Federal prosecutors’ first witness in Hunter Biden’s criminal gun trial was, in essence, Hunter Biden himself as jurors listened to long excerpts of him reading his autobiography detailing his drug addiction.

Jurors heard clips from Hunter Biden’s time in Los Angeles, where he was holed up in a hotel for days in the spring of 2018 while smoking crack, and about the time he crashed a rental car while high on crack. 

In the clips, Hunter Biden described his “superpower” of being able to find crack in any town anywhere and his recounting of walking into a “high crime neighborhood” in Los Angeles as well as a days-long party at an upscale Beverly Hills hotel, in which some of the attendees stole valuables from his pockets. 

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The audio clips were played along with testimony from FBI agent Erika Jensen, who talked about Hunter Biden’s use of crack cocaine and large cash withdrawals from ATMs, which prosecutors argue is a sign he was buying drugs.

The timeline of Hunter Biden’s addiction is the center of the case because prosecutors say he was a drug user when he bought a revolver in October 2018. He is accused of lying on the gun form by saying he was not a drug addict.

As prosecutors played the clips, first lady Jill Biden, who sat behind the defense table, looked directly at the display screen while the excerpts were being shown. At other times, she looked directly at her stepson and the jury box.

Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen, stared ahead with no emotion while his voice filled the courtroom, narrating his experience of seeking drugs.