Hunter Biden’s ex-wife describes his drug use at his criminal trial
By Jack Queen and Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -Hunter Biden’s former girlfriend testified about his near-constant crack cocaine use at lavish hotels at the criminal trial where prosecutors are trying to prove that U.S. President Joe Biden’s son lied about his addiction to illegally buy a gun.
Jurors heard that Hunter Biden would prepare crack at the ritzy Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles or spend days in hotel rooms getting high in the months before his 2018 gun purchase, according to his former girlfriend.
“He would want to smoke as soon as he woke up,” Zoe Kestan told jurors, as she described meetings with a “scary” drug dealer and hunting for instructions on the internet to cook powder cocaine into crack.
Kestan’s testified at the first trial of a U.S. president’s child, where prosecutors are trying to prove that Hunter Biden knowingly lied about his drug use on screening paperwork when he purchased a revolver in October 2018.
Kathleen Buhle, who divorced Hunter Biden in 2017, also testified for about 20 minutes to describe how she first discovered he was using drugs.
Prosecutors also said they plan to call Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau Biden.
Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought the gun and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.
Biden has publicly acknowledged his past drug use, including in his memoir. He told the judge in the case at a 2023 hearing that he had been sober since 2019.
His defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has countered that Hunter Biden was not using drugs at the time and did not intend to deceive. Lowell pressed an FBI agent to acknowledge that prosecutors’ evidence of addiction came before or after the gun ownership.
The trial follows another historic first – last week’s criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be found guilty of a felony. Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election.
Kestan described meeting Hunter Biden when she worked as a dancer at a Manhattan club. “He was super-charming. Everyone loved him,” she told the jury.
The pair quickly began a relationship revolving around meeting up for days or weeks at a time at lavish hotels while Hunter Biden smoked crack as often as every 20 minutes.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hunter Biden’s attorney Lowell elicited testimony from an FBI agent and tried to show that the bulk of messages introduced by prosecutors about drug use preceded the gun purchase or were sent months after the gun was taken from Hunter Biden.
Much of Lowell’s cross-examination of Erika Jensen, the FBI agent who was called by the prosecution, tried to undercut suggestions that Hunter Biden used $151,000 in cash withdrawals around the time of the gun purchase to buy drugs.
Jensen acknowledged she did not know if the money was spent on accommodations, for example.
Prosecutor Derek Hines noted that Hunter Biden was using debit cards, not cash, for alcohol and other expenses at the time.
“Do drug dealers accept cards?” Hines asked Jensen. “Not in my experience,” she responded.