Widow Hunter Biden's Her brother Beau testified Thursday in a federal gun trial that she found his drugs at her Wilmington, Delaware, home, saw him using the illegal drug and eventually began using it herself.
“Where did he get the drugs?” prosecutor Leo Wise asked.
“Various dealers,” Halle BidenShe had a brief affair with Hunter after her husband died and she sometimes accompanied him when he met with drug dealers.
Federal prosecutors have argued that Hunter Biden was addicted to drugs when he bought the gun at the center of the case. They accused him of lying on a government form. He was charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, falsely stating on an application that he was not a drug user and illegally possessing a gun for 11 days.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty and said the Justice Department's attack on him was unfair due to political pressure from Republicans.
Much of the prosecution's case so far has been devoted to highlighting the severity of his drug addiction, showing jurors shirtless moments with ex-girlfriends, infidelities and drug pipes — evidence they say was evidence of an active drug use when he checked “no” on a form. Prosecutors argue the evidence is necessary to show his mental state when he bought the guns.
Hallie Biden took the gun from Hunter and threw it into the trash at a nearby market because she was afraid of what Hunter would do with it. The gun was later found by a can picker and eventually handed over to the police. The text messages Hallie Biden sent to Hunter Biden shortly after he bought the gun were also part of the prosecution's evidence.
Prosecutors played surveillance video of her throwing the gun into a trash can.
“I realize now it was a stupid idea, but I panicked,” she said.
Wise questioned Hallie about a 2018 trip to California where she visited Hunter at the Roosevelt Hotel, and Wise asked if she was also using drugs.
“Yes,” she said.
“Who introduced him to you?” asked the prosecutor.
“Hunter did it,” Harley said as Hunter rested his face on his left hand and bowed his head.
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“It was a horrible experience, I'm really embarrassed, I'm really ashamed and I really regret it,” Halle said.
Hallie said she stopped using drugs in August 2018, but Hunter continued to use crack cocaine.
The Democratic president's son arrived in court Thursday with a copy of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” tucked under his arm. The book, which he wrote after he quit drinking in 2021, figures prominently in prosecutors' case: They played jurors audio excerpts in which he detailed his slide into drug and alcohol addiction following his brother's death in 2015.
Jurors in Hunter Biden’s criminal trial heard more testimony Thursday from the former gun store clerk who sold him a .38-caliber Colt revolver.
The clerk testified Wednesday that he saw President Joe Biden's son answer “no” when asked if he was “illegally using or addicted” to marijuana, stimulants, narcotics or any other controlled substances.
Gordon Cleveland, a former clerk at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, told jurors that he presented several options to Hunter Biden before deciding to buy the $900 gun and watched Biden sign the form, which included a warning about the consequences of submitting false information.
He told jurors: “Everything he bought was his final decision.”
During cross-examination Thursday, defense attorney Abbe Lowell noted that some of the questions on the form were in the present tense, such as “Are you an illegal user or addicted to drugs?” He suggested Hunter Biden did not believe he had an active drug problem.
Other questions are in the past tense, such as asking potential gun buyers whether they have ever been discharged from the military or adjudicated as mentally defective.
The proceedings came after a plea deal collapsed that would have resolved gun charges and another tax case and spared the Bidens from going to trial in the run-up to the 2024 election. First lady Jill Biden spent several days in court before traveling with President Joe Biden to France for the D-Day anniversary. Allies worry about the impact the proceedings will have on the president, who is deeply concerned about the health and continued sobriety of his only living son.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden's friends and family were also subpoenaed to testify.
Kathryn Burr, who has been married to Hunter Biden for 20 years, told jurors Wednesday that she discovered her husband was using drugs when she found a cocaine pipe in an ashtray on the porch on July 3, 2015, the day after their anniversary. When she confronted her husband, “he admitted to using cocaine,” she said.
Bull testified that she suspected he was using drugs before she found them. He was discharged from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine.
“I was definitely worried and scared,” she said. They had three children and divorced in 2016 after his infidelity and drug use became unbearable, according to her memoir, “If We Break Up.”
Bull, who was subpoenaed, took the witness stand for a brief 20 minutes. She remained calm but seemed a little uneasy as she recalled how she had searched his car more than a dozen times, each time with the children driving, to see if there were any drugs inside.
Prosecutors also called Zoe Kestan, who testified under immunity that she met Hunter Biden while working at a New York strip club in December 2017. During a private meeting, he pulled out a pipe and began smoking what she believed to be cocaine.
“He was very charming, charismatic, friendly, and I felt very safe with him,” she said. “I remember him smoking and nothing had changed. He was still a charming person.”
Kestan detailed to jurors instances where she saw him using drugs, buying drugs, talking about drugs or possessing drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors asked her where he kept drugs and pipes, and she testified he kept them in bags and other places, such as in sunglass cases.
Under cross-examination, Kestan admitted that she had no contact with him in October 2018, around the time he purchased the gun.
Prosecutors also used as evidence his memoir, which covers the period when he purchased the guns but does not mention them specifically, and text messages he sent to friends and family.
Lowell said Hunter Biden was in a different mental state when he wrote the book than when he bought the guns, and that he did not consider himself addicted at the time. He also suggested that Hunter Biden may have felt that he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcoholism did not prevent him from buying guns.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, but the sentence for a first offense is far from the maximum sentence, and it is unclear whether the judge will sentence him to prison.
He also faces another trial in September over $1.4 million in unpaid taxes.
In Congress, Republicans have been conducting an impeachment inquiry for months, trying to tie President Biden to his son's business dealings. So far, GOP lawmakers have not found direct evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden. But on Wednesday, House Republicans accused Hunter Biden and the president's brother, James Biden, of making false statements to Congress as part of their investigation.
The trial comes shortly after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their similarities highlight how the courts are taking center stage during the 2024 campaign.
