WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hunter Biden‘s defense team rested its case Monday morning after calling three witnesses to the stand in Biden’s gun trial — and after the first son decided against testifying in his own defense.
Biden’s lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell had brought in his client’s eldest daughter to testify on how her father appeared sober in the summer of 2018, a couple of months before he purchased a gun for which he is now facing charges.
“He seemed like the clearest that I had seen him since my uncle died,” Naomi Biden testified on Friday.
She also said she did not see any drug paraphernalia in his truck in late October when he visited her in New York, though prosecutors on cross-examination showed text messages that signaled he was not entirely available to his daughter when he went to New York.
“I just want to hang out with you,” Naomi Biden wrote in a text.
“I’m sorry, I have been so unreachable, it’s not fair to you,” her father responded.
An ex-girlfriend previously testified that she had witnessed Hunter Biden using crack cocaine as late as September 2018, one month before the Oct. 12, 2018, gun purchase.
Lowell also called Jason Turner and Ron Palmieri to testify. Both worked at the Wilmington gun shop where Hunter Biden bought the firearm in question and discussed the background check process.
Special counsel David Weiss has alleged Hunter Biden lied on a federal form about his drug use to purchase a revolver and that he unlawfully kept the gun for 11 days while being addicted to or a user of crack cocaine.
Hunter Biden was accompanied by several family members in the courtroom on Monday, including first lady Jill Biden, first daughter Ashley Biden, his uncle and aunt James and Sara Biden, his aunt Valerie Biden Owens, and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris has also been present every day for the proceedings.
On the prosecutors’ side, Weiss sat at the end of the front row in his usual spot.
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The trial has entered its second week, but it is in its final stretch now as closing arguments are set to begin Monday afternoon.
Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is presiding over the case, has already read jurors most of their instructions, meaning jury deliberations are expected to begin soon after closing arguments. Deliberations could take hours or days if needed.