Hunter Biden's ex-wife Kathleen Buhle was the first of two former romantic partners to testify in his federal gun trial Wednesday, and she said he "acknowledged using crack." She said she learned about his drug use on July 3, 2015, when she found a crack pipe in their home, Politico reports. Buhle was married to Biden from 1993 to 2017, and they have three daughters. During cross-examination from Biden attorney Abbe Lowell, Buhle said she had never seen him taking drugs, reports the AP. Asked by prosecutor Leo Wise how she knew he was using drugs, she replied: "He told me."
Buhle, who separated from Biden a few months after finding the pipe, said she regularly searched his car because he let their daughters use it. She said she found drugs or paraphernalia like crack pipes at least a dozen times.
- Buhle said that around the time she found the pipe, Biden "was angry, short-tempered, acting in ways he hadn't when he was sober." The next witness, however, described Biden as "incredibly charming" and said he didn't change when he smoked crack. Ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan testified that she met Biden when she was working at a strip club in late 2017, the Washington Post reports.
- Kestan testified that Biden smoked crack "every 20 minutes or so" when they were alone. She said he discussed trying to get sober with her and was interested in a treatment that involved frog venom, NBC News reports. Jurors were shown a photo of a California hotel room littered with drug paraphernalia. Kestan said she took the photo because she was "quite angry" she had to clean it up.
- "I thought to myself, that's so crazy that his demeanor doesn't seem to be changing" when he was using crack, Kestan said. The Post notes that prosecutors are trying to demonstrate that Biden could function while using drugs, while defense lawyers argue that he wouldn't have been functional enough to buy a gun if he was using drugs in October 2018. Kestan said that she had little contact with him that month, but that he used drugs when they spent time together in November that year.
- The AP reports that the next witness was former gun store clerk Gordon Cleveland. He testified that when Biden bought the gun at the center of the case, he filled out a form and ticked "no" in the box next to a question asking if he was "an unlawful user of or addicted to" narcotics or other controlled substances.
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