Day 4 of Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial

Prosecutors showed the jury some very personal messages from the critical period when Hunter Biden owned the gun.  

“I’m afraid you are going to die,” the text said, from Hallie Biden to Hunter Biden on October 4, 2018.  

Prosecutor Leo Wise asked if she was afraid of him dying from an “overdose.” 

“Maybe. Suicide. I didn’t know,” she said, haltingly.  

Hallie Biden said that she decided to get rid of the gun and found a gift shopping bag but realized that the gun was too visible and started looking for something to use in Hunter Biden’s case.  

In his truck, Hallie Biden said she found a pouch to put it in and said Hunter Biden would use the pouches for different items, including drugs.  

Prosecutors say that a white powder was analyzed in 2023 from the pouch and tested positive for cocaine.  Defense attorney Abbe Lowell suggested in opening statements that the pouch was Hallie Biden’s.  

Hallie described throwing out the gun.  

Prosecutors played surveillance footage of her in the supermarket parking lot throwing out the gun.  

“I was so flustered,” she said. “I realize it was a stupid idea now.” 

They also showed footage of her inside the store, called Jansen’s. 

Hallie Biden said she later went back to the grocery store to look for the gun she thew out.  

The jury was shown security footage of Hallie Biden hurriedly looking through trash bins outside, going back and forth between different bins five times.   

Hallie Biden said she went inside to ask employees if the trash had been taken out and later filed a police report.  

On October 23, 2018, Hallie Biden says she went to clean out Hunter Biden’s truck while he was asleep and found drugs and a gun.  

“I did find some remnants of crack cocaine” and drug paraphernalia, she said.  

“Oh, and the gun, obviously,” Hallie Biden said, chuckling.  

Hallie Biden said this was the first time she ever saw a gun up close.  

Presented the gun by prosecutors and asked if it was the one she found, Hallie Biden said she “can’t know, but that looks like it.”  

“I was afraid to kinda touch it. I didn’t know if it was loaded,” she said.   

The defense argues the gun was never loaded at any point in time.  

Hallie Biden testified that Hunter Biden introduced her to crack in 2018, and she abused the drug.  

She said she quit in August 2018.  

This admission came moments after Hallie Biden described visiting Hunter Biden in Los Angeles in June 2018 at the Roosevelt Hotel. She saw him using crack there on a “frequent” basis. 

Hallie Biden arrives to federal court on Thursday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hallie Biden also testified that she had conversations with Hunter Biden between 2017 and 2018 about his drug use, telling him “this can’t go on, we can’t do this.”

Hunter Biden’s responses would vary, sometimes saying, “leave me alone, I’m fine” and other times saying he was an addict and that I’ll figure it out my way,” she testifies.  

In court, Hunter Biden has been watching Hallie Biden diligently as she testifies.  

Asked to describe Hunter Biden, Hallie Biden said “he’s my brother-in-law.”  

Regarding their romantic relationship, which began after Beau Biden died in 2015, Hallie Biden said “it was gradual.”  

Hallie Biden said she “occasionally” saw Hunter Biden with very large crack rocks that were the size of a ping-pong ball.  

Hallie Biden said she found Hunter Biden’’s drugs when they were dating sometime in 2015-2016 after Beau Biden died.  

“I found it, and I googled it,” she testified, because she didn’t know what it was. She said it was the first time she saw crack cocaine.  

Hunter Biden admitted to her that it was crack.  

Asked to describe Hunter Biden, Hallie Biden said “he’s my brother-in-law.”  

Regarding their romantic relationship, which began after Beau Biden died in 2015, she said, “it was gradual.”  

Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s late brother, Beau, has been called to testify by prosecutors.  

Prosecutors have said Hallie Biden — who dated Hunter during the time he purchased the firearm – will testify about when he owned the firearm and how she took it from his car and tossed it in a dumpster outside of a grocery store in Wilmington, Delaware.  

Gordon Cleveland departs from federal court on Wednesday, June 5, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Gordon Cleveland was about to say something on the stand about potential problems with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) paperwork, which could’ve opened the door for the defense to bring up the fact that the gun employees later altered the form.  

Prosecutors objected several times, and the judge sustained their objections, cutting off Cleveland from answering Abbe Lowell’s questions.  

More context: The store’s tampering with the form – in 2021, years after the sale – is important to the defense. But the judge has previously limited their ability to delve into the issue in front of the jury.  

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell is again drawing the distinction between the use of “have” and “are” on the federal form Hunter Biden allegedly filled out when buying a gun. 

In questioning the former gun shop employee who says he sold the gun, Lowell is noting that the form asks, “are you an unlawful user” or addiction to “illegal drugs.” 

Lowell has suggested prosecutors have not proved Hunter Biden was using drugs when he bought the revolver or didn’t see himself as being “addicted to” drugs at that moment.  

Gordon Cleveland, the gun salesman who sold Hunter Biden the gun at the center of the case, is back on the stand for cross-examination Thursday morning. 

The messages that the defense wants to introduce – which prosecutors are objecting to – would be used to undermine Hallie Biden’s testimony. She is a key witness for prosecutors because she threw out the gun and was around Hunter Biden, and texted with him, at the time when the key events in this case occurred.  

She could fill in key gaps in the timeline from October 2018. 

Lowell said he wants to use these new materials to point out potential inconsistencies in Hallie’s story.  

The judge said she might let the defense use a small subset of the material depending on Hallie Biden’s testimony. But she largely sided with prosecutors’ effort to block most of the new messages.  

Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden who was once in a relationship with Hunter Biden, will be the second witness today.  

Judge Maryellen Noreika on Monday, June 3, in Wilmington, Delaware.

The jury hasn’t been brought in yet because of a disagreement over the laptop between prosecutors and the defense.   

Judge Maryellen Noreika grilled the defense about why they’re trying to use some evidence later today that they may not have fully shared and disclosed ahead of time with the prosecutors.  

She said she was “confused” by their apparently belated disclosures.  

“Why are you doing that today?” she asked.  

Prosecutors want the judge to block the defense from using this new evidence, which are some files that they said they got separately from the laptop.   

“It’s late … and it’s full of hearsay,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.  

Exhausted by the dispute, Noreika joked, “you’ve got hard drives, laptops … iClouds, oh my!” 

The fourth day of trial in the Hunter Biden case is underway in Delaware.  

The gun shop employee who testified about selling the gun at the center of the case to Hunter Biden is set to continue his testimony. Prosecutors have said they expect to conclude their case today.  

Les Wire, one of the prosecutors, said Hallie Biden, who was married to Beau Biden and was once in a relationship with Hunter Biden, will be the second witness today.  

Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 6, in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Hunter Biden arrived for the fourth day of his trial on federal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware.

He arrived alongside his wife Melissa Cohen Biden. Hunter put his hand on her left shoulder and she wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked in together.

First lady Jill Biden will not attend court today, as she did Monday through Wednesday, because she is in France for the commemoration of D-Day with President Joe Biden. 

Abbe Lowell, attorney for Hunter Biden, arrives at federal court in Wilmington, Delaware on June 5.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers are trying to use a “remarkably clever and remarkably careful” defense in the trial on federal gun charges against him, one criminal defense attorney said on CNN.

The indictment stems from a 2018 gun purchase. While buying the revolver in Delaware, Biden lied on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs — even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase. 

Ron Kuby, a defense lawyer, said the defense is trying to convey two arguments to the jury:

On the other side, the prosecution is trying to portray Biden as a “drug-addled wreck of a human being” during the general time period when the gun purchase was made, Kuby said.

Kuby said to combat that, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell is trying to give the jury a variety of reasons to disregard certain unsavory depictions.

“Once the jury has decided to hunt for reasonable doubt, they’ll usually find it,” he added.

Hunter Biden and his his wife Melissa Cohen Biden depart from the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 4, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hunter Biden faces three charges, including making false statements on a federal firearms form and possession of a firearm as a prohibited person. 

The indictment stems from a 2018 gun purchase. While buying the revolver in Delaware, Biden lied on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs – even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase. 

It’s a federal crime to lie on the ATF form or to possess a firearm as a drug user. He possessed the gun for 11 days in 2018. 

If convicted on all counts, Biden could theoretically face as much as 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000, according to court filings. 

However, defendants very rarely get the maximum penalty, especially in cases like these, involving non-violent crimes and an alleged first-time offender. 

The charges followed a botched agreement: Last June, Weiss announced a two-pronged agreement where Biden would plead guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors and enter a “diversion agreement” where the gun charge would be dropped in two years if he passed regular drug tests and stayed out of legal trouble. 

However, at a July 2023 hearing, the agreement collapsed after a judge said she had “concerns” about the parties seemingly linking the tax plea agreement to resolving a felony gun charge. Attorney General Merrick Garland named Weiss as special counsel the month after. 

CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this post.  

Judge Maryellen Noreika, right, speaks with lawyers involved with Hunter Biden's trial on Tuesday, June 4, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika is overseeing Hunter Biden’s gun case in Delaware. 

Noreika, a Donald Trump appointee, was confirmed by the US Senate in August 2018 by voice vote. She had the support of both Democratic senators from Delaware. Under the Senate’s blue slip tradition, nominees for district court seats require the support of home state senators to move forward.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat, praised Noreika in a statement after her nomination was announced. He described her and another appointee as “seasoned attorneys,” with “impressive trial skills, deep experience in federal practice, and profound respect for the law.”

Before becoming a federal judge, Noreika was a former patent lawyer in Wilmington, Delaware. She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1993. 

Noreika’s political spending has gone to both parties. On the presidential level, federal records indicate that she gave $1,000 to then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. She later donated $2,300 to the eventual 2008 Republican nominee, then-Arizona Sen. John McCain. She donated to the subsequent GOP nominee as well, giving $2,500 to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.

Noreika also financially supported Sen. Tom Cotton, a conservative Republican from Arkansas, during his 2014 senate race. She also donated $1,000 in 2009 to the DSCC, the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed, Marshall Cohen and Jack Forrest contributed to this report. 

This sketch from court shows the scene during Hunter Biden's trial on Wednesday.

The third day of the Hunter Biden trial saw his ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend testify as prosecutors continued to demonstrate his drug addiction to the jury.

The gun Biden bought in October 2018 that’s at the center of the charges against him was introduced in court. The salesman testified that he saw Biden fill out the federal form on which the president’s son is accused of lying.

Here’s a recap of the key takeaways:

Whatever one thinks of the Hunter Biden criminal case, the start of the federal gun trial involving the president’s son this week in Delaware laid bare a sobering aspect of American life that transcends partisan politics: a nation struggling with addiction.

The trial comes as federal, state and local officials have been battling an epidemic of drug overdoses across the country in both red and blue states, including those involving fentanyl, the highly potent opioid.

Biden has pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun while abusing or being addicted to drugs, a violation of federal law.

After prospective jurors were sworn in Monday inside Wilmington’s J. Caleb Boggs federal building, the judge read aloud a list of questions that would be used in winnowing down the group of residents who would rule on the case.

Another question probed whether potential jurors or their close associates had ever sought treatment for drug use. During their, at times, emotional answers, prospective juror after juror described how drug use had afflicted people they knew.

Read more about how drug addiction is affecting Americans, and how that might play out in this case here.