WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Jurors who will decide whether President Joe Bidenson is guilty of federal gun charges are hearing deeply personal testimony about a dark time for Biden Hunter.
The case pending in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, stems from a gun that the young Biden purchased in October 2018, months before his father announced his candidacy for president.
Prosecutors say Hunter Biden lied when he swore he was not a drug user on a federal form he filled out at the gun store. He had the gun for about 11 days before it was thrown in a trash can.
Hunter Biden’s attorney argues that his client did not believe he was in the throes of addiction when he stated in paperwork that he had no drug problems.
Hunter Biden should have avoided prosecution in gun case entirely, but deal with prosecutors fell apart last year. He was later indicted on three felony weapons charges. He also faces a trial scheduled for September on criminal charges alleging he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years.
Here are some important witnesses at the trial:
KATHLEEN BUHLE
One of the prosecutors’ first witnesses was Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, who filed for divorce in 2016 after more than 20 years of marriage. They have three children together. In the divorce proceedings, she accused him of wasting his money on drugs, alcohol, strip clubs and prostitutes.
On the witness stand, Buhle described learning about Hunter Biden’s drug use when he found a pipe used to smoke crack cocaine in an ashtray on the porch in July 2015, weeks after Hunter’s brother Beau died of brain cancer.
When she confronted Hunter, he “acknowledged smoking crack,” she told jurors.
Buhle testified that he suspected Hunter of using drugs even before he found the crack pipe, as he had already been kicked out of the Navy after testing positive for cocaine.
“I was definitely worried, scared,” said Buhle, who was subpoenaed by prosecutors.
She also said she looked for drugs in the family car whenever her children drove it. But she acknowledged, under questioning from Hunter’s lawyer, that she never saw him using drugs.
HALLIE BIDEN
A key witness expected to testify on behalf of prosecutors is Beau’s widow, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after her brother’s death.
When their relationship became public in 2017, Joe Biden and his wife Jill said in a statement that the couple had their “full and complete support,” adding, “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they put their lives back together after so sad.”
Hunter detailed their troubled romance in her memoir “Beautiful Things,” writing, “As much as we desperately thought we could be the answer to each other’s pain, we only caused each other more.”
Hallie Biden found the gun in Hunter Biden’s truck days after he bought it and threw it in a trash can near a supermarket in Wilmington. Hunter Biden told police in 2018 that she took the gun because she was concerned about his mental health, according to a police report.
Hunter was upset when he found out she threw the gun away, but it was no longer there when she went back to look for it. A man collecting recyclable materials found him and handed him over to the police.
Jurors have already seen text messages between the pair that prosecutors are using to try to prove that Hunter Biden knew he was a drug addict when he said on the form that he wasn’t.
In a late-night conversation, shortly after purchasing the gun, Hallie asked Hunter where he was. Hunter responded that he was behind a baseball stadium in downtown Wilmington “waiting for a drug dealer.”
ZOE KESTAN
Kestan, another former romantic partner, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony to prosecutors.
She described meeting Hunter in December 2017 at a New York strip club where she worked. During a private session with her and another girl, he picked up a pipe and began smoking what she assumed was crack cocaine, she testified.
“He was incredibly charming, charismatic and friendly, and I felt very safe around him,” she said. “I remember that after he smoked nothing changed. He was the same charming person.”
The two met again a few weeks later in New York. She said she stayed at his hotel for five days, during which time, according to her, Hunter Biden smoked crack perhaps every 20 minutes. At one point during their stay together, he asked her to go find his drug dealer and take him to the room, she told jurors.
But Kestan acknowledged that he had no contact with Hunter Biden in October 2018, the month he purchased the gun.
James Biden
The defense plans to call President Biden’s brother, who is close to Hunter Biden and has helped his nephew through rehabilitation in the past, to the witness stand.
Outside of the case, James Biden’s business dealings have made him a target of Republicans, who have questioned both him and Hunter Biden in their stalled impeachment inquiry. Joe Biden told lawmakers during a voluntary private interview in February that the president “has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest” in his business ventures.
House Republicans on Wednesday accused Joe Biden and Hunter Biden of making false statements to Congress and sent criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. The allegation involving James Biden is about a statement he made about whether the president, as a private citizen, met with a former Biden family business partner.
James Biden’s lawyer called the Republicans’ action a “transparent and cynical attempt to distract and retaliate for Donald Trump’s recent criminal conviction.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said it was “nothing more than a desperate attempt by Republicans to distort Hunter’s testimony so they can divert attention from his failed impeachment inquiry and interfere with his trial.”
GORDON CLEVELAND
Cleveland sold Hunter Biden the .38 caliber revolver at a Wilmington gun store in 2018.
Testifying for prosecutors, the former gun store clerk told jurors that he stood next to Hunter Biden as he began answering a series of questions on the federal form that every person must fill out when purchasing a gun. Hunter checked a box saying he was buying the gun for himself, Cleveland said.
Another question asked whether the buyer was an “illegal user or addict” of marijuana, stimulants, narcotics or any other controlled substance. Hunter Biden wrote “no,” Cleveland said.
He also testified that Hunter did not ask any questions or express any confusion about the issue. Hunter Biden paid $900 in cash, telling Cleveland to keep the change — about $13.
Cleveland told jurors he saw Hunter sign the form, which includes a warning about the consequences of submitting false information.
