Hunter Biden’s Ex-Wife and Stripper Ex-Girlfriend Describe His Crack Cocaine Use Around Time He Purchased Gun

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and ex-girlfriend on Wednesday detailed their time with the first son as he descended into drugs and alcohol, with the mother of his children saying that his addiction is what broke their marriage of 25 years. Prosecutors also unveiled more photos from Mr. Biden’s infamous laptop, which caused at least one jury member to wince. After completing their questioning of an FBI special agent who was involved in analyzing Mr. Biden’s laptop and pulling excerpts from his addiction memoir, “Beautiful Things,” the prosecution called Mr. Biden’s first wife, Kathleen Buhle, to the stand. She and Mr. Biden were married from 1993 to 2017, divorcing after nearly 25 years because of Mr. Biden’s drug addiction and sexual infidelity. She published a bestselling memoir about her marriage, “If We Break,’ in 2023.Ms. Buhle detailed her ex-husband’s descent into addiction over the course of decades, noting that the first son first went to rehab in the early 2000’s for an addiction to alcohol. A federal prosecutor, Leo Wise, asked Ms. Buhle about Mr. Biden’s state of mind and his worsening addiction as their marriage cratered. She said at one point, she found a crack pipe at their Washington, D.C. home, though she did not know what it was. Her then-husband was forthright, she said. Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, departs from federal court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Matt Slocum“I asked him what it was and he said it was a crack pipe,” Ms. Buhle told the jury. Understandably, Ms. Buhle said that the death of Mr. Biden’s brother, Beau, in 2015, put enormous strain on her marriage. Mr. Biden would start dating Beau’s widow, Hallie, a few months after Ms. Buhle filed for divorce in 2016. It’s unclear when their romance commenced. In “If We Break,” Ms. Buhle said her then-husband could be verbally abusive, would often have affairs, and seemed to care little about his family. In an interview with ABC News in 2022, she said her husband hid his addiction for years even as they were raising children. “He was struggling under a massive drug addiction” for years, she said. Of the lewd photos found on her laptop, Ms. Buhle said, “that wasn’t who I was married to.”During testimony, Ms. Buhle said Mr. Biden was a functioning drug addict for years. He could even drive his car while high on crack, apparently, because she often found drug paraphernalia in his car. “I would check” for drugs if their daughters were borrowing the car, Ms. Buhle said. Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, departs from federal court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Matt RourkeThe prosecution has been trying to prove that Mr. Biden was using drugs around the time he purchased the Colt handgun on October 12, 2018. Ms. Buhle aided that cause when she said she would find drug paraphernalia in the car between 2015 and 2019. Both when Ms. Buhle entered the courtroom and when she left, she did not even acknowledge her ex-husband’s presence. After Ms. Buhle left the witness stand, prosecutors called Mr. Biden’s ex-girlfriend, whom he dated for just a few months after his 2017 divorce. Zoe Kestan was a stripper at a Manhattan club when she met Mr. Biden. She said she shacked up with the first son for days at a time — first in New York and later in New Jersey. When prosecutors asked Ms. Kestan to identify Mr. Biden in court, the defendant waved at her. Ms. Kestan described him as “charming” whether he was using drugs or not, and that he would make “funny” jokes about his sobriety. At one point, the jury was shown a photo from Mr. Biden’s laptop that showed the first son wearing a shirt that said “addicted.”First lady Jill Biden, left, and her sister Bonny Jacobs, right, return to federal court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Matt RourkeMs. Kestan said she saw Mr. Biden smoke crack within “ten minutes” of meeting him at the Soho Grand, a high-end hotel at Manhattan. In February 2018, Ms. Kestan said she thought Mr. Biden had gotten sober after she suggested he try a frog venom treatment to help get over his addiction, though she quickly saw him smoking crack again. Prosecutors also pulled up a photograph of a crack pipe taken from Mr. Biden’s laptop at the time he was dating Ms. Kestan. Mr. Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, has been trying to sow doubt among the jury about the timeline of Mr. Biden’s addiction. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he asked the FBI agent, Erika Jensen, if she knew definitively if Mr. Biden was buying drugs at the time of the gun purchase. Ms. Jensen disclosed on Tuesday that Mr. Biden had withdrawn more than $150,000 in cash from his personal account in the weeks leading up to and the weeks after he bought the gun. Mr. Lowell also noted that Mr. Biden went to rehab just weeks before October 2018 when he purchased the Colt handgun. Mr. Biden could have been sober when he bought the weapon, Mr. Lowell has suggested to jury members. Entertainment attorney Kevin Morris departs from federal court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Matt RourkeBut Ms. Kestan said Wednesday that rehab never worked for Mr. Biden. She said that she had seen him smoking crack in September 2018, just weeks before he bought the gun. Towards the end of the day, the jury heard from the man who sold Mr. Biden the gun, Gordon Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland said, when asked by prosecutors, that Mr. Biden came into the store on October 12, 2018 and purchased the Colt .38 Special, a speedloader, ammunition, a BB gun, and fishing equipment for just under $900. He testified that he personally watched Mr. Biden fill out the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms form that asked the first son to swear under penalty of prosecution that he is not a user of controlled substances. Mr. Cleveland said he told Mr. Biden to “take your time” with the form. Melissa Cohen Biden departs from federal court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Matt SlocumHe went on to say that Mr. Biden paid in cash, and tried to give him a tip for his help, but he refused to accept. When Mr. Lowell seemingly accused Mr. Cleveland — via pointed questioning — of pressing Mr. Biden to buy the ammunition along with the gun, Mr. Cleveland laughed. “If you’re going to buy a gun, you might as well buy the ammunition,” he said, making clear that he is a salaried employee and does not make commissions. “What are you going to do? Throw it at them?”Again, Mr. Biden was supported in court by friends and family on Wednesday. The first lady, Jill Biden, attended for the third straight day, though she will be traveling to France on Wednesday night for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Mr. Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen, sat stone-faced with the first lady behind her husband as his former wife and girlfriend testified about his addiction.

Hunter Biden’s Ex-Wife and Stripper Ex-Girlfriend Describe His Crack Cocaine Use Around Time He Purchased Gun

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