Who testified in the Hunter Biden gun possession trial?

WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) — Jurors deciding whether President Joe Biden's son is guilty of federal gun law violations heard deeply personal testimony about dark moments in Hunter Biden's past.

The case, which is taking place in Wilmington, Delaware, concerns a gun that the younger Biden purchased in October 2018, months before his father announced his candidacy for president.

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden lied when he swore on a form he filled out at the gun store that he was not a drug user. He had the gun for about 11 days before throwing it in a trash can.

Hunter Biden's lawyer argued that his client did not believe he was addicted when he stated in the documents that he did not have a drug problem.

Hunter Biden was supposed to have avoided prosecution in the gun case altogether, but a deal with prosecutors fell through last year. He was subsequently charged with three serious gun offenses. He also faces a trial in September in which he is accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years.

Here is a look at some of the key witnesses in the trial:

KATHLEEN BUHLE

One of the prosecution's first witnesses was Hunter Biden's ex-wife, who filed for divorce in 2016 after more than 20 years of marriage. They have three children together. During the divorce proceedings, she accused him of squandering her money on drugs, alcohol, strip clubs and prostitutes.

On the witness stand, Buhle described how she learned about Hunter Biden's drug use when she found a pipe used to smoke crack cocaine in an ashtray on her family's porch in July 2015, a few weeks after Hunter's brother Beau died of brain cancer.

When she confronted Hunter, “he admitted to smoking crack,” she told jurors.

Buhle testified that she had suspected that Hunter had taken drugs even before the crack pipe was found because he had previously been discharged from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine.

“I was definitely worried and scared,” said Buhle, who was summoned by the public prosecutor’s office.

She also reported that she searched the family car for drugs whenever her children drove it. However, when asked by Hunter's lawyer, she acknowledged that she never actually saw him take drugs.

HALLIE BIDEN

Another key prosecution witness was Beau's widow, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after his brother's death.

Hallie Biden testified last Thursday about the moment she searched Hunter Biden's truck and found the revolver that is at the center of his criminal case.

She described putting the gun in a leather pouch, stuffing it into a shopping bag and throwing it into a garbage can outside a supermarket near her home. She considered hiding the gun but was afraid her children might find it, so she decided to throw it away.

“I realize now it was a stupid idea, but I panicked,” she told jurors.

When their relationship became public in 2017, Joe Biden and his wife Jill said in a statement that the couple had their “full and unconditional support,” adding: “We are all fortunate that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they began to put their lives back together after so much grief.”

Hunter described their troubled romance in detail in his memoir, Beautiful Things, writing, “Even though we desperately thought we could be the answer to each other's pain, we only inflicted more pain on each other.”

The jury saw text messages between the two that the prosecution used to try to prove that Hunter Biden knew about his drug addiction, even though he denied it on the form.

In a late-night conversation shortly after purchasing the gun, Hallie asked Hunter where he was. Hunter replied that he was behind a baseball stadium in downtown Wilmington, “waiting for a dealer.”

ZOE KESTAN

Kestan, another former partner, described meeting Hunter in December 2017 at a New York strip club where she worked. During a private session with her and another girl, he pulled out a pipe and began smoking what she thought was crack, she testified.

“He was incredibly charming, charismatic and friendly, and I felt really safe around him,” she said. “I remember nothing changing after he smoked it. He was still the same charming person.”

The two met again a few weeks later in New York. She said she spent five days at his hotel, during which Hunter Biden smoked crack about every 20 minutes. At some point during their stay together, he asked her to meet his drug dealer and take him to his room, she told jurors.

However, Kestan acknowledged that she had no contact with Hunter Biden in October 2018, the month he purchased the gun.

NAOMI BIDEN

Hunter Biden's daughter Naomi testified for the defense on Friday that her father appeared to be doing better in the weeks before he bought the revolver in 2018. Naomi Biden told prosecutor Leo Wise that she knew about her father's drug use when she visited him in California in August 2018.

“I knew he was struggling with addiction,” she said.

Naomi said she couldn't remember when she first learned about her father's drug use, but it was sometime after the death of her uncle Beau Biden in 2015.

In October 2018, the month Hunter Biden purchased the gun, Naomi traveled from Washington to New York in her father's truck to transport her boyfriend's belongings. Hunter drove to New York in Joe Biden's Cadillac later that month to pick up his truck, leaving the Cadillac with Naomi.

“He seemed great. He seemed hopeful,” she said.

But prosecutors showed Naomi's text messages in which he didn't respond for hours after she messaged him about the car swap. At 2 a.m., Hunter texted Naomi, asking where the keys to his truck were and if her boyfriend could meet up and swap cars.

“Right now?” she replied.

“Do you know what your father was doing at two in the morning and why he then asked you about the car?” asked prosecutor Leo Wise.

“No,” she said.

Wise read her a text message from that time in which she replied, “I'm really sorry, Dad, I can't take this.”

When she was released from the witness stand, she paused to hug her father before leaving the courtroom.

GORDON CLEVELAND

Cleveland sold Hunter Biden the .38 caliber revolver at a gun store in Wilmington in 2018.

In his testimony before the prosecution, the former gun dealer told jurors he stood next to Hunter Biden as he began answering a series of questions on the federal form that everyone must fill out when they buy a gun. Hunter checked a box saying he was buying the gun for himself, Cleveland said.

Another question was whether the buyer was an “illicit user or addict” of marijuana, stimulants, narcotics or other controlled substances. Hunter Biden answered “no,” Cleveland said.

He also testified that Hunter did not ask any questions or express any confusion about the question. Hunter paid Biden $900 in cash and told Cleveland to keep the change – about $13.

Cleveland told jurors that he saw Hunter sign the form, which also included a warning about the consequences of providing false information.

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Richer reported from Washington.

Randall Chase, Michael Kunzelman, Claudia Lauer and Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press