WILMINGTON, Del. – Three new witnesses took the stand Hunter Biden‘s weapons trial on Wednesday, which recalls in vivid color the suspect’s spiral into drug addiction, thwarted attempts to enter rehab and the ill-fated purchase of a firearm in late 2018, a year in which his use of crack cocaine from the hand ran.
Joining Biden for the third day were first lady Jill Biden; his wife, Melissa Cohen-Biden; close ally Kevin Morris; and other old friends and relatives.
Hunter Biden watched closely as his ex-wife testified about how he left the family home after discovering his drug use, and an ex-girlfriend recounted how he smoked crack “every 20 minutes” and the pain and deception she felt when he started smoking. disappear for nights. Biden’s missing gun was also shown to the jury.
David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who was appointed last year by Attorney General Merrick Garland as the special prosecutor investigating Biden, turned his gaze to the witnesses and prosecutors, occasionally turning his gaze to Abbe Lowell, the lead attorney of Biden, and the arguments. of Biden’s supporters filling the rows behind him.
That evening, Biden, wearing a light blue denim shirt, and his wife entered a dining room in downtown Wilmington. A handful of employees and customers approached him warily for photos and kind words. Secret Service agents walked around the room as Biden examined the offer.
More friends soon arrived, including Rob Buccini and Kevin Morris, who have been in court with Biden every day.
After a day in court intently watching the proceedings, Cohen-Biden found herself in a lighter mood, calling for her husband and chatting with staff.
“There’s Naomi,” Biden’s wife said, apparently referring to Biden’s daughter with Buhle. Cohen-Biden, wearing sweatpants and a taupe sweater, walked to a high table in the corner where Biden was joined by two police officers and the rest of the group.
Others soon trickled in.
“Abbe,” Buccini, a longtime friend of Biden’s, shouted at Lowell as another friend approached Lowell’s legal team, high-fived David Kolansky and said he didn’t hear the group, which was dressed in sweatshirts and other athletic gear recognized.
Most people didn’t notice or seem to care about Biden, but if they did, he showed the easy charm that his ex-girlfriend said drew her to him even as Biden disappointed her night after night spend chasing drugs.
The easy-going nature of Biden and his entourage was on display throughout the trial, with reporters going in and out of the courtroom, with one ally even beckoning a journalist from the middle of a courtroom for a private conversation out of earshot as the proceedings were underway on Tuesday . . Biden gave another reporter a friendly double tap on the arm as he walked out during a lunch break.
Later, the defendant appeared to make eye contact with an ex-girlfriend as she left the witness stand, and Cohen-Biden smiled softly as the woman passed by.
It’s a dynamic that Judge Maryellen Norieka seemed concerned could compromise the integrity of the jury.
During a side bar, Norieka said three of the judges had encountered Cohen-Biden during a bathroom break that morning, briefly crossing paths with each other. Norieka instructed her team that the jury should not be left alone, she said.
Here’s what you missed on day 3:
To give evidence
While Kathleen BuhleBiden’s ex-wife said she never saw him use drugs. She explained that in 2015, after she found a crack pipe in their Washington home, he admitted to her that he had started smoking the drug.
Buhle testified that in the following months she continued to find drug paraphernalia and even drug residue, including in her then-husband’s car, which she began cleaning regularly to ensure their children wouldn’t drive with drugs if they borrowed it. She testified that he used drugs in 2018.
Buhle and Biden’s relationship began to crumble over his drug use, and she later hinted at a vengeful streak, such as when he refused to release her phone number from a family phone plan after their divorce — and began using the number himself.
Then Zoe Kestan, a friend of Biden’s, took the stand and played out in painstaking detail Biden’s near-constant crack use from the time the two met in late 2017 through September 2018, a stretch that took them from dinners at Lucien and Fannelli’s Cafe to more than a month’s stay at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, an Airbnb and other hotels.
Kestan said his attempts to get off the drugs, including experimental treatment with frog poison, were unsuccessful, and she watched as he foraged for powder cocaine and cooked it into crack himself as he lost confidence in his dealer lost. She explained a system that allowed Biden to give a dealer access to his bank account without handing over his debit card, and that Biden sometimes used with her to give her cash.
Kestan movingly shared how her feelings for Biden grew over time. She hoped he would get off drugs and tried to help him.
But she also described long periods when Biden seemed intent on delving deeper into addiction. The two were romantically involved for much of 2018, spending time together in New York and Los Angeles, and later in Massachusetts.
In late 2018, Biden smoked crack when Kestan went to stay with him while he underwent experimental treatment for depression in Newburyport.
Although Kestan said she did not use crack herself, she testified that she helped Biden find drugs in Providence, Rhode Island, where she had graduated from art school a few years earlier. Lowell later investigated the details of an immunity deal she struck with prosecutors.
“Your immunity isn’t because you have to worry about lying, right? It’s because you told prosecutors about things you did that violated laws they gave you immunity from, right?’ Lowell said.
During a side conversation that could not be heard by the jury, Leo Wise, a prosecutor for the special counsel’s office, said this was a question Kestan did not have to answer.
“Whether she needed it or he asked to be known for what, I don’t know,” Wise said.
Like Buhle, Kestan was called to testify by subpoena.
The final witness was the gun salesman who sold Biden the gun at the center of the case and who testified that he watched Biden fill out the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives form saying he was not a drug user. The defense team has questioned the integrity of the form and its custody after Biden’s purchase of the gun, but Gordon Cleveland, the clerk, gave a detailed account of the transaction and said he witnessed Biden filling it out.
Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden and his on-off girlfriend, will take the witness stand Thursday, one of six remaining witnesses the prosecution plans to call before resting their case at the end of the day, Assistant Special Prosecutor Derek said Hines Wednesday.
Sowing doubt
Whether Biden was a drug user at the time of his gun purchase and possession is a challenge to prove, and the defense has tried to cast enough reasonable doubt in the government’s narrative of the case to help sway the jury.
Lowell has continued to investigate prosecutors’ claims that Biden knowingly lied when he purchased the firearm in October 2018 and checked a box to say he was not a drug user, ignoring the handling of the form before and after he it had been filled into doubt.
While Kestan remembered weeks and months of Biden’s drug use in excruciating detail, she had little to offer the prosecution in the time frame that matters most: the stretch between Biden’s purchase on October 12 and the moment Hallie Biden used the gun on 23 October found.
Earlier that day, jurors took notes as FBI special agent Erica Jensen spoke about the government’s handling of the gun form, ultimately stating that she had no direct knowledge of how it was completed by Biden. Jensen, questioned by Lowell, said months passed before the government got its hands on Biden’s laptop after he left it at a repair shop in Wilmington.
If convicted, the president’s son could face up to 25 years in prison.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
