WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Jurors in Hunter Biden’s criminal trial got a look at the .38-caliber Colt revolver he bought in October 2018. They saw Form 4473, the gun transaction record at the center of the case. And they’re hearing testimony from the former store clerk who watched the president’s son answer “no” to questions about whether he was an “illicit user or addict” to marijuana, stimulants, narcotics or other controlled substances.
Federal prosecutors have argued that Hunter Biden was heavily addicted to crack at the time he bought the gun, and they have accused him of lying on the application form. He was charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making false statements on the application that he was not a drug user, and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty, saying the Justice Department bowed to political pressure from Republicans and that he was wrongly targeted.
Gordon Cleveland, a former employee at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, told jurors that he gave Hunter Biden several options before he decided on the $900 gun and that he watched Biden sign the form, which included a warning about the consequences of making false statements.
“Everything he bought was ultimately his own decision,” he told the jury.
Much of the prosecution’s argument so far has been geared toward highlighting the severity of his crack addiction, showing jurors shirtless moments with ex-girlfriends, infidelities and crack pipes – miscarriages of justice that they say prove he was actively using drugs when he checked no. Prosecutors argue that this is necessary evidence to show his state of mind when he bought the gun.
The proceedings come after a deal fell through that could have resolved the gun charges and a separate tax case, sparing the Biden family the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Now, First Lady Jill Biden is spending her days in court while President Joe Biden travels to France for the D-Day anniversary. Allies worry about the impact on the president, who is deeply concerned about the health and continued abstinence of his only living son.
And friends and family of Hunter Biden will be called as witnesses.
Kathleen Buhle, who was married to Hunter Biden for 20 years, told jurors Wednesday that she discovered her husband was using drugs when she found a crack pipe in an ashtray on her porch on July 3, 2015, the day after their anniversary. When she confronted him, “he admitted to smoking crack,” she said.
Buhle testified that she suspected he was using drugs even before the drugs were found. He had been kicked out of the Navy after testing positive for cocaine.
“I was definitely worried and scared,” she said. They have three children and divorced in 2016 after his infidelity and drug abuse became too much, according to her memoir, “If We Break,” which describes the end of their marriage.
Buhle, who was subpoenaed, was on the stand for only twenty minutes. She remained composed but seemed upset as she recounted how she searched his car for drugs about a dozen times each time the children drove it.
“Have you ever seen Hunter take drugs?” asked defense attorney Abbe Lowell Buhle.
“No,” she replied.
Prosecutor Leo Wise then asked Buhle how she knew that Hunter Biden was taking drugs.
“He told me,” she said.
Prosecutors also called Zoe Kestan, who testified under immunity that she met Hunter Biden in December 2017 at a New York strip club where she worked. During a private session, he pulled out a pipe and began smoking what she thought was crack.
“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.”
Kestan described to jurors when she saw him using drugs, buying drugs, talking about drugs or possessing drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors asked her where he kept his drugs and pipes, and she testified he kept them in baggies and other places, such as sunglasses cases.
During cross-examination, Kestan admitted that she had no contact with him in October 2018, when he purchased the gun.
Jurors were also shown dozens of pages of Hunter Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which he wrote in 2021 after getting sober, and heard lengthy audio clips from the book, which traces his descent into addiction after the 2015 cancer death of his brother Beau Biden. The memoir covers the period in which he purchased the gun, although the weapon is not specifically mentioned in it.
Lowell said Hunter Biden’s state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he bought the gun, when he didn’t believe he was addicted. And he suggested Hunter Biden may have sensed then that he had a drinking problem, not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse does not preclude a gun purchase.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison. However, first-time offenders do not even come close to the maximum sentence and it is unclear whether the judge would sentence him to prison.
He will also face a separate trial in September in which he is accused of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
In Congress, Republicans have been pursuing impeachment proceedings for months to link President Biden to his son’s business dealings. So far, Republican lawmakers have failed to find evidence directly implicating President Biden in wrongdoing. But on Wednesday, Republicans in the House of Representatives accused Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden, of making false statements to Congress as part of the investigation.
The trial comes shortly after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was convicted in New York City on 34 felonies. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how much the courts have been at the center of the 2024 election campaign.
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Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Hunter Biden at https://apnews.com/hub/hunter-biden.
