The prosecution’s most important witness against Hunter Biden, his sister-in-law-turned-girlfriend Hallie Biden, testified Thursday that she believed he was using drugs when she saw him in October 2018, the month he claimed on a federal background check that he was clean.
Jurors sat forward in their seats while she was on the witness stand. Some who have rarely taken notes jotted on their notepads as she provided critical testimony that filled in some lingering gaps about the time when Biden bought the gun.
Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, is charged with three felonies, stemming from prosecutors’ claim that he was using or addicted to drugs when he bought and owned a revolver in October 2018. He pleaded not guilty. He has spoken openly about his yearslong addiction to crack cocaine, and a key witness already testified that she watched him smoking the drug in September and November 2018.
Before court wrapped, special counsel David Weiss’ team announced that they planned to rest their case on Friday, after they present testimony from two experts from the FBI and DEA. That puts the case on track to potentially head to the jury early next week, Hunter Biden’s lead attorney said.
Here’s what to know from the trial’s fourth day in Wilmington, Delaware:
In many ways, Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden who then dated his brother Hunter, was teed up to be the special counsel’s star witness. She’s the only person expected to testify who saw Biden in October 2018, when he returned to Delaware and bought the .38 caliber Colt Cobra revolver.
She testified that she believed – based on her observations and his behavior – that Biden was using crack cocaine around October 22 and 23, days after he purchased the pistol.
However, under cross-examination, she acknowledged she didn’t personally see Biden using drugs in the month of October, a point the defense team has zeroed in on – trying to carve out October and create reasonable doubt.
She also said she didn’t see a lot of Biden in October. Jurors saw messages between the two where she was trying to get ahold of him, and wondering if he was seeing other women. In one message from that time period, she asked, “Are you in New York with Zoe?” referring to Zoe Kestan, who was romantically involved with Biden around the same time and testified about his rampant drug abuse.
Biden’s lead attorney Abbe Lowell challenged Hallie Biden repeatedly during his extensive cross-examination.
Hallie Biden ‘panicked’ and threw out the gun
Hallie Biden described how events spiraled out of control after she found Biden’s gun on October 23, “panicked” and drove to a grocery store to throw the pistol in a trashcan.
“I panicked and I wanted to get rid of them … because I didn’t want him to hurt himself or I didn’t want my kids to find it and hurt themselves, and I just panicked and wanted to get rid of it,” she testified.
She then drove to Janssen’s Market, a grocery store just a couple minutes away, and threw it in a trash can. Hunter Biden quickly discovered that his gun was missing and things went south, according to text messages shown to the jury. He was very angry, she testified.
“It’s hard to believe anyone is that stupid,” he texted her amid the crisis, according to the messages presented by prosecutors.
She later replied, “You can blame me all you want. I know it was stupid, but your part is dangerous and negligent. And because of this and my stupidity for being worried about you, I’m dealing with insanity and possibly I’m the one going to get in trouble.”
During cross-examination, Hallie Biden repeatedly said she didn’t recall details from the day, including around phone calls between her and Hunter Biden or the timing of when she found the gun in his truck and where all she went that day.
“There are some things you remember and many things you don’t,” Lowell told her, pointedly.
Early in her testimony, Hallie Biden testified to using drugs, saying that Hunter Biden introduced her to crack cocaine in 2018.
“It was a terrible experience that I went through, and I’m embarrassed and I’m ashamed, and I regret that period of my life,” she said.
She said she quit in August 2018.
She later said she went to rehab in Pennsylvania in early October 2018. Biden attended some “counseling” with her as part of the treatment, she said. Lowell suggested this was the reason why Hunter Biden returned from Los Angeles to Delaware – which is where he bought the gun weeks later.
Delaware State Police Lt. Millard Greer later testified about the series of events that led to the recovery of Biden’s gun, after Hallie Biden reported it missing.
Through security footage and interviews, investigators learned that an elderly man who liked to rummage around trash bins for recyclables may have taken the gun out of the trashcan that Hallie Biden had dropped it in. Greer said he surveilled the man at a Fidelity Investments storefront in the area, before approaching him later.
The man, Thomas Banner, acknowledged that he found something very important in the trash. They went back to his home to retrieve the gun, but Banner was locked out of his house and started “panicking,” Greer said.
They eventually got inside, and Banner led Greer to the gun, which Greer said was stuffed in a sock inside a General Motors lunchbox. He also, to Greer’s surprise, handed over a second gun that he said he had been holding on to for years, and was given to him by a coworker who needed to get rid of it to protect his brother.
The 80-year-old Banner later took the stand, and both Lowell and prosecutor Derek Hines stood inches away from him during questioning, speaking in slow, clear words because he was hard of hearing.
He described how even while at GM, where he worked for more than 30 years, he would collect aluminum cans and recyclables from trash bins. Banner said he’d drive them up to New York to exchange for money, noting he used to get a nickel per can but now could only gets upward of 75 cents for a pound.
The retiree also identified a brown pouch he found with the gun. Prosecutors say FBI investigators found a white powder that tested positive for cocaine on the pouch, years after it was found.
Hines asked the 80-year-old if anyone in his house used cocaine.
“No,” Banner said.
CNN’s Macayla Cook, Evan Perez, Kit Maher and Paula Reid contributed to this report.
