WILMINGTON, Del. — Federal prosecutors argued Tuesday that Hunter Biden “chose” to lie about his drug addiction to obtain a gun, telling a jury in the first son’s hometown that “no one is above the law” — while the defense argued their client was pushed into buying a lethal weapon.

“It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is,” prosecutor Derek Hines said in his opening statement. “The defendant Robert Hunter Biden chose to illegally own a firearm. He was a user of crack and a drug addict. He chose to lie.”

Hines said Hunter, 54, deliberately fibbed on a federal form used for background checks by claiming he wasn’t in thrall to controlled substances when he bought the Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver on Oct. 12, 2018, when in fact he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction.

On that day, the Biden son had driven his dad’s Cadillac to an AT&T store in Wilmington with plans to buy himself a phone, when he saw the gun store — StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply — across the street and decided to go inside, Hines said.

“Because he lied, Mr. Biden was able to walk out with a revolver, speed loader and ammunition,” the prosecutor went on.

Federal Judge Maryellen Noreika previously ruled that prosecutors don’t have to prove that the first son was high when he filled out the gun application form.

The younger Biden owned the shooter for 11 days and orchestrated meetings with drug dealers during that time, Hines claimed, even arguing that Hunter had introduced Hallie Biden — his sister-in-law-turned-lover — to crack cocaine.

In the days after the gun purchase, the prosecutor said, Hunter sent texts to Hallie saying he was “waiting for a dealer” and had been “sleeping on a car smoking crack.”

On Oct. 23, 2018, Hallie found the revolver inside the center console of the younger Biden’s unlocked Ford F-150 Raptor, which had the windows rolled down and drug paraphernalia inside, Hines said.

She took the revolver and tossed it into the garbage outside a Wilmington grocery store, Janssen’s Market, the prosecutor narrated.

“When the defendant found out his gun was gone, he was angry,” Hines said, before playing a brief excerpt of the audiobook of Hunter’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” describing his struggle with drugs.

The prosecution would go on to play excerpts from the book and recite Hunter’s messages from a summary chart of evidence throughout proceedings Tuesday.

In his own opening statement, lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell admitted his client has battled addiction as a result of multiple traumas, beginning with the car accident that killed his mother and sister in 1972 and continuing through the death of his brother, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.

“Hunter has been a user of drugs and alcohol, there is no disagreement about that, none,” Lowell said.

“Hunter succumbed to those traumas,” the defense attorney went on. “He had abused alcohol since he was a teenager and drugs as an adult.” 

“Grief and trauma led to his abuse of alcohol and drugs,” Lowell reiterated. “Hunter has never asked anyone to excuse his use of alcohol or drugs to dull his pain from trauma.”

Lowell said that during the 11-day period that Hunter owned the gun, he never loaded it and only took it out of a locked case one time. 

The attorney then attempted to shift blame onto Hallie, saying she was the one who placed the gun into a pouch that had cocaine residue on it. The presence of drug traces had been highlighted by prosecutors in pre-trial filings. 

Turning to the gun application form, Lowell argued it merely asked if the purchaser was a drug user, rather than asking if the person had formerly or currently used drugs. 

He added that Hunter didn’t “knowingly” lie on the form — a key requirement that prosecutors have to prove — but rather was in a “deep state of denial” about his addiction. 

The defense team also tried to paint StarQuest Shooters employee Gordon Cleveland, expected to be a key witness at trial, as a pushy salesman who wanted Hunter to walk out with a firearm that day.

 “A sale is a sale and that was their goal that day,” Lowell said. “They wanted it done quickly.”

And despite Noreika’s ruling that prosecutors don’t have to prove that Hunter was high when he purchased the firearm, that didn’t stop Lowell from making the argument.

“Hunter was not using drugs when he bought that gun,” Lowell said. “Times before, times after, but not during.”

Lowell also played up Hunter’s alcoholism, implying that the first son may have been under the influence of booze rather than hard drugs when he purchased the Colt Cobra.

“There may be high functioning alcoholics but there is no such thing as high functioning crack addicts,” Lowell said, listing off several cushy gigs Hunter was working at the time.

Notably, Lowell didn’t mention that Hunter was on the board of Ukraine-based energy company Burisma Holdings, a gig which initially piqued the interest of House Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry into the president.

Lowell added that jurors should pay careful attention to the anticipated testimony of both Hallie Biden and of Hunter’s ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan, both of whom, Lowell said, had received immunity from the feds.

After opening arguments wrapped, prosecutors called FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen to the stand and played roughly an hour of excerpts from the “Beautiful Things” audiobook — narrated by Hunter.

Hunter — who had appeared stoic in court so far — shifted in his chair while his own voice resonated in the room.

At one point, first lady Jill Biden, in court for a second straight day among the spectators, put her arm around daughter Ashley — who appeared to get emotional during the reading and eventually walked out of the courtroom.

Jurors largely remained impassive and didn’t laugh at all when a joke from the manuscript was played.

At one pivotal moment, Hines walked over to the witness stand and presented Jensen with a Macbook Pro 13 wrapped in plastic.

At the prosecutor’s prompting, Jensen confirmed the laptop belonged to Hunter, citing the serial number on the back of the machine and noting the FBI corroborated its authenticity with information from Hunter Biden’s iCloud account, which they subpoenaed from Apple.

That done, Jensen went on, investigators extracted data including WhatsApp messages, iMessages and text messages showing Hunter’s drug dependency

In an April 28, 2018, text to alleged drug dealer Clifford O’Brien, Hunter sent a photo of a digital scale with a mound of white powder sitting on it, intimating he’d been ripped off and that the haul of powder was underweight. 

O’Brien responded: “Bro that’s it. I don’t want to do this no more. I go out of my way to get you the best out here.”  

In another 2018 message to O’Brien from Hunter, the first son said: “Can you get baby powder, the real soft stuff.” 

O’Brien responded affirmatively and added he had pills available as well.

The trial got off to a rocky start Tuesday morning, after openings were delayed when jurors couldn’t make it to the courthouse on time.

Noreika told prosecutors and the defense that the court had received an email from one juror — identified as number 16 during Monday’s jury selection and who lives in Milford, Del. — saying that she doesn’t have a car and “I live an hour away.”

The judge said she would let the woman out of serving due to hardship and replace her with an alternate, also a woman. The initial jury of six men and six women had been seated Monday. 

Proceedings were also delayed from the 9 a.m. scheduled start time after four other panelists showed up late. 

Openings didn’t get underway until nearly an hour later, at 9:55 a.m., but the jury was engaged, taking notes as lawyers from both sides laid out their cases.

Hunter, 54, arrived to the federal courthouse shortly before the scheduled start wearing a suit and tie and an American flag pin on his lapel. He was accompanied again by his wife Melissa Cohen, who held his hand on their way inside.

The first son watched intently from the defense table throughout the entire 30 minutes of Hines’ arguments and for the roughly 50 minutes that Lowell spoke.

Special counsel David Weiss, whose office brought the case against Hunter, was also present for the first day of arguments.

Jill and Ashley Biden left the courthouse during the lunch break, while Weiss popped in and out of proceedings throughout the day.

The younger Biden is facing a separate tax evasion case in Los Angeles slated to commence trial on Sept. 5.

The Delaware case is not expected to last longer than two weeks.

Additional reporting by Miranda Devine