Hunter Biden trial highlights: Hallie Biden details tumultuous relationship and his addiction struggles (2024)

Prosecutors expect to rest their case by mid-morning tomorrow

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Day 4 of Hunter Biden’s trial wrapped at 4:35 p.m. The final witness of the day was Ed Banner, the man who found Hunter Biden's gun in the trash can outside the grocery store where Hallie Biden disposed of it. We are expecting the government to rest tomorrow after calling two more witnesses.

Ed Banner, the 80-year-old Navy veteran who testified he found Hunter Biden's gun in the trash after Hallie Biden tossed it, said he started digging for cans and bottles in trash cans as a hobby before he retired in 2006, adding that he would take the recyclables to New York to cash in.

Prosecutor Derek Hines asked Banner to review surveillance footage from the grocery store that showed him finding the gun in the trash can.

“That sure looks like me,” Banner said.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

The prosecution has called to the stand Edward Banner, the man who found Hunter Biden's gun in the trash after Hallie Biden tossed it.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Greer, now a special investigator with the Delaware Department of Justice, testified about being assigned to investigate Hunter Biden’s “theft of a firearm” case in 2018. Greer went to the store, spoke with the manager and reviewed security footage, he said.

He said he obtained the gun through an elderly man who had a habit of rummaging through the trash looking for recyclables. He had found the gun and took Greer to his house to collect the weapon and leather pouch, which contained chapstick, the speed loader and box of ammo. There were 23 bullets in the box (which comes with 25), Greer said.

After collecting the gun, Greer took Biden’s gun back to the police station and logged it into evidence, where it remained until it was eventually transferred to federal custody.

After recovering the gun, Greer called Biden and asked him if he wanted to press charges for the theft of his firearm. Biden declined.

Millard Greer, a former Delaware State Police lieutenant, took the stand at 3:25 p.m.

Greer is expected to offer testimony about recovering Hunter Biden's gun, as well as ammunition, a speed loader and a brown leather pouch from a man who found them in a trash receptacle at Janssen’s Market.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Marley, the police officer, had the briefest of direct examinations by prosecutor Derek Hines — it took less than two minutes. Hines asked Marley about his experience in the force and his call to Janssen’s Market on Oct. 23.

Marley, who was in uniform as he testified, said he viewed security camera video, and was present for an interview with Hunter Biden but did not conduct the interview himself. Hunter Biden was voluntarily interviewed, as the victim in this case. “He was the victim the entire time,” Marley said of this incident, because he reported a “gun was removed from his vehicle.”

Hallie Biden has finished her testimony. Next on the stand is Delaware State Police Senior Cpl. Joshua Marley. He is expected to testify about his response to an incident at Janssen’s Market, what Hunter Biden had admitted, and about evidence recovered. Hallie Biden threw out the handgun behind the grocery store, and it was later recovered by someone else.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

At one point, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell appeared to get frustrated with Hallie Biden’s memory and frequent answer of “I don’t recall.”

For example, when Lowell asked her if she remembered seeing him do drugs between Oct. 6 and 12, she answered, “I don’t know.”

“So there are just some things you remember and then many things you don’t,” Lowell said.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Following the gun incident their relationship was “more tense,” Hallie Biden said.

Lowell returned to a message that had been previously entered into evidence, underscoring that tension.

“The f---ing FBI Hallie. It’s hard to believe anyone is that stupid // so what’s my fault here Hallie that you speak of. Owning a gun that’s in a locked car hidden on another property? You say I invade your privacy. What more can I do than come back to you to try again. And you do this???? Who in their right mind would trust you would help me get sober?,” he wrote.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Lowell continued building out the timeline for the morning that Hallie Biden threw away the gun. Lowell produced a phone log of calls between Hallie and Hunter Biden and began to piece together a timeline based on those logs and text messages the pair sent each other.

She said that eventually two cops came to the grocery store office to question her.

“Police coming to talk to me now. I’ll take full blame. I don’t want to live like this anymore. This is too much for me to handle,” she texted him at the time.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

After running into roadblocks with the texts he was trying to use to jog Hallie Biden’s memory, Lowell has now turned to a series of phone calls based on phone records to reconstruct the events of the morning of Oct. 23, when Hallie found the gun in Hunter Biden’s car and then disposed of it in the Janssen’s Market trash can.

Prior to this, when returning to the courtroom from their lunch break, Lowell could be heard telling the prosecution: “It’s your phone records. And you know where it’s from.”

They had a four-minute sidebar at the judge’s bench when Judge Noreika returned to the courtroom before she called the jury back in.

After the sidebar finished, Noreika commented: “Lots of sidebars. We spend a lot of time over there,” referencing the corner by the bench. Hunter Biden once again stayed at the defense table during this sidebar, standing up and stretching his back.

The court released some sketches drawn by courtroom artist Bill Hennessy. The first one shows an image of the gun at the heart of the trial. The second shows Hallie Biden on the stand being questioned by prosecutor Leo Wise.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Hallie Biden is back on the stand after the lunch break. Here’s who we think is still left to testify for the government after she's done.

Delaware State Police Senior Cpl. Joshua Marley:He is expected to testify about his response to an incident at Janssen’s Market, what Hunter Biden had admitted, and about evidence recovered. Hallie Biden threw the handgun out behind the grocery store, which was later recovered by someone else.

There is a steady stream of Hunter Biden supporters in attendance in court today. Valerie Bidens Owen — Joe Biden’s sister and former campaign manager is sitting in the front row behind the defense table, next to Hunter’s wife, Melissa Cohen-Biden. Her son Cuffe Owens (Joe Biden’s nephew and Hunter's cousin) is also in court.

The president and the first lady are traveling but a source familiar tells NBC News that "POTUS and FLOTUS have been asking for updates on trial and it’s definitely top of mind, even with their many commitments and engagements."

During Hallie Biden's testimony, NBC News spoke with her new husband, John Hopkins Anning, who confirmed that they got married last weekend.

“It's not a great way to start to the honeymoon” he said jokingly, adding that they haven’t yet found the time to go on a honeymoon.

He told NBC News that testifying today is “very hard on her” emotionally, and that he was proud of her.

During a break in testimony for a sidebar between the judge and lawyers, Hallie waved and smiled at Anning, and they appeared to mouth “I love you” to each other. He held her purse for her during the testimony and sat next to her lawyer.

Abbe Lowell’s cross-examination of Hallie Biden has felt tortured at times, as he appears to be going through a long process to try and introduce text messages into evidence that otherwise have not been allowed.

She appears nervous and uncomfortable on the stand, at times looking to the judge or to the gallery to indicate she’s not sure what the correct way to address a question is. Lowell acknowledged the difficult nature of trying to recall specific moments from nearly four years ago. “Reconstructing this is not easy,” he observed. “Yes,” she said.

When Lowell tried to walk her through a process of looking down at printed text messages and asking if it refreshed her memory, he at one point to her nervous response said: “So far, so good.” The prosecutor quickly jumped in to say, no it’s not. There was a genuine eruption of laughter from the entire room that led to a sidebar between the lawyers.

Hunter Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell asked Hallie Biden a series of questions about the day she found Hunter's gun, on Oct. 23, and threw it out behind the Wilmington grocery store.

“I don’t recall when I first saw the truck,” Hallie Biden said of Hunter Biden's truck where she found the handgun. Lowell then walked her through her morning.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell seemed to suggest during his cross-examination that Hallie Biden's testimony is unreliable because Hunter Biden often lied to her about where he was or what he was doing.

She testified that Hunter Biden would often tell her things that were untrue, such as where he was.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Lowell asked Hallie Biden about the couple's attempts at getting clean together in 2018. Lowell then narrowed his questions to Oct. 6, 2018, the day Hunter came back to Wilmington from Los Angeles. The lawyer said that Hunter Biden came back when he did because he and Hallie Biden were going to rehab treatment together at a Pennsylvania facility, Caron Rehab, about 90 minutes away from Wilmington.

Lowell then asked her if she had seen him use drugs from the time he came back to Wilmington through the day she threw away the gun. She said she had not and acknowledged that in the past she had.

The defense is making the point here that there is no eyewitness evidence of Hunter Biden using drugs in the days leading up to the gun purchase or during the time that he possessed the gun.

The prosecution's direct examination of Hallie Biden has ended; now the defense team will cross-examine her.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Before finishing his direct questioning of Hallie Biden, prosecutor Leo Wise had two text messages to introduce. One was from Hallie to Hunter Biden, that said “I just went into library and sitting next to Hunter was your brown leather pouch with a stem in it." Hunter in this case is a reference to her son's name and "stem" is a word for drug paraphernalia.

She testified that Hunter Biden had multiple brown leather pouches over this time period.

Wise also introduced a final text from Hunter Biden to Hallie Biden on Jan. 28, 2019, where he brings back up her decision to throw the gun away, suggesting her move could have caused someone to shoot their sibling’s head off.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Before the break, prosecutors asked Hallie Biden if Hunter Biden found out himself that the gun was missing or if she told him.

“I did not tell him,” Hallie said. “I was just going to pretend like it wasn’t me.”

After she texted him “call me” with several exclamation points, she said that they did, in fact, speak on the phone, and that all she could remember was that “he was angry with me.”

Hallie Biden testified about two of the most important messages to the government’s case, an Oct. 13 text about waiting for a “dealer named Mookie” in Wilmington, and another on Oct. 14 in which Hunter Biden wrote, “I was sleeping on a car smoking crack."

These texts are the government’s clearest pieces of evidence that Hunter Biden was using drugs in October.

What did Hallie understand that Hunter Biden was buying? Wise asked, referring to the Oct. 13 text about the dealer.

“That he was buying crack cocaine,” Hallie answered.

Hunter Biden has been watching Hallie Biden's testimony very carefully, perching his head on his right fist.

During one of the earlier sidebars with gun store employee Gordon Cleveland, Hunter wrote a note and left it on the podium for his lawyer Abbe Lowell to read.

Prosecutors displayed text messages between Hallie and Hunter Biden in which he used the old number of his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.

“You ok? Where are you, truthfully,” Hallie Biden texted him on Oct. 13, 2018, before she found the gun.

It's notable because one of the ways the defense has attempted to preemptively undercut Hallie's testimony is by suggesting the president’s son would lie to her when he didn’t want to see her; this exchange implies Hallie Biden was aware that Hunter Biden would sometimes lie to her.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Hallie Biden said that after leaving the store, she went home and was uncertain as to whether Hunter Biden was there at the time she left, but she seemed to recall that he was not there when she got back.

“I remember him telling me to go back and file a police report,” she said.

She said at some point he found out she had thrown the gun away and he told her, “First, go look for it." But, she said, "when I went to go look for it, I couldn’t find it." Hunter Biden told her to file the police report because the gun was in his name.

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Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Prosecutor Leo Wise introduced the leather pouch into evidence and displayed it forthe jury. He also introduced surveillance camera video of Hallie Biden throwing away the gun at the grocery store up the street from her house.

She said she couldn’t remember exactly what she did after throwing away the bag with the gun inside. “I was just so flustered from the whole thing,” she testified. “I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking.”

Wise then displayed a surveillance video of her entering the grocery store. In the video, she stands by the fridge closest to the store’s entrance for about a minute. She did not appear to buy anything.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Hallie Biden testified about finding Hunter Biden’s gun in his car and throwing it away in a trash can outside a grocery store.

Hallie says that when she found the gun and ammo, she “panicked” and “wanted to get rid of them.” “I didn’t want him to hurt himself or my kids to find it and hurt themselves,” she said. She said she considered hiding the gun but didn’t because she thought one of her kids might find it in the house.

"I was afraid to, kind of, touch it,” she said, as to why she placed the gun and ammo inside Hunter’s leather pouch. Initially, she had tried to put the gun in a shopping bag, but it didn’t quite fit and a part was sticking out. She then looked around the car for something else to put the gun in, found the leather pouch, put the gun and ammo in there and then placed the pouch back inside the shopping bag.

Wise introduced the pouch into evidence and displayed it forthe jury. He also introduced surveillance camera video of Hallie throwing away the gun at the grocery store up the street from her house.

Hallie said she couldn’t remember exactly what she did after throwing away the bag with the gun inside. “I was just so flustered from the whole thing,” she testified. “I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking.”

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Prosecutors are asking Hallie Biden to walk through Oct. 23, 2018 — the day she found the gun in Hunter’s truck.

She said he arrived at her house on the morning of Oct. 23. “I didn’t know where he was and I’d been trying to reach him for weeks,” she said. “He was tired, exhausted, looked like he hadn’t slept,” she said of Hunter’s condition that morning.

Hallie says he quickly went to bed when he arrived at her house. At that point, Hallie testified, she went to clean up his car. “Hoping we could help him start anew and deal with stuff,” she said of her motive to search the car.

In the car, Hallie testified she found “trash, clothes, some remnants of crack,” and “paraphernalia.” Wise then asked if that was it. “Oh, and the gun, obviously,” Hallie said.

Hallie Biden, who is testifying under a grant of immunity, detailed her experience using drugs with Hunter Biden.

Prosecutor Leo Wise asked her whether she was using drugs in the summer of 2018, after she traveled to Los Angeles to visit Hunter Biden at the Roosevelt Hotel.

“Yes, I was,” she replied.

Asked by Wise about what types of drugs, she said, “crack cocaine.”

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Hallie Biden said Hunter Biden’s demeanor would change when he smoked crack. He would become “agitated, high strung,” she said, “but other times functioning as well.”

At times, he would tell her to leave him alone and that he didn’t have a problem, she said. Other times, Hunter would admit to his addiction and tell Hallie that he would figure it out “my way.”

The amount of crack that Hunter possessed at any given time ranged from a piece smaller than a marble to multiple crack rocks the size of ping pong balls, she said.

She also testified that they would fight about his drug usage, saying that she told him, "This can’t go on, we can’t do this.”

Hallie Biden said she discovered some crack and had to “google it" because, she said, "I didn’t know what it was.”

When she confronted Hunter about the drugs, he admitted he was using.

Hunter would smoke crack “occasionally” in Hallie Biden's presence, she testified, saying that in between crack use, he continued to work and see family.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Hallie Biden is currently testifying about the times she witnessed Hunter Biden’s drug use.

She began her testimony by identifying Hunter Biden as her brother-in-law and saying she’s known him for a long time, since they were in middle school.

She said she didn’t know he was using crack until she discovered some in her Wilmington home while he was staying with her once their relationship began.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

In wrapping up Cleveland’s cross-examination, Lowell asked him if he observed Hunter Biden exhibit any signs of drug or alcohol use while he was in the store, a practice of Cleveland’s when dealing with customers. “None at all,” Cleveland said.

Hallie Biden has taken the witness stand. She is the wife of the late Beau Biden, Hunter Biden's older brother, who died from brain cancer in 2015.

Hunter Biden began a romantic relationship with Hallie Biden and they were together at the time that Hunter Biden purchased the firearm. During opening statements, prosecutor Derek Hines said that Hunter Biden texted Hallie Biden the day after he bought the gun about meeting a drug dealer named "Mookie." And a day after that, he texted her that he was sleeping on a car smoking crack.

When he moved onto the 4th and 5th pages of the ATF form, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell pointed out there are instructions defending terms in sections 11a, 11b-12, 11d, 11 f, 11h, 11i and 12d.

“There’s no provision that defines or instructs as to 11e is there?” Lowell asked.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

“Have you ever been” versus “are you.” That rhetorical distinction has been the theme of Abbe Lowell’s questioning of Starquest Shooter employee Gordon Cleveland, as he retook the stand this morning for continued cross-examination.

Lowell has been walking through each of the questions under Section 11 of the ATF form that Cleveland says he saw Hunter Biden fill out when he purchased the handgun. For each, he is making note of which ask questions of the purchaser are in the present tense, “are you,” or the past tense, “have you ever been.”

While arguing over the admissibility of messages between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden, prosecutor Leo Wise revealed that prosecutors do not actually have access to the entire contents of Hunter’s laptop hard drive.

After the laptop was seized by investigators, the data went through a filter team to preserve any privilege issues, Wise said. Because any privilege would belong to Hunter Biden, the defense was provided with the complete hard drive image, which means it has more evidence from the laptop that prosecutors don't have.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

The jury has entered at 9:35 a.m. and court is beginning for the day.

“Why are you doing that today when you expect to admit the exhibit today,” Judge Noreika said, appearing to be frustrated with the defense's exhibit management.

Noreika is clearly overwhelmed by the amount of evidence: “I got laptop and hard drive and I don’t even know what else I got,” she said. “iClouds, oh my!”

Prosecutors raised a contentious objection about text messages Hunter Biden's lawyer wants to show during Hallie Biden’s testimony.

Prosecutor Leo Wise objected for several reasons. First, he said he didn’t receive them in a timely manner, saying he got them last night, and second, he said, “It’s full of inadmissible hearsay.”

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Lowell brought up several issues before the court was called into session.

One had to do with a second form of ID that may have been required for the ATF form, that was not photocopied. There was discussion over whether Lowell can ask about that second form of ID. “The gun store is not on trial,” Derek Hines responded.

Lowell then brought up the idea that some of his witnesses would be here this afternoon, but not all of them. If prosecutors wrap up their case this afternoon, Lowell said, he would like the court to break early for the day and start with defense witnesses tomorrow. We’ll see how things go, Judge Noreika said.

Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Hunter Biden once again has several friends and family in attendance, including Melissa Cohen Biden and Kevin Morris. First lady Jill Biden is not in attendance today because she is in Normandy with the president for a D-Day event.

As Hunter Biden walked into the courtroom, he waved to and shook the hands of almost everyone in the first and second rows behind the defense table.

Hallie Biden, the wife of Hunter Biden's late brother Beau Biden, arrived at the courthouse at 9:03 a.m. She is expected to testify about the romantic relationship she had with Hunter Biden after her husband's death.

Gun store clerk Gordon Cleveland, who sold Hunter Biden the handgun at the center of the case, is expected to continue his testimony this morning.

Here are the five remaining witnesses on the list the government included in its pretrial brief and displayed in opening statements:

• Hallie Biden: The wife of the president’s late son Beau Biden, who was in a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after Beau’s death, she observed Hunter Biden use drugs on multiple occasions during their relationship in the fall of 2018. While he was staying at her home during that time, she and her children searched his bags and vehicle in an effort to help him get sober, the pretrial brief says. They repeatedly found drug paraphernalia and drugs in his possession. She also witnessed Hunter Biden frequently lose his phones and change phones, explaining gaps in the text message timeline. She also exchanged various text messages with Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, have arrived in court ahead of the start of proceedings at 9 a.m.

Top House Republicans yesterday sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department recommending that President Joe Biden’s sonHunter Bidenand brother James Biden be charged with making false statements to Congress.

The letter from the three GOP committee chairmen to Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel David Weiss comes as Hunter Biden isstanding trialon unrelated gun charges brought by Weiss in federal court in Delaware. The trial began Monday.

The referrals also come less than a week after former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, wasconvicted by a juryin New York on felony chargesof falsifying business records.

The president will continue his overseas trip in France today, heading to Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day as his son's trial continues into its fourth day.

Biden will meet with veterans, deliver remarks and participate in a wreath laying ceremony to honor the Allied troops' major operation that shifted the tide of World War II.

At his federal trial on gun charges, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and former girlfriend testified about his drug abuse, including his use of drugs around the time he purchased a gun. At the time of the purchase, Hunter Biden denied using drugs on a federal form. NBC News’ Ryan Nobles reports.

Additional cross-examination of Gordon Cleveland, the gun store employee who confirmed he sold Hunter Biden a firerarm in 2018, is expected to continue today at 9 a.m. A redirect of Cleveland is also possible.

The prosecution says it has six witnesses remaining, and prosecutor Derek Hines has said it is "possible" that they will rest their case today.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Three new witnesses took the stand in Hunter Biden’s gun trial yesterday, recalling in vivid color the defendant’sspiral into drug addiction, foiled attempts at entering rehab and fateful purchase of a firearm in late 2018, a year when his use of crack cocaine went out of control.

Joining Hunter Biden for the third day were first lady Jill Biden;his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden; close ally Kevin Morris;and other longtime friends and family members.

Read the full story here.