Hunter & Joe Biden - AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
WILMINGTON, Delaware, June 6 (Reuters) – Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law testified at his criminal trial on Thursday that she took and threw away his gun out of fear of his spiraling addiction, potentially bolstering prosecutors’ case that President Joe Biden’s son broke a law barring illegal drug users from owning firearms.
Jurors in the first criminal trial of a U.S. president’s son saw surveillance camera footage of Hallie Biden tossing Hunter Biden’s gun in a supermarket trash can, as well as texts where she said she feared for his life.
“Check yourself into a local rehab hunter, this has all got to stop,” Hallie Biden wrote in an October 2018 text shortly after Hunter Biden bought the gun.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought the Colt Cobra revolver and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days until Hallie Biden took it.
The jury has heard testimony this week from witnesses, including his ex-wife and a former girlfriend about 54-year-old Hunter Biden’s past prolific drug use, which he has publicly acknowledged.
Much of the earlier testimony and evidence covered periods before and after Biden had the gun, and the defense has tried to show the president’s son had gone through drug treatment and could have considered himself sober when he bought it in October 2018.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the jury during opening arguments on Tuesday there was no intent to deceive by Hunter Biden.
Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015, was the first witness to fill in details about Hunter Biden’s behavior when he possessed the gun.
She testified she often cleaned out Hunter Biden’s truck, searching for drugs, in an attempt to help him get his life in order.
She told the jury that she found drug paraphernalia and the gun during one of those searches, and feared Hunter Biden or her children would see the gun and hurt themselves.
“I panicked and wanted to get rid of it,” said Hallie Biden, who said she struck up a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden beginning in late 2015 or early 2016.
She said Hunter Biden introduced her to crack and she became addicted until she got clean in August 2018. “It was a terrible experience I went through and I’m embarrassed and ashamed,” she told the jury.
During cross-examination, Lowell sought to show jurors that things Hunter Biden said about his drug use to Hallie Biden couldn’t be taken at face value because he sometimes lied to her. Hunter Biden told the judge in the case at a 2023 hearing that he had been sober since 2019.
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