2:11 p.m. ET, June 7, 2024
Naomi Biden’s moving testimony about her father’s addiction and his visits in 2018
By Paula Reid, CNN Senior Legal Correspondent
It was clear that talking about her father was a very painful subject for Naomi Biden, and even though she is a graduate of Columbia Law School, she seemed very uncomfortable on the stand after the defender called her out for testify in the trial against Hunter Biden.
Naomi Biden entered the courtroom with her husband and first lady Jill Biden immediately motioned for her to come and sit next to her among the Biden family and friends who make up at least the first two rows of the courtroom. hearing.
Naomi Biden’s testimony focused on two instances in 2018 where she saw her father.
The first time was in August or September, when she went to visit her father in Los Angeles. Hunter Biden asked her to come visit him during his stay in rehab. Hunter Biden offered to arrange the trip and Naomi Biden said she agreed to go, even though she hadn’t seen him in a while.
Naomi Biden said she met him and his sober coach and brought her boyfriend, now husband. It was “the cleanest she’s seen him since my uncle died,” Naomi Biden said.
“I was proud of him and I was proud to introduce him to Peter,” she said.
On the stand, Naomi Biden appeared as authentic and convincing as the child of a drug addict.
His test then confirmed that he had gone to New York, where he had come to pick up a car. She described seeing him in late October and said she seemed “hopeful.” Naomi Biden said her father looked the same as when she saw him in Los Angeles.
During cross-examination by prosecutor Leo Wise, she again testified that she had not seen her father recently because “after my uncle died, things went bad”, around 2015.
Prosecutors got her to admit that she really didn’t know what he looked like when he was using drugs because she hadn’t seen him in a while.
Prosecutors appeared to catch Naomi and defense attorney Abbe Lowell off guard when they presented her with a series of texts she had exchanged with her father during the trip to New York.
Naomi Biden seemed a little confused and reluctant when confronted with texts appearing to show her father was somewhat erratic and uncommunicative when trying to stop his car.
She didn’t remember the exchange and began to seem increasingly uncomfortable as she talked about the text messages her father sent her in the early hours of the morning about trading in his car.
As she left the stand, Naomi Biden gave her father a cool hug, kissed him on the cheek, and was seen trembling and wiping away tears as she left the courtroom.