WILMINGTON, Del. The latest news on Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial (all times local):
On cross-examination, defense attorney Abbe Lowell asked DEA Special Agent Joshua Romig if he investigated any of the alleged drug dealers who were texting Hunter Biden.
Romig said he did not investigate anyone because he was not involved in the Hunter Biden case.
“This is not my investigation,” he said.
At the moment:
— Back from France, the first lady attends Hunter Biden Gun Trial while the accusation ends
– What is the firearms form at the center of Hunter Biden’s gun trial? AP explains
Here are the latest:
Prosecutor Derek Hines walked DEA Special Agent Joshua Romig through a series of text messages that prosecutors say were exchanged between Hunter Biden and three different drug dealers in the spring and summer of 2018.
Romig said the language in the text exchanges indicated drug trafficking.
Similar text messages were exchanged in November 2018, a month after Hunter Biden purchased the gun.
Romig also said that a photo of Hunter Biden taken in December 2018 shows him holding what appears to be a crack pipe.
Hines also played a video taken on Hunter Biden’s phone in December 2018, showing pieces of a white substance on a digital scale. Romig said the video appears to show about 2 grams of crack cocaine.
DEA Special Agent Joshua Romig is the next prosecution witness to testify in Hunter Biden’s gun trial.
Prosecutor Derek Hines asked Romig about how cocaine gets into the United States from countries like Colombia and Peru.
Romig also explained that crack is a more potent form of the drug derived from powder cocaine. Hunter Biden is accused of lying about being addicted to crack cocaine when he bought a gun in October 2018.
Prosecutor Leo Wise handed FBI chemist Jason Brewer a leather bag in which Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and former lover, Hallie Biden, placed the gun before throwing it in a trash can outside a supermarket sophisticated apartment near his home, 11 days after he bought it.
Brewer said he tested the bag to determine if there were any traces of drugs or drug residue.
“I found a minimal amount of white or off-white powder,” Brewer said. Dust was found on the inner flap and bottom of the bag.
Brewer said he tested the powder with a chemical solution and gas chromatography.
“Have you reached a conclusion about the substance you tested?” Sage asked.
“Cocaine was identified in the residual white powder I tasted,” Brewer said.
On cross-examination, defense attorney David Kolansky noted that the amount of residue tested by Brewer was “minimal.” He also noted that Brewer tested the bag in October 2023, five years after the bag was recovered by police, who were called after Hallie Biden threw it in the trash can.
Kolasnky also noted that the tests Brewer did did not indicate when the drug residue entered the bag or how it got there.
The fifth day of Hunter Biden’s gun trial in Delaware began Friday with prosecutors calling an FBI forensic chemist to the witness stand.
Prosecutor Leo Wise is questioning Jason Brewer, an expert in controlled substance analysis.
Hunter Biden is accused of falsely denying that he was a drug user or addict when he purchased a gun from a Wilmington gun store in October 2018.
First lady Jill Biden arrived at the courthouse for son Hunter Biden’s federal firearms trial.
She left France on Thursday night, where she was attending D-Day events with President Joe Biden. She will return to France for an official dinner.
Federal prosecutors are wrapping up their gun case in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial, with two more witnesses expected Friday in their effort to prove to jurors that the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun purchase form when he said that he was not “an illegal user of, or addicted to” drugs.
Prosecutors still plan to call a drug expert and an FBI chemist, capping a week that has been largely devoted to highlighting the severity of his drug problem through highly personal and sometimes salacious testimony.
Hunter Biden was charged with three crimes: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false statement on his application that he was not a drug user, and having the gun illegally for 11 days.
Hunter Biden’s brother’s widow told jurors at his federal gun trial Thursday about the moment she found the revolver in her truck, describing how she put it in a leather purse, stuffed it in a shopping bag and threw it in a trash can outside a nearby grocery store. from your 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’s purchase of the Colt revolver — and Hallie Biden’s frantic disposal of it — are the fulcrum of the case against him.
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.
