Judge sends jury home early in Hunter Biden trial; daughter Naomi Biden testifies: Recap
WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika sent the jury home early on Friday afternoon at Hunter Biden's federal gun trial. The defense case, which featured testimony from Biden's eldest daughter, Naomi Biden, will resume Monday morning.
Noreika dismissed jurors during a lunch break. Her decision came after the prosecution rested following three-and-a-half days of testimony from 10 witnesses. Defense witnesses included Hunter Biden's eldest child, lawyer Naomi Biden, who testified her father appeared in good health around the time he bought the handgun at the center of the politically fraught prosecution.
“He seemed great and he seemed hopeful,” Naomi Biden said of a meeting with her father in October 2018, around the time he purchased a .38-cal. revolver and allegedly lied on the background form. Questioned by prosecutors, she said, “I knew he was struggling with addiction” after the death of his brother, Beau Biden. “After my uncle died, things got bad.”
Biden faces three felony charges that he lied on a federal gun form that asked if he was addicted to drugs. His defense is expected to call two or three witnesses including James Biden, the president’s brother, who is expected to describe paying for his nephew’s stints in drug rehabilitation.
Hunter Biden will decide whether to testify after the other defense witnesses are finished, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell said. President Joe Biden has said he won't pardon his son if there is a guilty plea.
More: Hunter Biden trial: Why his gun case hinges on one fateful day when he wasn't using drugs
These were the highlights of Friday's testimony from the USA TODAY Network.
Judge ends trial early at lunch break. Defense resumes Monday
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika ended proceedings in Hunter Biden's trial early Friday. She sent jurors home during the lunch break and said testimony would resume Monday.
Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell Lowell was still finalizing his list of witnesses, and was expected to file paperwork asking Noreika to dismiss the case.
On Monday, Lowell he could call a police officer who became involved in the investigation after Biden's sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, tossed .38-cal. revolver into a grocery store trash can 11 days after he purchased it. Lowell could also call James Biden, President Joe Biden's brother, to testify about paying for his nephew's drug rehabilitation program.
--Xerxes Wilson
Hunter Biden's trial breaks for lunch
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika's courtroom is emptying out for a one-hour lunch break.
Prosecution implies Hunter Biden was furtive during NY visit to his daughter
Before she was dismissed from the witness stand on Friday, prosecutors walked Naomi Biden through text messages that seemed to indicate that Hunter Biden was avoiding his daughter.
“Did he tell you he was meeting with someone named Frankie? That he had Frankie come to his hotel room? That he gave him the access key to his Wells Fargo account?” prosecutor Leo Wise asked about an October 2018 visit to New York.
In another message from around the same time, she told her father: “I can’t take this. I miss you so much. I just want to hang out with you.”
Hunter Biden replied: “I am sorry I’ve been so unreachable. It is not fair to you.”
Under questioning from the defense, Naomi Biden told the jury there was no confusion about whether she had time to spend with her father in New York.
--Xerxes Wilson
More: Hunter Biden's addiction memoir climbs the charts as prosecutors use it as a weapon in court
Prosecutors ask Naomi Biden about New York trip
Prosecutor Leo Wise asked Naomi Biden about texts she exchanged with her father Hunter Biden while they were in New York in October 2018, the month he bought a revolver at the center of his trial on gun charges.
Naomi Biden had said he was doing “great” during the trip for her move. But Wise asked if she knew what her father was doing when he asked to reclaim his truck from her in the middle of the night.
“Do you know what your father was doing at 2 a.m. and why he was asking for the car then?” Wise asked her.
She said she did not.
--Xerxes Wilson
More: Secret Service agent protecting Joe Biden's granddaughter fires after group tried to break into SUV
Who is Naomi Biden?
Naomi Biden, 30, is Hunter Biden’s eldest daughter with his first wife Kathleen Buhl. Like several other members of the country’s first family, she is a lawyer. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School.
The granddaughter of President Joe Biden, she lived in the White House with her then-fiancé Peter Neal for a few months before the pair got married on the South Lawn in November 2022. She remains based in Washington, D.C.
In November 2023, a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the president’s granddaughter opened fire after three people allegedly tried to break into a government vehicle parked in Georgetown near her home.
—Rachel Barber
‘I knew he was struggling’: Naomi Biden on her father's addiction
Prosecutors asked Naomi Biden about her father Hunter Biden’s drug addiction but she said she never saw him using drugs.
“I knew he was struggling with addiction,” she said.
Asked when the struggle began, Naomi Biden cited the death of Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.
“After my uncle died, things got bad,” she said.
--Xerxes Wilson
‘He seemed hopeful’: Naomi Biden on her father Hunter Biden
Naomi Biden testified that when she saw her father, Hunter Biden, in mid-October 2018, days after he purchased the gun central to the trial, his manner seemed similar to when he'd been in a rehabilitation program months earlier.
She had driven her father’s truck to New York to move into a new apartment. And Hunter Biden had driven Joe Biden’s Cadillac to New York because he needed his truck back, she testified.
“He seemed great and he seemed hopeful,” she said.
--Xerxes Wilson
Naomi Biden testifies about her father's drug rehab
Naomi Biden, who is the eldest of Hunter Biden’s three children, told the jury about visiting her father in California during the summer of 2018 when he was rehabilitation from using crack cocaine.
“He seemed like the clearest he had been since my uncle died,” Naomi Biden, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. said, referring to the late Beau Biden. “He seemed really great.”
--Xerxes Wilson
Naomi Biden takes the stand
Naomi Biden, the eldest of Hunter Biden's five children, has taken the witness stand to testify in her father's defense.
--Xerxes Wilson
Defense focuses on Hunter Biden's federal gun screening form
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to allow Hunter Biden’s defense to introduce a second version of the federal form he filled out to buy a gun in 2018, but defense lawyer Abbe Lowell continued to scrutinize details of the form in questioning a gun shop worker.
The initial form listed Biden’s passport to verify his identity. The second version sent to investigators later included his vehicle registration. Lowell claimed the form was “doctored” and in pretrial hearings sought to explore that at trial.
Gun shop worker Jason Turner testified that he wrote the vehicle registration into the form the day of the sale. “That form is wrong,” Turner said of the initial form.
--Xerxes Wilson
Defense grills worker who sold gun to Hunter Biden
Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell asked gun store worker Jason Turner about how he approved the background check required to sell Hunter Biden a gun that is central to the charges in his federal trial.
Lowell asked Turner about the color of ink used and about how Biden verified his address.
Lowell has previously alleged the gun shop did not receive proper identification and annotated the form years later to indicate Hunter Biden presented vehicle registration documents as a supplemental identification.
On the stand, Turner said he wrote that on the form the day of the sale.
--Xerxes Wilson
More: Joe Biden said he won't pardon Hunter Biden if he is convicted in felony gun trial
Hunter Biden's first witness is a gun shop employee
Jason Turner was an employee at the StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Talleyville, Del., and was working the day Hunter Biden bought the .38 Special revolver at the center of the criminal trial in October 2018.
He said he ran background checks and made sales as part of his employment there.
--Xerxes Wilson
More: Hunter Biden's lawyer in gun trial also represented Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner
Defense outlines expected witnesses from gun shop, grocery store
Before the court went into a short recess, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell told U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika he intended to call the owner and the manager of the store that sold Hunter Biden the gun at the heart of the federal gun charges against him.
Lowell also said he would call the manager of the grocery store where the gun was found after Biden’s sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, threw it in a trash can 11 days after he bought it. A police officer called to the store will also be a witness, Lowell said.
Lowell didn’t mention calling any of Hunter Biden’s relatives, despite earlier saying he expected to call James Biden, the president’s brother.
--Xerxes Wilson
More: Who is David Weiss? What to know about Trump-appointed special counsel on Hunter Biden case
Hunter Biden’s defense asks judge to dismiss charges
Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell asked U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika to dismiss the gun charges against Hunter Biden after the prosecution rested its case, arguing Justice Department special counsel David Weiss’s team had failed to provide sufficient evidence.
Lowell also argued the charges were unconstitutional because of legislative changes in gun restrictions. But Noreika has already rejected that argument in pretrial motions.
A request to dismiss charges is common after the prosecution in a case rests. “We will take a look,” Noreika said.
Lowell noted what he described as her “skeptical” smile.
“It didn’t mean I was skeptical, it was kind of an interesting concept,” Noreika said, describing one of his arguments.
--Xerxes Wilson
Prosecution rests gun case against Hunter Biden
Prosecutors rested their case Friday against Hunter Biden – on federal charges he lied about his drug use when buying a gun in 2018 – after three and a half days of testimony from 10 witnesses.
Biden’s defense team expected to call two or three witnesses, including James Biden, the president’s brother. After those witnesses testify, Hunter Biden will decide whether to testify, according to defense lawyer Abbe Lowell.
--Xerxes Wilson
Defense questions DEA agent about drug mentions in Biden electronics
Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell questioned Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent who reviewed texts from Hunter Biden’s electronic devices, about references to drugs in messages and pictures.
Lowell noted the timing of texts mentioning drugs dating to months before Biden bought a gun in October 2018 or afterward. Lowell also asked how Romig knew a water pipe in one picture was used for cocaine, suggesting it could have also been used to smoke methamphetamine, heroin or even pipe tobacco.
But Romig said he felt it was used for crack cocaine because of burn marks on the pipe.
--Xerxes Wilson
DEA agent testifies about drug videos, slang
A text message Hunter Biden sent in February 2019, which said “I think it may be fentan,” was another way of saying fentanyl, a drug that dealers sometimes mixed with other products, according to Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent.
Another message sent to Hunter Biden stated “I have a ball on me,” to which he replied that he felt he was being scammed. Romig said “ball” is slang for “eight ball,” or 3.5 ounces of crack cocaine.
Prosecutors played a video from Biden’s electronic devices showing white rocks on a scale, which Romig said appeared to be cocaine. Several pictures showed what Romig said appeared to be a crack pipe.
--Xerxes Wilson
Pictures from Hunter Biden devices show cocaine: DEA agent
Joshua Romig, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, testified that pictures from April 2018 pulled from Hunter Biden’s electronic devices showed cocaine.
Prosecutors also read out corresponding text messages which Romig said show that he was “upset that the amount is a lot smaller than what he paid for.”
--Xerxes Wilson
DEA expert expected to testify about ‘coded messages’ about drugs
Joshua Romig, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, was expected to testify in Hunter Biden’s trial on federal gun charges about “coded messages” referring to drugs pulled from Biden’s electronic devices.
Prosecutors have referred to several messages explicitly mentioning drugs, while others refer to “baby powder” and “chore boy.”
Romig, the assistant special agent in charge of DEA’s Philadelphia field office, outlined his 25-year career in law enforcement investigating narcotics.
--Xerxes Wilson
Chemist found cocaine residue on Hunter Biden’s leather gun pouch
Forensic chemist Jason Brewer testified that he found cocaine in the residue on the leather pouch that held Hunter Biden’s gun.
Two spots on the pouch had a “minimal amount” of “off-white powder,” which Brewer pointed out in a picture prosecutors projected onto a screen in Biden’s trial on gun charges. Brewer explained the technical details of testing for drugs.
“Cocaine was identified within the residual white particles I sampled,” he told the jury.
--Xerxes Wilson
Chemist expected to testify about residue on Hunter Biden’s leather gun pouch
Jason Brewer, a forensic chemist for the FBI, is the first witness Friday in Hunter Biden’s trial on federal gun charges, where he is expected to testify about the residue found on a leather pouch recovered with a revolver at the heart of the case.
Prosecutors contend the pouch provides evidence of Hunter Biden’s use of crack cocaine use around the time he purchased and owned the .38-caliber Colt revolver in October 2018.
But defense lawyer Abbe Lowell argued in opening statements that detectives don’t know whether it was his client or Hallie Biden who is responsible for the residue on the pouch.
--Xerxes Wilson
Hallie Biden received texts drugs from Hunter Biden
Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, testified about how her brother-in-law introduced her to drugs. She also walked the jury through a series of text messages in the days after Hunter Biden bought the gun on Oct. 12, 2018.
A text the next day said he was behind a baseball stadium in Wilmington “waiting on a dealer named Mookie.”
The next day, Hallie Biden texted him stating that she tried calling him “500 times in the past 24 hours.” He eventually responded: “I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney.”
– Xerxes Wilson
Hunter Biden called Hallie Biden ‘stupid’ for trashing gun
Hallie Biden told the jury she found the gun in his car 11 days after he bought it. Rather than risk their kids finding it, she put the gun in a leather case and drove to a grocery store, where she threw it into a trash can.
“I realized it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking,” Hallie Biden said.
Hunter Biden confronted her when he discovered what she had done.
“It’s hard for me to believe anyone is that stupid,” Hunter Biden said in a text. “Do you want me dead?” he asked in a later text.
−Xerxes Wilson
'I definitely remember finding that': retiree described Hunter Biden's gun
The 80-year-old retiree who found the gun at the heart of Hunter Biden’s federal trial – on charges he lied to buy and possess the weapon – had been rummaging through trash bins for two decades.
Edward Banner was scavenging for aluminum cans he could return for a nickel apiece when he found the revolver that Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s former girlfriend and the widow of his brother, tossed in the trash outside Janssen’s Market in Greenville.
After Biden reported the gun missing, then-Delaware State Police Lt. Millard Greer tracked down Banner rummaging through trash cans in the upscale area. Greer asked Banner if someone had tossed something they shouldn’t have.
"Yes, they did," Greer quoted Banner saying. "A .38 special."
On the witness stand, Banner said: "I definitely remember finding that."
−Xerxes Wilson and Isabel Hughes
What is Hunter Biden being charged with?
The president's son faces three firearms felonies. In October 2018, Hunter Biden walked into a gun shop north of Wilmington, Delaware, and purchased a revolver.
People who purchase firearms are required to fill out a standardized form that asks whether they are an unlawful user or are addicted to controlled substances, narcotics and other listed substances. Biden is accused of answering "no" to that question on the form.
But Biden has been open about his longtime struggles with crack cocaine addiction. He's written about it in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," and discussed it during a court hearing last year, stating he's been sober since 2019.
Biden faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted, although first-time and non-violent offenders are often given shorter terms.
– Xerxes Wilson
Hunter Biden memoir regains popularity during trial
Hunter Biden’s searing 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” was a New York Times bestseller years before an audio version of him reading the tale of drug abuse was played as evidence in federal trial on gun charges.
But the trial has rekindled interest in what mega-author Stephen King called a “harrowing and compulsively readable memoir.
The book reached No. 4 on the New York Times’ list after its April 2021 list. The book jumped from 338,000 in Amazon rankings on Sunday to 12,900 on Monday, the trial’s first day, and 4,200 on Wednesday.
More than 28,000 copies of the book have been sold in the U.S. by May 25, according to industry tracker BookScan. More than 11,00 e-books were sold through February.
−Dan Morrison
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden trial recap: Naomi Biden testifies for her father
