Hunter Biden’s defense team called Naomi Biden, his daughter with ex-wife Kathleen Buehl, to testify in his trial on Friday, Firearm purchase in October 2018Much of the questioning focused on a trip Hunter Biden took to New York to trade vehicles with his daughter after she borrowed his truck for a few days in October while he was in possession of a firearm.
Over the weekend or Monday morning, Hunter Biden’s defense team is expected to announce whether he will take the stand in his defense. President Biden’s brother, James “Jimmy” Biden, was scheduled to testify on Friday, but the court adjourned early. If Hunter Biden does testify, prosecutors have indicated they may call additional witnesses.
Naomi Biden testifies
Hunter Biden’s lawyers asked Naomi Biden about her interactions with her father in August and October 2018. Naomi Biden, who is also a lawyer, testified that she met her father, whom she had not seen for a long time, in Los Angeles in August 2018. She was with Peter Neal, who is now her boyfriend. husbandhad driven from Wyoming to visit his father, who is in rehab for drug addiction, and the two met for lunch at a coffee shop in late August with his father’s sobriety coach.
“It was the clearest I’ve seen him since my uncle passed away,” she said. “I told him how proud I was of him and how proud I was to introduce Peter to him.”
She then described an exchange she had with Hunter Biden in New York in mid-October 2018 for a Cadillac owned by her grandfather, Joe Biden, who was then a former vice president. Harry BidenAt the time, she was romantically involved with Hunter Biden. She found a gun in his truck He then threw it away on October 23, 11 days after purchasing it. The messages exchanged between Naomi Biden and her father in connection with the car exchange in New York took place over a three-day period, from October 17 to 19, during which her father possessed the gun.
Naomi Biden and Neil Biden borrowed Hunter Biden’s truck to help Neil transport his belongings from Washington, D.C., so they could meet up in New York. Naomi Biden said the truck was in “good condition” and contained no drug paraphernalia, and that her father seemed in good spirits at the time.
However, under cross-examination by prosecutor Leo Wise, Naomi Biden admitted, “Yes, I knew he struggled with drug addiction,” but said he never used illegal drugs in front of her. “It got worse after my uncle (Beau Biden) died.” She admitted she never saw her father use drugs.
Naomi Biden grew increasingly quieter as the cross-examination continued, but remained calm even when asked to review text messages with her father from Oct. 18, 2018. Wise also sought to use the visit to prove that Hunter Biden was still an addict and that drug paraphernalia later found in his truck belonged to him.
Hunter Biden had texted her late at night, but schedule conflicts made it difficult for the two to meet; Naomi Biden later said it was because she was doing a law internship in Brooklyn. Wise read a text message from Naomi Biden that read, “I just want to spend time with you.” Hunter Biden allegedly apologized for not reaching out. “I’m sorry I couldn’t reach out and it’s not fair to you,” Hunter wrote around 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 18.
Wise pressed her on whether she knew that her father had met with a man named Frankie, a possible drug dealer, at a hotel and given him access to his Wells Fargo account. She repeatedly answered “no.”
During the exchange, Hunter Biden leaned forward at the defense table, at times covering his mouth with his hand and looking straight at his daughter. The atmosphere in the Biden family box, where the first lady and other members of the Biden family were seated, was especially tense during Naomi Biden’s testimony.
Sketch by William J. Hennessy, Jr.
As Naomi Biden left the courtroom, she hugged her father and shared a kiss on the cheek before leaving. As the court broke for lunch, Hunter Biden reached out to Jill Biden and took her hand as he left. She walked slowly, then let go as he moved on.
Before Naomi Biden’s testimony, former StarQuest Shooters employee Jason Turner and gun store owner Ron Palmieri were the defense’s first witnesses. Turner Gun sales Palmieri admitted to requesting background checks and verifications for Hunter Biden’s gun purchases and adding supplemental identification information, which was submitted as evidence in court. Palmieri testified that he approved the passport used as identification for the purchases, but that he never had contact with Hunter Biden during the sales.
The prosecution’s final two witnesses on Friday morning were an FBI chemist and a DEA agent.
Dr. Jason Brewer testified that he analyzed a white powder found in a leather pouch recovered with the gun and identified “traces” of cocaine. He said he was not authorized to look for fingerprints or the origin of the residue. Under cross-examination by David Kolanski, the defense pointed to the timing of the forensic analysis — five years after the gun was first recovered by police.
DEA Superintendent Joshua Romig decoded some of the terms “baby powder,” “soft stuff” and “party favors” that appeared in Hunter Biden’s text messages from 2018 and 2019. Romig said the terms all refer to some form of cocaine.
He testified about the origins, transportation and distribution of the cocaine, and analyzed some of the drug paraphernalia, scales and measuring devices shown in photos in Biden’s text messages. On cross-examination, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abe Lowell again focused on timing, noting that the texts and images the prosecution referred to were exchanged around the time of the October firearms purchase. Romig noted that an exception was the October text in which Hunter Biden explicitly mentioned smoking crack cocaine.
What are the charges against Hunter Biden?
Hunter Biden is charged with three felony counts stemming from his purchase of a revolver in October 2018. Two of the counts relate to accusations that he lied about his drug use on a federal gun control form, proving that he did not use or was not addicted to any controlled substances during the period that prosecutors say he was addicted to crack cocaine.
Another charge is that Hallie Biden illegally possessed a gun for 11 days before finding it and discarding it. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother Beau Biden, testified Thursday that she “panic[ed]” when she found the gun, saying it was a “stupid thing to do” but that she was worried one of her children would find it.
She told the court she discovered the gun while cleaning out her husband’s car, which she often searches for drugs and alcohol. Prosecutors presented parking lot surveillance footage that showed her driving into a grocery store parking lot and tossing the gun in a trash can. She was then seen returning to the store to search for the gun.
Hunter Biden’s drug addiction history is well known and he wrote about it in his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” but Lowell sought to question whether he knowingly left that information out of his disclosure documents. In his opening statement, Lowell said many addicts are in “denial” about their drug use and argued that Hunter Biden didn’t think he was an addict when he bought his guns.
Prosecutors on Thursday released text messages between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden from October 2018 — around the time Hunter allegedly purchased the gun — in which Hunter Biden says he was “buying,” as well as text messages in which he describes Hallie’s son sitting near a “stem,” or crack pipe, at her home.
Hallie Biden also testified in court that Hunter Biden offered her crack cocaine during their romantic relationship.
“What I went through was a horrible experience. I’m embarrassed and ashamed. I regret that period of my life,” she said.
ABC News’ David Muir told President Biden in an interview Thursday: I will not forgive my son. If convicted, Biden responded, “Yes.”
