This is a live post — updates will be posted below.
WILMINGTON, Delaware — Day 2 of Hunter Biden's gun trial felt like a fever dream.
"Nazi piece of sh*t!" Hunter's current wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, yelled at former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler in the hallways of the federal courthouse where her husband is facing felony firearm charges.
"You have no right to be here!" she shouted, pointing her finger at Ziegler, who had published parts of Hunter's infamous "laptop from hell" on his non-profit's website, Marco Polo. The out-of-court confrontation occurred between breaks, before a celebrity appearance of the laptop itself.
Hunter's silver MacBook was physically held up in the courtroom for the jurors to feast their eyes on. The prosecution, using the notorious device as a visual and vehicle to introduce its sordid contents into evidence, laid the laptop down on the witness stand.
Following the computer's cameo, the prosecution presented pictures (either extracted from his laptop or scraped from his iCloud account) of a half-naked and, at times, fully nude Hunter blown up on the projection screen as trial exhibits. Crack pipes appeared in his hand, and a bong sat in the background.
At the outset of trial testimony, the defense disputed the relevancy of showing the jury Hunter unclothed. Well, it's because the nudes help prove Hunter's drug addiction around the time he illegally bought the handgun at the center of the case, the prosecution argued.
Prior to and after the gun sale, Hunter had withdrawn more than $150,000 in cash over a three-month period in the fall of 2018. Hunter's business entity, Owasco PC, was one of the accounts he had accessed for cash.
In a separate California tax evasion case, Hunter is accused of using Owasco PC to evade taxes, specifically that he "subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company" by withdrawing millions from the corporate account outside of the typical payroll and tax withholding process.
(Hunter being on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy giant, was also briefly mentioned at trial, but the prosecution has, so far, shied away from delving into allegations of the Biden family's shady overseas business dealings.)
Hunter's defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the jury that those cash withdrawals have an innocent explanation: Hunter, purportedly a high-flying business man, didn't carry a credit card.
"He withdrew cash for lots of things, which are the opposite of buying drugs," Lowell claimed.
Hunter, the "smartest man" President Biden knows and an attorney, also apparently didn't understand exactly what he agreed to when he signed the screening paperwork certifying that his statements are "true" and "correct," and that anything otherwise was a crime punishable under federal law.
"I understand" that anyone who answers "Yes" to Q #11E, the addict/user question, on ATF Form 4473 is prohibited from purchasing a firearm, Hunter attested with his signature. He checked the "No" box.
This is the crux of his defense — that he did not "knowingly" lie on the federal background check form; he acted honestly, even if he was mistaken or misunderstood the question of whether or not he is addicted to or doing drugs, because he did achieve periods of sobriety, albeit fleeting and almost always ending in relapse.
While it should be an open-and-shut case (you're either an addict/actively doing drugs or you're not), the defense says it's not that simple. It all comes down to how Hunter considered himself at the time he filled out the form — whether or not he identified as an addict.
Although, he self-identified as one in his memoir, "Beautiful Things," and boasted in his book about "finding crack anytime, anywhere," calling this ability his "superpower." For nearly an hour, the prosecution played passages from Hunter's audiobook, and the jury, as well as Hunter, heard his voice narrate excerpts detailing his drug-fueled escapades, such as "smoking crack every 15 minutes, 7 days a week."
He did not have the "intent to deceive" the federally licensed firearms dealer, Lowell insisted, noting that the survey question asks if the signatory "is" addicted to or abusing substances, not "have you ever been."
Playing the victim card, the defense suggested that Hunter was the target of a sleazy salesman, a self-described "whale hunter" who wanted to "bring in a big one," working at the gun shop.
The defense, during opening arguments, tried to paint a sympathetic picture of Hunter: a downtrodden First Son with a "traumatic" childhood who abused drugs and alcohol "like literally millions of people in this country" in order to "dull his pain."
Hunter's tales of woe just may sway the jurors, many of whom have personal ties to dealing with drug or alcohol abuse. In fact, the sad story Lowell told of Hunter looking for answers at the bottom of a bottle or at the end of a crack pipe might have elicited a tear or two from a choked-up juror who was spotted reaching for tissues to dab her eyes. Some of the jurors said in the midst of jury selection that they view addiction as a disease.
"Addiction may not be a choice," the prosecution conceded, but Hunter did choose to unlawfully own a gun.
Why kick a crack addict while he's down? That's the tone the defense set today as we resume cross-examination of the FBI agent who poured over 18,000 pages worth of Hunter's texts, pictures, and videos to produce evidence of his crack-chasing exploits.
LIVE UPDATES
9:05 a.m. — good morning from Wilmington! The cross-examination of FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen kicks off day three of the trial.
Hunter's defense lawyer Abbe Lowell is attempting to argue that Hunter was sober at the precise time he purchased the firearm at issue in the case.
In Chapter 10: "Lost Highway" of his memoir, Hunter mentions little to no descriptions of drug use, Lowell argues, specifically when that chapter recounts the period Hunter "came back east" in the fall of 2018.
Lowell disputes that the drug pickups and crack smoking, as detailed by Hunter in his texts, actually happened.
Hunter texted on October 13, 2018: "Yes Bernard who hangs at 7/11 on Greenhill and Lancaster. I'm now off MD Av behind blue rocks stadium waiting for a dealer named Mookie." The next day, Hunter texted: "I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney."
Lowell questions if Jensen ever independently certified that what Hunter texted was true — that there was, in fact, a drug dealer called "Mookie" or if Hunter really did smoke crack on a car parked at the downtown Wilmington intersection.
Lowell asks why pictures dated months after the gun purchase were shown, such as the one of Hunter weighing crack on a gram scale (a still from a now-viral video timestamped late December 2018).
Turning to cash withdrawals from Hunter's business accounts (Owasco PC), Lowell asks Jensen if it is possible another person could have made the transactions since the customer's name isn't noted. Jensen says Hunter at some point had 100 percent of the shares in the company and the account card plus a PIN were required to make withdrawals.
Lowell asserts that Owasco PC is a business account and Hunter was only conducting business-related affairs. He asks Jensen if she was insinuating that the mountain of cash Hunter withdrew was used solely on drugs, then prods if she knew who Hunter's business partners were at the time, how much alimony he was also paying, what his living expenses were, and what went towards financially providing for his family.
Lowell says large sums of the money can be accounted for as rehab payments, then matches invoice items to therapeutic billing services.
10:05 a.m. — the prosecution raises an objection and a sidebar with the judge ensues over the issue of Hunter's defense team trying to show discrepancies between the original ATF Form 4473 and the one used as an exhibit in the trial, comparing the form Hunter completed and the one StarQuest Shooters sent to authorities. Also, some of the writing is in different colored ink (red vs. black) on the original. During the discovery phase, the defense was handed a black-and-white photocopy, as opposed to a coly copy, "obscuring" the varied handwriting, Lowell had argued pre-trial.
Defense now focuses on other questions on the form, namely a distinction Lowell seeks to make between asking "Are you...?" and "Have you ever...?"
10:15 a.m. — defense now challenging the authenticity of files contained on Hunter Biden's laptop from hell, questioning whether it could have been changed, altered, or "tampered with" by the time authorities took possession of it.
10:20 a.m. — Lowell ventures to undermine the credibility and character of John Paul Mac Isaac, the computer repair shop owner who received Hunter's laptop (from Hunter, who never returned to pick up his computer) in April 2019. Prosecution objects and Lowell abandons the line of questioning.
10:23 a.m. — federal prosecutor Derek Hines is now up to re-direct Jensen. He's looking to cement the jury's trust in the laptop's legitimacy and its contents' veracity following Lowell's line of questions that sought to suggest it was fake or fabricated.
Hines begins a rapid-fire review of Hunter's text messages again, reading aloud the smoking-crack-on-a-car messages. "Crack is crack," Hines says, indicating no need to interpret the texts beyond Hunter's own admissions of using the illegal drug.
10:40 a.m. — the judge is now allowing attorneys from each party to talk with one another after Lowell was confused as to why Hines was reviewing Hunter's bank statements that have been belabored by both sides. Lowell had argued that part of Hunter's spending spree was on alcohol, his primary poison, and Hines notes that the tender was Visa check cards, not cash. "Do drug dealers accept credit cards?" Hines questions.
Hines makes the same argument about Hunter's Airbnb receipts totaling more than $3,000, paid for by check. Hines cheekily asks whether Hunter took "wads of cash and put them in envelopes to mail them to AirBnb." He also points out that Hunter didn't have an "alcohol-only addiction" but that his alcohol abuse was coupled with his crack dependency, as illustrated in Hunter's memoir.
11:00 a.m. — morning break!
11:35 a.m. — we're back, and the prosecution is calling Kathleen Buhle, Hunter's ex-wife, to the witness stand.
Buhle, who was subpoenaed to testify, divorced Hunter on Good Friday in 2017. She recalls Hunter being kicked out of the U.S. Navy Reserves for failing a cocaine test and him using after their anniversary.
Prosecutor Leo Wise is conducting the questioning after he let Hines lead most of the trial so far.
Buhle establishes that Hunter hid his drug use from family, friends, and associates. He was initially evasive about seeking treatment, she says.
11:46 a.m. — defense now cross-examining Buhle. Lowell tries to ask Buhle about Owasco PC, but she names Rosemont Seneca instead. Lowell drops the topic.
Lowell prods Buhle to recall the exact dates she searched his car for drugs and drug-related paraphernalia, but she can't remember — only that the searches were when her kids would be in Hunter's vehicle. The findings are corroborated by a text she sent Hunter in March 2018: "I also found a few crack pipes. I took them out because our daughter was driving the car."
Lowell ends the cross-examination after Buhle says she never physically saw Hunter smoking.
11:56 a.m. — on re-direct, Wise asks Buhle how she knows Hunter was using drugs. "He told me," she says. Buhle adds that she also found evidence of Hunter's drug use approximately "a dozen times."
12:00 p.m. — the next witness, testifying under an immunity deal, is another of Hunter's ex-lovers: Zoe Kestan.
Kestan says she understands that what she says can be used against her if she doesn't testify truthfully. She recounts when she met Hunter at the Vivid Cabaret, "a gentlemen's club," where she worked as an exotic dancer, during a 30-minute private session.
Wise asks Kestan to identify if the client from that session is in the courtroom. Hunter waves from the defense table, drawing laughter from the gallery.
Kestan says she witnessed him smoking a pipe she had "never seen before" after playing a song by the band Fleet Foxes.
Throughout Kestan's relationship with Hunter from December 2017 to October 2018, Kestan says she frequently witnessed Hunter using illegal drugs. During one tryst in January 2018, Kestan says she saw Hunter smoking "a little less than every 20 minutes."
Wise shows a picture Kestan took inside the Four Seasons Hotel where the two stayed together in February 2018. The photograph is of a hotel bathroom countertop where a used crack pipe is visible.
Kesten explains crack terms like "chore boy" — the brand name of a scouring pad used by crack smokers to capture some of the cocaine vapors that can be relit for a second hit — which Hunter mentioned numerous times in his memoir and over text. "I need more chore boy," he texted in August 2018.
Kestan continues testifying about how Hunter would ask her to withdraw cash. "A good amount" of those withdrawals went toward buying drugs, she adds. Hunter could remotely request a temporary PIN authorizing anyone to take out cash on his behalf, including drug dealers themselves.
Hunter wanted to experiment with an "indigenous" drug treatment called "Kambo," explains Kestan, which involves taking the venom of a frog and administering it on the skin to "purge." Hunter ended up doing so in a house with someone else, she adds.
After this episode, Kestan says she saw scars on Hunter's arm and he continued to smoke crack "every 20 minutes or so."
The prosecution enlarges a mirror selfie Kestan took at the Mercer Hotel with Hunter. Behind them in the picture are three crack pipes. Kestan says Hunter stored his drug paraphernalia in sunglass cases, "leather pouches," and toolboxes.
Kestan says the pair planned to rehabilitate in Los Angeles and looked into hiring a "sober companion" to stay with them at an Airbnb, but the host canceled so "the plan went out the window."
Instead of the Airbnb, Kestan and Hunter lodged at Chateau Marmont where Hunter reached out to a drug dealer. "What kind?" Wise asks. "Samoan," Kestan replies. Wise clarifies he meant what kind of drugs.
The prosecution now shows the jury a picture of Hunter wearing an Adidas t-shirt with a green marijuana leaf on it and the word "addicted." Kestan says she thought it was "funny" because "[Hunter] doesn't smoke weed."
12:43 p.m. — the defense interjects and asks if he could ask prosecutors about exhibits.
12:45 p.m. — prosecutors show another picture of Hunter, this time submerged in a bathtub. After Hunter and Kestan's tub time, she says he grew weary of the Samoan drug dealer, believing he was being ripped off.
1:00 p.m. — the court breaks for lunch.
1:55 p.m. — court is back in session and Kestan's testimony is resuming. She explains how the baking powder in the picture of a hotel table displayed on the screen is used to turn crack powder into crack cocaine. A pair of chopsticks is also visible — they are used to clean leftover residue out of a crack pipe.
Another picture is shown of Hunter in bed with a bag of cocaine sitting on the nightstand. Kestan says Hunter's sobriety attempt not long after was actually a "yoga retreat."
The prosecution shows a screenshot of a video call Kestan had with Hunter when he wanted to show her his back tattoo of the Finger Lakes.
Wise notes that Kestan was just three years out of college when Hunter asked her to help him procure drugs. Wise adds that he had a daughter around her age.
"I can be sober, but I'll always be an addict," Hunter texted Kestan when she checked on how he was doing after the two parted ways.
2:25 p.m. — the defense is now cross-examining Kestan with Lowell prodding her about her testimony. She says two people showed up at her apartment to serve the subpoena and she spoke extensively with investigators for roughly six hours over several weeks ahead of her appearance in court.
Lowell points out the liquor bottles alongside the crack pipes in pictures previously shown to the jury. He asks if she knew exactly what Hunter was up to in October 2018. "Nope," Kestan replies. By then, they had separated temporarily.
Turning to the text between Hunter and Kestan about him "always" being an "addict," Lowell suggests that it's a step in an Alcoholics Anonymous-esque recovery program: admitting chronic addiction.
2:40 p.m. — Wise is back up for a re-direct. He briefly harps on the fact that Hunter was twice Kestan's age when they were shacking up together and chasing crack — Hunter was 48; Kestan was 24.
2:45 p.m. — the court is now taking its afternoon break.
3:10 p.m. — the prosecution calls on Gordon Cleveland, who had sold Hunter the gun in question at Starquest Shooters.
Hines is back at the helm.
Cleveland says that on October 12, 2018, Hunter pulled up to the gun store in a black Cadillac. Hines asks how he remembers those details. "I like guns and I like cars," Cleveland simply says. The courtroom reacts with amusement.
According to the witness, Hunter had inquired which firearm he should purchase, so Cleveland took him around the showtime to look over the inventory, eventually settling on a Colt Cobra.
Hines approaches the witness stand with the .38 Special revolver and then lets the jury have a look. A red tag was attached, indicating it's safe to handle for display purposes.
The prosecution presents the federal form Hunter filled out in Cleveland's presence, zooming in on the warning emblazoned at the top of the first page that tells prospective gun buyers to carefully read through each question and answer truthfully. Failure to properly fill out the form would void the sale, Cleveland explains.
Cleveland says Hunter never asked him any questions related to Q #11E or expressed confusion.
Afterwards, Cleveland left the salesfloor to get "clarity" on the passport Hunter handed over as proof of identification and to "double-check" that he's following the proper procedure. Most customers present a driver's license or a state ID, Cleveland says.
Returning with a fellow associate named Jason Turner, Cleveland says his coworker completed the certification section, then ran the background check. Hines questions why the varying ink colors. Cleveland explains that the red ink is for dates and NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) numbers. It's a store policy that's done to make it easier for auditors to identify, Cleveland continues.
Hines parades around the Speedloader and the 25 rounds of ammunition Hunter bought for the revolver.
Hunter additionally purchased an airsoft pistol without an orange tip, which is usually attached so it's not mistaken for a real gun.
Cleveland says Hunter paid for everything in cash, a $900 sale resulting in $13 in change. Hunter told Cleveland to keep the change, but Cleveland says he doesn't take tips, so he left the remainder on the countertop.
3:50 p.m. — the defense begins cross-examining Cleveland.
Lowell tries to dispute how Cleveland could have seen Hunter coming from his lookout post at the storefront's window and where Hunter was driving in. "Did you see through the wall?" Lowell retorts. Cleveland explains the layout of the store and the parking lot in great detail.
Lowell presses Cleveland on how quickly he approached Hunter upon his arrival. Cleveland says within a minute since employees are supposed to greet customers as soon as possible. It's a common retail practice, he says.
"Are you familiar with the term 'whale hunter'?" Lowell asks. Cleveland chuckles, saying he was labeled that because he sold high-end guns. He says he wouldn't sell clientele "junk" and that he made sure customers went home with something "of quality." Cleveland refuses to characterize his selling-savvy ways as "upselling." Lowell says what Cleveland is saying contradicts his testimony before the grand jury. "I try to sway them to higher-end firearms, a bit more expensive," Cleveland is quoted as testifying.
"I was making the same pay regardless of whether anyone bought anything or not," Cleveland insists.
Lowell asks if Cleveland read the warning aloud at the top of the federal form to Hunter. Cleveland says the onus is not on him; it's the purchaser's duty to ensure he is correctly completing the paperwork and following instructions.
4:28 p.m. — the prosecution objects and the attorneys sidebar. First Lady Jill Biden exits the courtroom.
4:32 p.m. — the judge says she doesn't want the witness to have to return tomorrow and is willing to extend the day's proceedings. However, she decides to excuse everyone after the attorneys sidebar again.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member