(NewsNation) — In the final hearing before trial, prosecutors and defense in the Hunter Biden gun charge case agreed that a laptop obtained by the government could be used in evidence but that his tax case in California and child support case in Arkansas are off limits.
President Joe Biden’s son didn’t speak to reporters as he followed his lawyers into the Wilmington courthouse. He’s charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days in Delaware. He has acknowledged an addiction to crack cocaine during that period, but his lawyers have said he didn’t break the law and that the case is politically motivated.
The pretrial hearing is expected to be the final one before the case goes to court June 3.
The two sides have been arguing over the admission of evidence in court documents leading up to the case. The other legal cases the president’s son is facing were a point of contention, as was the laptop, which Republicans have seized on as part of ongoing investigations into President Joe Biden and his family.
Materials from the laptop include emails, financial records, business records and media that have proved embarrassing to Hunter Biden’s image, including sexually explicit videos and photos of him doing drugs.
Biden’s lawyers have argued that a computer repair technician admitted to accessing sensitive information when it was taken to a Delaware repair shop in 2019, potentially tampering with the device. That’s part of why they have argued against it being used as evidence. His defense team has also accused the prosecution of being slow to produce evidence.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued there is no evidence that the material was tampered with. The prosecution also signaled an intent to use parts of Biden’s memoir, which include emotional anecdotes about his drug addiction, meaning the trial could get personal for the first son.
The judge ruled that prosecutors can assume the evidence from the laptop is untainted, but the defense will be allowed to object on a case-by-case basis.
Other details regarding evidence were hashed out in the hearing, including a stipulation that the government must show monetary transactions are related to drug use if they reference them.
The prosecution can also only refer to Biden’s California tax case as a “criminal investigation” or evidence as”found/obtained through proper chain.” His child support case in Arkansas has been deemed off-limits.
The trial comes after a plea deal collapsed last year after a judge questioned the leniency of the agreement.
Biden’s California trial was also initially set to begin in June, but his attorneys successfully argued for a delay, pushing the trial date closer to fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.