Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial continues; Prosecutors to call final witnesses

WILMINGTON, Del. (NewsNation) — The prosecution in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial is expected to call its last two witnesses to testify on Friday. The defense is also expected to announce whether Hunter Biden will testify.

Hunter Biden buying a Colt revolver — and Hallie Biden’s frantic disposal of it — are the fulcrum of the case against him. Federal prosecutors say the president’s son was addicted to crack when he bought the gun. He was charged with three crimes: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false statement on the application that he was not a drug user, and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days.

The widow of Hunter Biden’s brother told jurors Thursday about the moment she found the gun in his truck, describing how she put it in a leather bag, stuffed it in a shopping bag and threw it into a trash can outside a grocery store near his home.

“I panicked and wanted to get rid of them,” she testified about finding the gun and ammunition in the vehicle’s console in October 2018. “I didn’t want him to get hurt and I didn’t want my kids to get hurt. find and get hurt.

Hunter Biden, who has pleaded not guilty, said the Justice Department is bowing to political pressure from Republicans and that he is being unfairly targeted.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said in an ABC interview that he would accept the jury’s verdict and ruled out pardoning his son.

Hallie Biden’s testimony

Hallie Biden, who had a brief romantic relationship with Hunter after her brother Beau Biden died in 2015, testified Thursday that from the time Hunter returned to Delaware from a trip to California in 2018 until she threw away his gun , she didn’t see him using drugs. . That period included the day he purchased the gun.

Hallie Biden’s testimony was expected to be her most dramatic yet, especially since she testified with full immunity. She discussed how she was also using drugs with Hunter Biden. The prosecution emphasized that it was Hunter Biden who introduced Hallie Biden to hard drugs and is responsible for her addiction.

Hallie Biden testified that Hunter Biden introduced her to crack cocaine in 2018.

“It was a terrible experience that I went through, I am embarrassed and embarrassed, and I regret that period of my life,” she added.

Although Hallie Biden stopped using drugs in August 2018, she said Hunter Biden continued to smoke crack.

Hallie Biden finds Hunter Biden’s gun

Hallie Biden testified that on October 23, 2018, Hunter Biden came to her house after being away for days. She said she was trying to “clean” his truck, sweeping it for drugs or pipes — which she claimed she did regularly.

“I realize now it was a stupid idea, but I panicked,” she told prosecutor Leo Wise.

During the cross-examination of Hallie Biden, the defense emphasized that they never saw Hunter Biden using drugs from October 6, 2018 to October 23, 2018. It was during this period that Hunter purchased his gun.

Lowell suggested that Hallie Biden’s testimony was unreliable because Hunter Biden frequently lied to her about where he was or what he was doing. Lowell worked to cast reasonable doubt on Hunter Biden’s whereabouts, arguing that text messages between the two are not reliable evidence and that Hunter Biden could be lying about his drug use.

More witness statements

Jurors heard testimony from four other witnesses this week: Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; his ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan; FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen and gun salesman Gordon Cleveland.

On Thursday, Cleveland ended his testimony by saying he saw Hunter Biden fill out the ATF form for gun purchases. When the president’s son filled out the form, Cleveland said, he saw him answer “no” to the question about drug use and that he expressed no confusion or misunderstanding about the questions he was asked on the form.

Cleveland testified that Hunter Biden did not appear to be under the influence of any drugs at the time he purchased the gun.

On Wednesday, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and an ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, testified about the discovery of his crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Additionally, jurors were shown photos of the president’s son bare-chested in a bubble bath and heard about his visit to a strip club.

Jensen’s testimony, which began Tuesday as the prosecution’s first witness, also ended on Wednesday. Jensen was assigned to investigate Hunter Biden and specifically looked for evidence and drug abuse.

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

As he neared the end of the interrogation, Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, attempted to undermine the credibility of Biden’s infamous laptop that was left in a repair shop and the authenticity of the messages found on the device. Lowell also tried to raise doubts about whether his client was telling the truth in some of his text messages.

Jensen said investigators were unable to verify whether Hunter Biden actually did what he claimed he was doing in texts used as evidence against him.

Hunter Biden Accusations

Hunter Biden faces three felonies stemming from the purchase of a firearm in 2018, when he was, according to his memoirs, at the height of his crack addiction. He was accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false statement on the app used to screen firearm applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and possessing the gun illegally for 11 days.

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

The trial comes just days after Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president in 2024, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. A jury found the former president guilty of a scheme to cover up a secret payment to a porn star to prevent damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the criminal court has taken center stage. of attention during the 2024 campaign.

Hunter Biden also faces a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were supposed to be resolved through a collapsed plea deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a years-long investigation into his dealings.