WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) — Jurors who will decide whether President Joe Biden’s son is guilty of federal gun violations are hearing deeply personal testimony about a obscure time for Hunter Biden.
The case, which is taking place in Wilmington, Delaware, concerns a gun that the younger Biden purchased in October 2018, months before his father announced his candidacy for president.
Prosecutors allege Hunter Biden lied when he swore on a form he filled out at the gun store that he was not a drug user. He had the gun for about 11 days before throwing it in a trash can.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer argues that his client did not believe he was addicted when he stated in the documents that he did not have a drug problem.
Hunter Biden was supposed to have avoided prosecution in the gun case altogether, but a deal with prosecutors fell through last year. He was subsequently charged with three grave gun offenses. He also faces a trial in September in which he is accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years.
Here is a look at some of the key witnesses in the trial:
KATHLEEN BEAUTIFUL
One of the prosecution’s 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. During the divorce proceedings, she accused him of squandering her money on drugs, alcohol, strip clubs and prostitutes.
On the witness stand, Buhle described how she learned about Hunter Biden’s drug apply when she found a pipe used to smoke crack cocaine in an ashtray on her family’s porch in July 2015, a few weeks after Hunter’s brother Beau died of brain cancer.
When she confronted Hunter, “he admitted to smoking crack,” she told jurors.
Buhle testified that she had suspected that Hunter had taken drugs even before the crack pipe was found because he had previously been discharged from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine.
“I was definitely worried and scared,” said Buhle, who was summoned by the public prosecutor’s office.
She also reported that she searched the family car for drugs whenever her children drove it. However, when asked by Hunter’s lawyer, she acknowledged that she never actually saw him take drugs.
HALLIE BIDEN
A key witness expected to testify for the prosecution is Beau’s widow, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after his 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 unconditional support,” adding: “We are all fortunate that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they began to put their lives back together after so much grief.”
Hunter described their troubled romance in detail in his memoir, Beautiful Things, writing, “Even though we desperately thought we could be the answer to each other’s pain, we only inflicted more pain on each other.”
Hallie Biden found the gun in Hunter Biden’s truck a few days after he bought it and threw it in a trash can near a Wilmington grocery store. According to a police report, Hunter Biden told police in 2018 that she took the gun because she was concerned about his mental health.
Hunter was upset when he discovered she had thrown the gun away. However, when she returned to look for it, it was gone. A man collecting recyclables found it and turned it over to police.
The jury has already seen text messages between the two, which the prosecution uses as evidence that Hunter Biden knew about his drug addiction, even though he denied it on the form.
In a late-night conversation shortly after purchasing the gun, Hallie asked Hunter where he was. Hunter replied that he was behind a baseball stadium in downtown Wilmington, “waiting for a dealer.”
ZOE CHESTAN
Kestan, another former partner, received immunity in exchange for her testimony before the prosecution.
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 pulled out a pipe and began smoking what she thought was crack, she testified.
“He was incredibly charming, charismatic and friendly, and I felt really safe around him,” she said. “I remember nothing changing after he smoked it. He was still the same charming person.”
The two met again a few weeks later in New York. She said she spent five days at his hotel, during which Hunter Biden smoked crack about every 20 minutes. At some point during their stay together, he asked her to meet his drug dealer and take him to his room, she told jurors.
However, Kestan acknowledged that she 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 to the witness stand. He is close to Hunter Biden and has helped his nephew with rehab stays in the past.
Outside of the case, James Biden’s business dealings have made him a target of Republicans questioning both him and Hunter Biden in their stalled impeachment proceedings. Joe Biden told lawmakers during a voluntary private interview in February that the president “has never been involved in or had any direct or indirect financial interest” in his business activities.
House Republicans on Wednesday accused Joe Biden and Hunter Biden of making false statements to Congress and forwarded criminal charges to the Justice Department. The charges against James Biden relate to a statement he made about whether the president had met in his private capacity with a former Biden family business associate.
James Biden’s lawyer called the Republicans’ move a “transparent and cynical attempt to distract from and retaliate for the recent conviction of Donald Trump.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said it was “nothing more than a desperate attempt by Republicans to twist Hunter’s testimony to distract from their failed impeachment and interfere with his trial.”
GORDON CLEVELAND
Cleveland sold Hunter Biden the .38 caliber revolver in a gun shop in Wilmington in 2018.
In his testimony before the prosecution, the former gun dealer told jurors he stood next to Hunter Biden as he began answering a series of questions on the federal form that everyone must fill out when they buy a gun. Hunter checked a box saying he was buying the gun for himself, Cleveland said.
Another question was whether the buyer was an “illicit user or addict” of marijuana, stimulants, narcotics or other controlled substances. Hunter Biden answered “no,” Cleveland said.
He also testified that Hunter did not ask any questions or express any confusion about the question. Hunter paid Biden $900 in cash and told Cleveland to keep the change – about $13.
Cleveland told jurors that he watched Hunter sign the form, which also included a warning about the consequences of providing false information.
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Richer reported from Washington.
