by Joseph Weber and Steven Richards
Hunter Biden ex-girlfriend Hallie Biden began testimony in the first son’s gun trial Thursday, describing how she discovered Hunter was using drugs and how she disposed of the weapon at the center of the case.
Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau, dated the younger Biden shortly after his older brother passed away in 2015 and during the key period in the case.
During the period Hunter Biden was allegedly using cocaine, Hallie Biden testified that she found a firearm in Hunter’s car, according to CNN.
“I panicked and wanted to get rid of them,” she said of the guns and bullets she found. “I didn’t want him to hurt himself,” she added. Hallie also said she found “remnants of crack cocaine.”
Hallie says she decided to get rid of the gun. “I took it to a grocery store up the road and I threw it away … into a trash can,” she testified.
“I was so flustered,” she said. “I realize it was a stupid idea now.” She later returned to the store to try and find the firearm because Hunter became angry with her.
However, under cross examination from Hunter Biden’s defense lawyers, Hallie admitted that she didn’t see Hunter using drugs during the October 2016 period when he was in Wilmington, Delaware and purchased the gun.
Hallie also said Hunter would often lie to her about his whereabouts or what he was doing under cross examination, according to NBC News. Hunter Biden defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, used this to suggest that the defendant’s texts to Hallie may not be reliable for determining his location or actions.
Hallie appeared to struggle to recall in detail the timeline of Oct. 23, the day she find Hunter’s gun. The prosecution protested that Lowell was using text message evidence to lead the witness which spurred the judge to direct the witness to answer only based on her own memories.
Earlier in the questioning, she told jurors that she first discovered Hunter Biden’s drug use in the 2015-2016 period, shortly after her husband passed away and she began a “gradual” romantic relationship with Hunter.
“I found it, and I googled it,” she testified about when she originally discovered the crack cocaine. She says she confronted him about it in 2017 saying “this can’t go on, we can’t do this,” according to CNN.
Later though, Hunter Biden would introduce her to the drug and she would go on to use it alongside her boyfriend. “It was a terrible experience that I went through. I’m embarrassed, and I’m ashamed and I regret that period of my life,” she testified.
The gun-purchase trial for presidential son Hunter Biden enters its fourth day Thursday after testimony the previous day from the defendant’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan; and gun shop employee Gordon Cleveland.
Biden faces federal charges for allegedly lying on a gun-purchase application in 2018 about his drug addiction at the time he bought the revolver.
Kestan told the court in Wilmington, Delaware, about the defendant’s need for crack cocaine every 20 minutes and how his worsening addiction ruined his first marriage, according to Fox News.
“He would want to smoke the second he woke up,” she testified.
She met Biden when working at gentleman’s club in New York City when she was 24 and he was 48.
The specific charges against Biden are: making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally-licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, after having failed to reach a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
If found guilty on all charges, Biden would face as many as 25 years behind bars.
Buhle, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife of more than 20 years and with whom he shares three daughters, detailed her suspicions of her then-husband’s rampant drug use after he was discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine, also according to Fox News.
I was definitely worried, scared,” she said.
Cleveland gave the court details about the gun purchase, saying Biden, the son of President Biden, entered the store with the intention of buying a gun and bought a Cobra Colt .38 along with ammunition and other related items.
Cleveland said he gave Biden a federal gun form to complete, explaining the instructed to him, told him to take his time and answer the form “truthfully.” He said he was just a couple of feet away as Biden filled out the form, including the question that asked whether the applicant was an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs.
Cleveland said Biden checked the box that said he was not addicted to drugs, Fox News also reports.
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Joseph Weber and Steven Richards are reporters for Just the News.
