Biden’s lawyers hope jurors will take a nuanced view of substance abuse and addiction when they begin deliberations — which could happen as soon as Monday or Tuesday — and consider that the president’s son might have been clean in the time period when prosecutors say he lied on a gun-purchase form by saying he was not addicted to or using illegal narcotics.
Prosecutors have offered text messages, the audio version of Hunter Biden’s memoir about his battles with addiction, bank statements and more to try to prove that he was addicted to drugs in October 2018 and knowingly lied on the gun form about his drug use. The testimony delved into the Biden family’s struggles to help Hunter fight his drug addiction after the death of his brother Beau in 2015, and the jury selection process showed how those struggles are common across Delaware.
A conviction would be a potential political burden to the first family as President Biden seeks a second term in the White House, with Republicans — including presumptive nominee Donald Trump — seeking to tie the president to a host of allegations they have made against his son.
Prosecutors do not have a drug test or photographic evidence showing the younger Biden was using drugs and addicted to them when he purchased the gun and for the 11 days it was in his possession. They do, however, have a text Hunter Biden sent at the time in which he said he was smoking crack.
Naomi Biden’s voice was shaky and hushed as she answered prosecutors’ questions, which aimed to portray Hunter Biden as an absent father who texted his daughter in the middle of the night and couldn’t find time to meet up with her when she desperately wanted to see him.
“I’m really sorry dad. I can’t take this,” Naomi Biden texted on Oct. 18, while they were both in New York, according to prosecutors. “I don’t know what to say, I just miss you so much,” she texted. “I just want to hang out with you.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been so unreachable,” Hunter Biden replied. “It’s not fair to you.”
The questioning of Naomi Biden clearly took a toll on first lady Jill Biden and other members of the Biden family, who sat in the first row, steely-eyed. At one point, Lowell interrupted the cross-examination to provide his client’s daughter with a bottle of water.
After leaving the witness stand, Naomi Biden walked across the room, and her father stepped over from the defense table to give her a hug. She continued walking out of the courtroom, wiping one eye.
Hunter Biden faces three felony charges related to the gun he bought in October 2018. Two of the charges allege that he lied on the required paperwork when he claimed to not be addicted to illegal drugs, and the third charge alleges that he illegally owned the gun for 11 days as a drug user.
He is not accused of committing a crime with the gun, and his attorney said he never loaded or used it.
The prosecution rested their case Friday morning, calling a total of 10 witnesses over the week. With each witness — including his ex-wife and two other former romantic partners — prosecutors aimed to prove to the jury that Biden was addicted to drugs before, during and after he bought the gun.
The defense has said he had just completed a rehab stint and, while he relapsed, he was not on crack cocaine at the time of the gun purchase.
Lowell called as his first witnesses Friday the owner of the gun shop where Biden bought the weapon and the employee who conducted the required background check. Both witnesses suggested that the shop did not correctly fill out every component of the form when selling Biden the gun and ammunition, which the defense hopes will make the jury question the entire form.
But neither witness provided any insight into whether Biden knowingly lied about his drug use.
After the rough cross-examination of Naomi Biden, the defense lawyers said they no longer planned to call to the stand Jimmy Biden, Hunter Biden’s uncle, who paid for him to go to rehab in California in August 2018 — about two months before the gun was purchased.
Lowell said Hunter Biden and his legal team would decide over the weekend whether Biden will take the stand in his own defense.
That’s a risky move, and few criminal defendants testify at their trials. Hunter Biden is open to the possibility, however, according to people familiar with the private conversations about the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss them. The people said Biden has gained confidence from his recent appearances testifying in front of Congress.
Prosecutors spent the bulk of their presentation to the jury showing that Hunter Biden was addicted to crack for years, smoking as frequently as every 20 minutes. Between Tuesday and Friday, they showed the jury photos of Biden with drug paraphernalia and photos he took and texted to others of drugs. There were also text messages between him and his purported dealers.
But in the critical period of Oct. 12 to Oct. 23, 2018, when he bought and owned the gun, there were no text messages with his dealers or photos of crack. That’s why Hallie Biden, who appeared on the stand Thursday, was such a critical witness. The widow of Hunter Biden’s older brother, Beau, Hallie who was in a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden from around 2016 to 2019.
The prosecutors showed that on Oct. 14, 2018 — two days after Hunter Biden bought the gun — he texted Hallie Biden after she had frantically tried to reach him: “I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney,” the message said.
She testified that Hunter Biden had also visited her Wilmington home on Oct. 23, showing up exhausted and looking like he may have been on crack.
She said she searched his car while he was asleep and found “remnants of crack cocaine,” drug paraphernalia and the gun that Biden had bought 11 days earlier. She testified that she placed the gun in a pouch that Hunter Biden sometimes used, drove to a nearby upscale grocery store, and dropped it into an outdoor trash can.
On cross-examination, Lowell tried to show the jury that Hallie Biden hadn’t actually observed Hunter Biden smoke crack during that time and she couldn’t definitively say whether he was on drugs. Lowell also said that Hunter Biden only sent that damning message claiming to have been smoking crack on Rodney Street because he didn’t want to see her — not because he was actually on drugs.
The prosecution’s final witness before resting its case Friday morning was Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He was not involved in the investigation, but prosecutors called him to translate for the jury the many instances of drug slang that Hunter Biden used in his text messages.
During cross-examination, Lowell asked Romig whether it would be fair to say that Hunter Biden’s text messages did not include references to drugs or pictures of crack and paraphernalia between August 2018 and November 2018.
Romig seemed to say yes, but with a big caveat:
“With the exception of the October text that we talked about, where he said he was smoking crack.”
