cocaine at the time. He has since pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

The prosecution will continue Wednesday with their case against Hunter Biden, likely calling his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle to testify. It’s also possible the prosecution will call Beau Biden’s widow Hallie Biden to the stand Wednesday, depending on how quickly prosecutors can move forward.

First witness testimony

On Tuesday, prosecutors called FBI agent Erika Jensen to the stand as their first witness. Jensen was assigned to investigate Hunter Biden and specifically looked for evidence and abuse of drugs.

The prosecution looked to use Jensen’s testimony to introduce much of the digital evidence in the case, including embarrassing and intensely personal messages and images from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Jenson summarized the timeline of Hunter Biden’s drug addiction from 2014 to 2019 during her testimony. The prosecution also played audiobook excerpts from Hunter’s memoir detailing his addiction, which was read and recorded by Hunter Biden himself.

Listening to the audiobook recordings took an emotional toll on Biden family members. Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter and Hunter Biden’s half sister, was seen wiping tears from her eyes. First lady Jill Biden was seen putting her head down a few times during the excerpts, but her face remained unreadable. Hunter Biden held his hand over his mouth almost the entire time, looking bothered by the audio being played.

It was also during this testimony that prosecutors introduced Hunter Biden’s laptop to the jury. The infamous laptop was left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019, and Jensen testified that authorities were able to verify it belonged to Hunter Biden using its serial number and other Apple records.

Prosecution opening statements

During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutor Derek Hines hammered the point that “no one is above the law, no matter what your name is.” Hines mentioned it at least three times in the first few minutes of the prosecution’s statement.

He meticulously walked the jury through the 4473 gun form that Hunter Biden filled out and allegedly lied on, saying there isn’t a system in place to prevent drug users from getting guns other than this “self-check” box on the form.

The prosecutor also described the romantic relationship between Hunter Biden and his late brother’s widow, claiming that he introduced Hallie Biden to crack cocaine and influenced her addiction. Hines shared texts between the two in which Hunter Biden told her he was meeting with a dealer behind a local grocery store. Hines also pointed to another message in which Hunter Biden claimed he’d gotten high and fallen asleep.

Hines then laid out how after 11 days of owning the gun, Hallie Biden had concerns for Hunter Biden. She allegedly took his gun, wrapped it up in his leather pouch (which he used to transport cocaine) and threw it in an open garbage can behind a grocery store, Hines said.

It was then found by a man who regularly looked through garbage cans for recyclables, the prosecution argued.

Hunter Biden was then reportedly angry when he found out Hallie Biden had taken his gun and demanded they retrieve it, but it had already been found, the prosecution continued.

Defense opening statements

Hunter Biden’s defense team’s argument hinges on two claims: that Hunter Biden didn’t knowingly break the law because he was clean and in between relapses when he filled out the gun application, and that the gun sellers were eager to sell to Hunter Biden because of who he is, overlooking protocol.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell argued that the 4473 form’s language wasn’t clear, explaining that it doesn’t ask, “Have you ever used drugs?” Rather, it says, “Are you a drug user?”

Lowell noted that in other places on the form, it does use the phrase, “Have you ever?” But on the drug question, it specifically does not.

Regarding the text messages between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden, Lowell urged the jury to pay attention to the dates of the text messages about drug use that the prosecution will show. He said they won’t be dated just before Hunter bought the gun on Oct. 12, 2018, but rather that they would be dated shortly after Hunter left a rehab facility in California, where he was working on getting clean.

Lowell argued that Hunter Biden truly considered himself not to be a drug user at that moment. After the gun was found, and he and Hallie got into a big fight, the stress of that situation caused Hunter Biden to relapse, Lowell argued.

The defense told the jury that the evidence would show Hunter Biden was acting normally in the few days around his gun purchase, and that normal behavior is impossible had he been addicted to and using crack during that period.

“There are functioning alcoholics. There’s no such thing as a functioning crack addict,” Lowell said.

It was highlighted by Lowell that Hunter Biden never disputed that he had a history of drug use, saying Hunter Biden, like millions of Americans, had real struggles with addiction.

Hunter Biden charges

Hunter Biden faces three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. He has been accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application used to screen firearms applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days.

He has pleaded not guilty and has argued he’s being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department after Republicans decried a now-defunct plea deal as special treatment for the Democratic president’s son.

The trial comes just days after Donald Trump, Republicans’ presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. A jury found the former president guilty of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the criminal courtroom has taken center stage during the 2024 campaign.

Hunter Biden is also facing a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were to have been resolved through a now-defunct plea deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a yearslong investigation into his business dealings.

The Associated Press and NewsNation’s Rich Johnson contributed to this report

(NewsNation) — Spiders the size of a baby’s hand and that can fly have been spotted along the East Coast, and scientists expect them to keep spreading.

What is a Joro spider?

The Joro spiders, as they are known, spawn massive webs, have a leg span of up to 4 inches and a vibrant yellow and black coloration.

The good news is that they’re fairly docile and don’t threaten humans or pets, invasive species expert David Coyle told NewsNation.

Where are Joro spiders found?

Joro spiders are native to Japan and Asia but have been spotted in states including Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Sightings of these creepy crawlers have even been confirmed as far north as Maryland.

Earlier this year, New Jersey Pest Control warned about the impending presence of the spider in the state, and one ecologist told SI Live that it’s a matter of when, not if, the spiders show up in New York City.

Joro spiders are light enough to parachute through the air, using wind currents to travel up to 100 miles at a time, essentially allowing them to “fly.”

After spotting a Joro spider three years ago in his backyard, Coyle, an assistant professor of forest health and invasive species at Clemson University, sought to research the species.

The joro spider, a large spider native to East Asia, is seen in Johns Creek, Ga., on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. The spider has spun its thick, golden web on power lines, porches and vegetable patches all over north Georgia this year – a proliferation that has driven some unnerved homeowners indoors and prompted a flood of anxious social media posts. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz)

In a study published last fall, Coyle and other researchers discovered that the spiders seemingly prefer humid forest areas of the country, where the environment mimics where they’re from in Japan.

“Down here in the hot zone, they are everywhere. Everywhere,” Coyle told NewsNation. “I’ve not seen something with the populations this abundant in quite some time.”

Are Joro spiders venomous?

Even though Coyle confirmed that the Joro spiders are venomous, he explained the venom is reserved for the critters who get caught up in their webs.

“They’re not dangerous to humans,” Coyle said. “They’re super annoying because they kind of get all over everything and they’re, they’re more than happy to put a web on your porch or your deck or your carport or your landscaping. But as far as we know, there’s not been any instances of people getting bit or pets getting bit.”

Because they are not aggressive species, Coyle suggested a broom to sweep the spider and web away. He also said that when the Joro spiders are fully grown, they’re too heavy to fly, so these spiders won’t be dropping from the sky any time soon.

But, with a one-year lifespan, they don’t get big until October — just in time for Halloween, making “spooky season” a whole lot more interesting.

PARIS (AP) — United States President Joe Biden will mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in France this week as he tries to demonstrate steadfast support for European security at a time when some allies fear Donald Trump threatens to upend American commitments if he wins another term in the White House.

The trip comes as the deadliest fighting on the continent since World War II continues in Ukraine and allied countries struggle to find ways to turn the tide against Russia, which has recently gained ground on the battlefield. It is also set against deepening cracks between the U.S. and many European allies over how to manage the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Biden arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning, and he was welcomed by French officials and an honor guard. On Thursday, he’ll visit hallowed ground near the beaches of Normandy, where rows of bone-white headstones mark the graves of U.S. soldiers who died to bring an end to World War II. He’ll also speak on Friday at Pointe du Hoc, a spot on the French coast where Army Rangers scaled seaside cliffs to overcome Nazi defenses.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said aboard Air Force One on the way to France that Biden will stress how the men on those cliffs “put the country ahead of themselves” and detail “the dangers of isolationism, and how, if we back dictators and fail to stand up to them, they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price.”

“Eighty years later, we see dictators once again attempting to challenge the order, attempting to march in Europe,” Sullivan said, “and that freedom-loving nations need to rally to stand against that, as we have.”

He also said Biden would be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in France to discuss “how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine.”

On Saturday, Biden, along with his wife Jill, will be honored by French President Emmanuel Macron with a state visit, including a military parade in Paris and a banquet at the Élysée Palace, as well as business sessions where the leaders are to discuss strengthening their alliance, trade and security cooperation for the upcoming Olympic Games.

The two leaders also are expected to discuss the Middle East. Biden has invested geopolitical capital in brokering a cease-fire to the Israel-Hamas war that would see the release of hostages, even as he has maintained his staunch support for Israel and resisted European efforts to recognize a Palestinian state or investigate Israel over its handling of the war.

Biden, a Democrat, is scheduled to return to the United States on Sunday, but before he leaves France he’s expected to stop at a cemetery where American soldiers who died in World War I are buried. Trump, a Republican, skipped plans to visit the same site during a 2018 trip to France, a decision that the White House blamed on weather at the time.

However, subsequent reporting found that Trump told aides he didn’t want to go because he viewed the dead soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” He has denied the comments, which Biden referenced during a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Monday.

“This guy does not deserve to be president,” Biden said.

Although foreign trips are ostensibly nonpartisan, Biden left no doubt that he sees a political connection between the D-Day anniversary and the election. The president described the invasion as “one of the most important moments in the history of defense of freedom and democracy.”

“I want to say as clearly as I can,” he added. “Democracy is literally on the ballot this year.”

Biden’s trip to France will be followed by another to Italy later this month for the annual Group of Seven summit, a rare doubleheader of international diplomacy in the middle of the presidential election season. Biden will skip a subsequent gathering in Switzerland, where leaders will be focused on the war in Ukraine, to attend a campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles with Hollywood stars. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the United States instead.

Biden’s travels, plus the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington next month, aim to embody a vision of global American leadership that’s central to his political identity but faces renewed threat from Trump.

Although the two presidents are from the same generation — Biden, 81, was born one and a half years before D-Day; Trump, 77, was born two years after the invasion — they developed divergent views on Europe and American alliances over the years.

For Biden, U.S. ties to Europe are a cornerstone of stability and a source of strength. For Trump, they’re a drain on precious resources, and he’s expressed more affinity for autocratic leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine has upended the continent.

Even before voters decide which vision they prefer, cracks in Biden’s foreign policy foundation have emerged. It took months to secure additional military assistance for Ukraine due to GOP resistance, and the delay led to depleted ammunition reserves and Russian advances on the battlefield.

“All that happened with a die-hard Atlanticist and die-hard alliance supporter in the White House,” said Charles Kupchan, a Georgetown University professor who previously served as Europe director on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. “Europeans have no option but to ask how reliable the United States can be.”

Kupchan noted that “the bipartisan compact behind a steady and robust American internationalism has collapsed.”

Given the political complications at home, Kupchan said, Biden should be careful about drawing historical parallels between D-Day and Ukraine while he’s in France.

“I’m not sure that he wants to say that this is a moment like 1940 or 1941,” he said, especially since Biden has ruled out sending American troops to fight against the Russian invasion.

Like all of his international engagements, Biden’s trip will be shadowed by Trump’s potential return to the White House. The presumptive Republican candidate, who last week became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, has pledged to unravel American commitments to allies in Europe.

“It’s every conversation. Every conversation is, what will happen?” said Max Bergmann, who leads Europe research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Bergmann, who was in the middle of a trip around the continent in the days before Biden arrived, said some European officials hope that a second Trump term would be no more damaging than his first, when he failed to follow through on some of his more extreme ideas. But he doubts Trump will be held in check without moderate members of his administration — such as former Defense Secretary James Mattis — who are unlikely to return.

“I’m not reassuring to them,” Bergmann said.

Rachel Rizzo, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said there’s a “palpable sense of uncertainty” as the United States and Europe wrestle with populist movements that have proven durably popular.

“This is not an aberration, this is not an accident,” she said. “There are real grievances that citizens of both continents have, and they’re playing out in support of right-wing parties.”

In another complication for Biden, his trip is taking place at the same time that his son, Hunter, is standing trial in Delaware. The younger Biden is accused of lying while purchasing a gun by claiming that he was not a drug addict. He has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution began presenting its case Tuesday, just days after Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Trump was found guilty in New York of making illegal hush money payments to an adult film actress who said they had sex. Trump denies the affair.

Paul Begala, a longtime Democratic strategist, said Biden is probably better off ignoring Trump while he’s in France.

“When you’re 81 years old, and three-fourths of the country thinks you’re too old, one of the things you have to do is to show strength,” he said. “That’s what he’s got to do over there. He’s got to show strength.”

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Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbett in Paris and Fatima Hussein in Greenwich, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

Multiple Russian state institutions and enterprises, including the aircraft manufacturer that produces Russia’s latest multirole fighters, were paralyzed following the latest Ukrainian cyberattack.

No Russian official representing Vladimir Putin’s government has been invited by the Elysee Palace due to the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, now in its third year.

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