Today, juror #16 has dropped out of the trial after writing the judge a letter which said she lived an hour away and was unemployed and had no way to make it to court every day. It's not clear which one of the four alternate jurors has taken her place.

With that out of the way, lawyers were able to give their opening statements. Prosecutor Derek Hines started out of the gate with a line we've heard a lot recently: No one is above the law.

Prosecutor Derek Hines began opening statements around 9:57 a.m. by saying, “No one is above the law. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your name is.”

Defendants are tried 'because of the choices they made,” he said, adding that Hunter Biden "chose to illegally own a firearm" and that "we’re also here because he chose to lie."

Hines showed a photo of the Cult Cobra revolver which Biden bought and the ATF form he filled out when he bought it. He then played some segments from Hunter Biden's memoir which was available as an audiobook he read himself.

“The defendant knew he was an addict” Hines said, citing one text allegedly from Hunter where he called himself “a liar and a thief” as well as a drug user.

Prosecutors also played portions of the audiobook from Biden's memoir in court, meaning the voice of the defendant was one of the first the jurors' heard.

In the book, Hunter describes himself as smoking crack every 20 minutes of every day. He even described his ability to find crack as a "superpower." Several witnesses, including Hallie Biden his brother's widow with whom he had an affair, will testify that they saw him smoke crack every 15 minutes in the months before and after the time when he bought the gun. Hunter sat motionless through all of this.

As prosecutors have played long excerpts of Hunter reading his own autobiography – detailing his addiction – Hunter Biden has sat still, looking down, with his head resting over his chin.

Hines then closed his opening statement by noting that while being an addict isn't a choice, buying a gun is. Hunter Biden isn't charged with using drugs, he's charged with buying a gun and lying on the ATF form.

Next up, Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell made his opening statement in which he stressed that Hunter didn't "knowingly" break the law.

“Hunter bought a small handgun,” Lowell said. “It was never loaded.” He added, "He never used it.”

Lowell suggests that prosecutors left out the word “knowingly” from the slide that described the charges to the jury.

This seems to be the defense case in a nutshell. On the one hand they are arguing a kind of no harm, no foul. Since Hunter only had the gun for 11 days and never even loaded it, this case shouldn't matter. But as Hines, the prosecutor, pointed out. The only reason Hunter only had the gun for 11 days is that Hallie Biden found it in his car and threw it away (you can read that story here). Had she not done that, Hunter would have continued to own the gun.

The other argument is going to be that Hunter had just completed an 11-day stint in rehab at the time he bought the gun. So the fact that he was a constant drug user before and after that time doesn't matter because at that moment he didn't see himself as an addict. 

Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell told jurors that what the prosecution can’t show is that Hunter Biden went to the store with the intent to buy a gun and that he considered himself an addict at the time. 

If whether or not your are an addict is a matter of how you feel on a given day or even in a given hour of time rather than your actual behavior over time, then no one is an addict unless they are in the process of using drugs while buying a gun. Also, whether Hunter intended to buy a gun when he went to the shop should be irrelevant. Literally the defense argument is that he didn't intend to buy a gun and he also didn't intend to use drugs. Okay, but he did buy a gun and he did use drugs. This is the kind of defense that only a lot of money (someone else's money in Hunter's case) can buy. Incredibly, it appears to be working on at least one juror.

One juror appeared to become emotional during defense attorney Abbe Lowell’s opening statements. The juror reached for tissues in her bag and dabbed her eyes and her nose several times. It’s unclear what prompted the reaction.  

After that, the prosecutors called their first witness, FBI agent Erika Jensen.

Prosecutor Derek Hines continued to use FBI agent Erika Jensen’s testimony to introduce copious excerpts of Biden’s memoir in audiobook form.

But earlier in the morning, during a brief break, NBC News reports there was a dramatic confrontation in the hallway. Hunter's wife Melissa Biden shouted at former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler.

She got close to him and said in a loud emotional voice and gestured toward him, pointing her finger at him: “You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of s---” and then walked away.

Ziegler did not respond. He entered the courtroom and confirmed what was said, telling NBC News, “That’s what I heard.” When asked for comment, he said, "It's sad I've been sitting here the whole time and haven’t approached anyone."

You get the impression that Hunter's family is feeling the pressure. Politico published a story today saying that President Biden has also been feeling the pressure.

Over the past few weeks, President Joe Biden has grown consumed by worries over the trial of Hunter Biden. He’s called family members more regularly to check on his son’s mood. The topic of the criminal case dominated the family gatherings in Delaware over the weekend...

Joe Biden has long expressed a private guilt to confidants about the spotlight his career has cast on his family. He has expressed fear that the trial could lead to his son’s incarceration or endanger his sobriety. Among Biden confidants, there has been growing concern that the personal burden the president felt would get worse as the court proceedings unfolded...

“He carries so much worry and grief about his family all the time, and it’s especially there now,” said a person close to the president who was granted anonymity to speak publicly about private conversations. “Seeing Hallie up there will be hard.”

So the situation is bad now but it's going to get worse when Hallie Biden, Beau Biden's widow, is testifying about having an affair with Hunter and also smoking crack with him. There will also be testimony from Hunter's ex-wife to whom he owes millions in support.

The trial took a lunch break around 1 pm. First lady Jill Biden left the courthouse at that time. There should be a bit more testimony today. If anything dramatic happens I'll add an update. Otherwise I'll probably recount it in tomorrow's update.