WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and current girlfriend, Hallie Biden, took the stand Thursday at her eldest son’s criminal trial, walking jurors through the events surrounding the former couple’s crack cocaine use and the disappearance of Hunter’s Cobra Colt 38.
“What I went through was a terrible experience and I’m embarrassed and ashamed. … I regret that period of my life,” Hallie Biden told the court Thursday about her crack cocaine use.
Hallie Biden is the widow of Beau Biden and began dating Hunter Biden in 2015 after her husband died of brain cancer. The two had an on-off relationship until around 2019, with Hunter Biden living in her Wilmington home and the two sharing a home in Annapolis, Maryland.
She testified that Hunter Biden introduced her to crack cocaine in 2018 and said she deeply regretted her involvement with the addictive drug and has been sober since then.
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Hunter Biden arrives at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware on June 6, 2024, as his trial continues on felony firearms charges. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Hallie Biden is a key figure in the trial: She is the person who threw Hunter Biden’s gun in a trash can outside a Wilmington supermarket, leading to police involvement prior to his indictment last year. She also provided further information about Hunter’s addiction to crack cocaine in the year he bought the gun.
Prosecutors are trying to prove that Hunter Biden lied in October 2018 by checking a box that said “no” when asked if he was an unlawful firearms user or addicted to controlled substances on a federal firearms declaration, known as ATF Form 4473. Hunter Biden bought the gun at a store in Wilmington called Star Quest Shooters & Survival Supply.
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Hunter Biden’s legal team has not denied his eldest son’s drug addiction issues, detailed in his autobiography, “Beautiful Things,” and has argued that Hunter did not believe he was a drug user when he bought the gun.
Hunter Biden is charged with making a false statement in connection with a firearm purchase, making a false statement regarding information required to be kept by federally licensed gun dealers, and possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance.
A courtroom sketch shows Hallie Biden testifying on the witness stand during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware on June 6, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
He pleaded not guilty In that case.
The three charges carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years, and each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years probation.
Hallie Biden remained calm as prosecutors bombarded her with questions Thursday about her relationship with Hunter Biden, how she learned he was a crack cocaine user and an incident in October 2018 when she panicked and threw away Biden’s gun.
“I found [crack] “I didn’t know what it was so I Googled it,” Hallie Biden told the court about the first time she saw the drug at her home.[Hunter Biden] He told me what it was: crack cocaine.”
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Hallie Biden, testifying under immunity, said she had smoked crack cocaine and accompanied Hunter Biden on drug deals. She had become sober by August 2018.
The widowed mother-of-two appeared in court alongside her husband, John Hopkins Anning, whom she married last weekend.
She was grilled by both the prosecution and defense regarding the discovery of Hunter Biden’s gun in the console of his truck at her property in Wilmington. She explained that she had not seen Hunter Biden for some time, but that late on October 22 or early on October 23, 2018, he had come to her home and appeared “tired and weak” and “may have been under the influence of drugs.”
On the morning of October 23, after Hallie Biden dropped off the kids at school, she cleaned out Hunter Biden’s truck, removing any possible traces of drugs or alcohol to help him get sober.
A courtroom sketch shows Hallie Biden testifying on the witness stand during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware on June 6, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
“In addition to trash and clothing, we also found crack cocaine residue, paraphernalia and, of course, a gun,” she said.
Hallie Biden said she “panicked” when she found the gun, along with a box of ammunition and several rounds of bullets, and put anything that looked like a firearm into a leather pouch she also found in the truck, then put the pouch into a shopping bag.
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“I panicked and wanted to get rid of them,” she said of the pistol and ammunition box. “I wanted to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or anything. [for] Children might find it and get hurt.”
She then drove to a nearby grocery store, Janssen’s Market, and threw the gun in a trash can outside the store. The court was shown surveillance camera footage that captured her throwing the pouch and bag containing the gun in the trash.
She told the court she was “upset” after discovering the firearm but now realised it was a “stupid idea” she had in a “phase of panic”.
Photo evidence submitted by the prosecution showed the gun purchased by Hunter Biden. (US Government exhibit)
Hallie Biden described in court the messages and phone calls she had with Hunter Biden after he disposed of the gun.
“I was going to pretend it wasn’t me,” she said, but then Hunter Biden noticed the gun was missing and texted her, “Did you take that from me?”
The eldest son appeared to be enraged by his mother’s actions regarding the gun and demanded to go back to the market and “search for it.” When she tried to find the handgun in a trash can, Hunter Biden told her to contact police and file a report, she said.
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Jurors were shown video footage of her searching for a gun outside the market.
Harry Biden’s testimony on Thursday, when questioned by his lawyer Abe Lowell, became confused as he was repeatedly asked about the timeline of events that day. Harry Biden repeatedly said he “didn’t remember” and even said he was “confused” by his questions.
“Some things I remember, and a lot of things I don’t remember,” Lowell retorted.
Attorney Abe Lowell arrives at the federal courthouse during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
In addition to the courtroom where jurors heard testimony from the Biden’s eldest son’s sister-in-law and girlfriend, jurors spent the morning hearing testimony from Gordon Cleveland, the gun store employee who sold Hunter Biden the gun in 2018, Delaware State Police Officer Joshua Murray, who responded to Janssen’s Market when Hallie Biden filed the police report, former Delaware State Police Lt. Millard Greer, and Edward Banner, an elderly man who found Hunter Biden’s gun in a trash can.
Gordon Cleveland leaves a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
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Banner, 80, who is hearing impaired, drew laughter from the courtroom on Thursday in his responses to both prosecutor Derek Hines and Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Lowell. Banner took the stand with the help of Chief Judge Maryellen Noreika, who hopped out of her leather chair and helped Banner sit down.
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware on June 6, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Hines and Lowell questioned Banner from just a few feet away from the witness stand so he couldn’t hear them otherwise. Banner, a former General Motors employee and Navy veteran, told the court he used to dig through trash bins looking for materials he could recycle to make money. “Especially now with gas prices going up,” he joked.
Security camera footage was played in court, showing Banner retrieving the gun from a trash can outside Janssen’s Market. Banner said he remembered finding the gun but couldn’t remember the exact date. Banner took the gun home and stored it in a box with another firearm he said he received from a former GM employee. Banner said he also remembered Officer Greer chasing Banner and ultimately seizing the gun.
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Banner appeared to please the jury, who erupted in laughter at his comments throughout his testimony, including when Hines asked Banner how long he’d been married. Banner said he thought he’d been married 11 years, but that his wife “probably knows her better than I do.” Hunter Biden was also seen smiling as Banner spoke in court.
After Banner finished his testimony, Noreika joked with the lawyers that getting up close and personal with Banner on the stand “wasn’t like something out of the movies.”
“No, not like when Perry Mason did it,” Lowell jokingly replied.
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware on June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Hunter Biden, as he has every day this week, was attentive throughout the court hearing, taking notes, chatting with his defense team and going straight to his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, when court recessed. He was seen kissing the top of her head before court began on Thursday.
First lady Jill Biden did not appear in court for the first time in the trial on Thursday, instead traveling to Normandy, France with President Biden to attend the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. She is scheduled to appear again in court in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday before returning to France.
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Prosecutors announced they plan to call their two final witnesses on Friday after jurors leave the courtroom: forensic chemist Jason Brewer and DEA Special Agent Joshua Romig. They are expected to take a break by mid-morning Friday.
Mr Lowell told the court he plans to call two or three witnesses and will decide tomorrow whether to call an expert chemist. He said he expects to rest by Monday.
Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhl, leaves federal court after taking the stand at his trial on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
It is unclear whether the defense will call Hunter Biden to testify.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. on Friday and the trial will wrap up for the week at 4:30 p.m.
Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, leaves federal court after testifying at his trial on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
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Previous testimony in the trial included Hunter Biden’s former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan (who met his eldest son when she was 24 and 48 while working as a stripper in New York City), FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen, and Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.
