Hunter BidenKathleen Buhle’s ex-wife and a woman he later had a romantic relationship with were both tested Wednesday in his federal gun trial after her lawyer sought to question the authenticity of personal messages purportedly from his personal devices.
Buhle, who was married to Hunter Biden for 20 years and shares three daughters with him, is one of three women linked to Hunter Biden expected to testify. The other two are Zoe Kestan, who was involved with Hunter Biden around 2017-2018 and spoke after Buhle, and Hallie Biden. Hallie Bidenthe widow of Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau, was involved with Hunter and found and threw away the gun at the center of the case.
Buhle’s questioning was brief, and Kestan, who has an immunity deal with prosecutors, was subsequently tested. Buhle testified that she confronted Hunter while they were still married after finding a “crack pipe”, and she said he confirmed his drug use to her, although she said she did not had never seen him use drugs.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell sought earlier Wednesday to question the authenticity of personal messages allegedly from Hunter Biden’s personal devices. Under questioning by Lowell, FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen said she could not verify the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, admitted as evidence that it had not been tampered with before the forces order do not collect it from the Mac repair shop.
Biden Hunter was charged with three felonies stemming from his purchase of a revolver in October 2018. He is accused of making false statements on a federal firearms form about his drug use, certifying that he was neither a user nor addicted to any controlled substance during a period when prosecutors allege he was addicted to crack cocaine. He was in possession of the gun for 11 days before Hallie Biden threw it away.
Biden Hunter has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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First lady Jill Biden was in the courtroom again Wednesday morning, although she left before Buhle spoke. Close friends of the Biden family gather for a brief moment of prayer in the courtroom before the proceedings begin.
President Biden is not attending the trial – he is currently in France for events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Testimony of Kathleen Buhle
Buhle was married to Hunter Biden for 20 years and shares three daughters with him.
Buhle said he found a “crack pipe” in 2015 and Hunter Biden confirmed to him that he was using drugs. She described regularly searching her car for drugs to avoid having drugs inside when their teenagers were driving. She also said she tried to convince him to go to rehab near the end of their marriage, but he initially refused, although he eventually complied.
Buhle said Hunter’s behavior changed when he was using drugs, “he wasn’t himself”, adding that he would be “angry and short-tempered”. He said he was able to function while taking drugs, but would hide his use from family and friends.
Buhle verified that Hunter Biden moved out after finding the crack pipe, and they separated after the alleged infidelity.
Testimony of Zoé Kestan
After Buhle finished his testimony, Kestan took the stand. When asked by prosecutor Leo Wise to identify the man she met at a gentlemen’s club in December 2017, Hunter Biden raised his hand while his head was bowed.
During that 30-minute meeting, Kestan said Hunter Biden opened a window or door to smoke what she thought was a crack pipe. She said he was “charming” and that she only realized who he was after seeing a photo of him online.
Although she said she did not go home with him that evening, they later met at a New York hotel, where she said she saw him smoking crack within the first 10 minutes. She then recounted a series of instances between the East and West coasts where Hunter Biden allegedly used drugs and alcohol in front of her. She also explained how he allegedly used and stored drug paraphernalia. She said he often withdrew money for these alleged drug deals, and once even gave her a temporary app code to withdraw funds while he was back at the hotel.
Prosecutors showed images allegedly taken by Kestan that showed crack pipes in the rooms they were speaking in, as well as another that allegedly showed Hunter Biden in a bathtub with a crack pipe in his hand. Another showed him a T-shirt that read “addict” with a marijuana leaf.
Kestan said she had family members who suffered from addiction and her husband discussed ways to help her get sober. But she said he never changed, and even though he smoked crack every 20 minutes or so, she described him as “so charming, so kind.”
Testimony of an FBI agent
Prosecutors first called FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen, who was called in to check personal messages on Hunter Biden’s devices.
During cross-examination, Hunter Biden’s attorney, Lowell, asked Jensen if she could verify that the contents of the laptop admitted into evidence had not been tampered with before law enforcement get it from the Mac repair shop, which Jensen couldn’t verify.
Lowell highlighted the content of Biden’s text messages at the time of the gun purchase, noting that those, in particular, did not refer to drugs. In his opening statement, Lowell sought to show that addicts often don’t think of themselves as addicts.
“During jury selection, you were asked if you or any members of your family had any substance abuse problems,” Lowell said in his opening statement. “If that’s the case or even if it’s not, the evidence will show you that like so many people, including Hunter, even their issues are in deep denial about their use.”
On Tuesday, Jensen tested the laptop that Hunter Biden had left at a Delaware repair shop and was never recovered. She said the laptop contained “evidence of addiction.”
She read aloud text messages from Hunter Biden that used coded language such as “baby powder” and “chore boy” to cover up his crack use, while he appeared to be arranging to buy drugs in the months preceding the purchase of the weapon.
The day after purchasing the gun she tested, Hunter Biden sent a message to Hallie Biden about “waiting for a dealer named Mookie.” The next day, he sent her another one that said, “I was sleeping in a car smoking crack on 4th and Rodney.” »
Jensen also verified that bank records showed Hunter Biden withdrew more than $151,000 in cash between September 2018 and November 2018. He made cash withdrawals on all but four days of October, the month he bought the gun. He withdrew $5,000 in October. December 12, 2018, the day he bought the gun.
Hunter Biden voice recordings
Prosecutors played audio recordings of Hunter Biden reading from his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he detailed his drug use around the same time as the gun purchase. In one of the recordings, Hunter Biden said, “I used my superpower, finding a crack anytime, anywhere, less than a day after landing at LAX in the spring of 2018.”
During this playback of the audio recordings, Hunter Biden’s family reacted with emotion, including first lady Jill Biden. As they played the recordings, some jurors grimaced as Ashley Biden and Jill Biden reacted emotionally, with Melissa Cohen Biden offering her support to the first lady and the first lady putting her arm around Ashley Biden’s shoulder. Ashley Biden finally left the courtroom.
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Accusations against Hunter Biden
In the three-count indictment, the president’s son is accused of making false statements on a federal firearms form about his drug use, certifying that he did not was neither a user nor addicted to any controlled substance during a period when prosecutors allege he was addicted to crack cocaine. cocaine. Hunter Biden purchased a Colt Cobra .38 Special revolver and it remained in his possession for 11 days before being thrown into an outside container by Hallie Biden, his romantic partner at the time.
The president’s son faces up to 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine if convicted on all counts.
Separately, he faces nine federal tax charges in the Middle District of California in a second indictment filed by Weiss’ office, in which federal prosecutors allege that Hunter Biden engaged in a “four-year scheme” to avoid paying at least $1.4 in federal taxes. References to tax charges are not admissible in his Delaware gun trial. He has pleaded not guilty to these charges.