Bidenville rallies around Hunter, local boy ‘in a bit of trouble’
Days after Donald Trump’s conviction, US President Joe Biden’s son is in court on drug and gun charges – and he’s not short of family support.
The secret service officers sitting at the end of the courtroom benches swapped over like clockwork: every 30 minutes. Outside, the corridors were teeming with them too, agents appearing from doorways and disappearing around corners. On the street, and in the city beyond, they were everywhere.
Because at the centre of it all, sitting on a swivel chair in a courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, was Hunter Biden, 54, charged with making false statements on a form when purchasing a weapon and illegally possessing a gun while abusing or being addicted to drugs, violations of federal law. It is the first time the child of a sitting president has been on trial.
Each morning a parade of political power suits, sunglasses and blacked-out SUVs arrived at the courthouse. Inside, Biden sat in front of the judge, his shoulders tense, his face drawn. Behind him was a bench packed tightly with perfectly coiffed and immaculately styled Bidens, the women often in colour-blocked outfits more suitable for the campaign trail.
Jill Biden, 73, the first lady and Hunter’s stepmother, sat next to his second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, 38, who early in the week had confronted Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to Donald Trump, in the corridor, pointing at him and saying: “You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of shit.” Also on the front row was the president’s sister, Valerie Owens, dressed one day entirely in Barbie pink, followed by a collection of the president’s brothers-in-law, daughters-in-laws, nieces and nephews. “That’s how we roll,” said Cuffe Owens, a Biden nephew who was once married to Meghan King, the Real Housewives of Orange County star, gesturing to the family group.
Taking the stand was a Wilmington mix: from Biden’s eldest daughter, Naomi, 30, to a gun shop owner with a grey beard down to his chest, officers from the Virginia-based FBI and local drug enforcement agencies, and Biden’s ex-wife and two ex-girlfriends - one of whom was a stripper and the other his sister-in-law. Much of the evidence exposed the dark reality of Biden’s years-long addictions, smoking crack in five-star hotels and picking up drugs on street corners in Washington DC, a tragic mess of rehabs, women, cash and drug binges.
It was a week-long spectacle with high stakes, happening just days after Trump was found guilty in a Manhattan criminal court on 34 counts of falsifying business records, watched by members of his own family – sons Eric and Donald Junior.
Wilmington is known, almost entirely, for the sprawling Biden family. It is where the president moved in 1953 and where he still has a family home. During the trial the town was determinedly tight-lipped. “I have nothing but good things to say about the Bidens,” said one former neighbour of Hunter Biden. None of the other dozens approached wanted to talk.
The Charcoal Pit restaurant is where “Joe has been coming for thirty something years”, said Lupe Avilez, the manager. Does he ever see the younger Biden? “To be honest with you,” he paused, lowering his voice, “people don’t see Hunter so much. He’s in a bit of trouble.”
Because, on across the street from the diner is StarQuest Shooters and Survival Supply, the shop where, on October 12, 2018, Biden went to buy a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver.
The crux of the trial comes down to whether Biden was using illegal drugs when he owned the gun. He pleaded not guilty on all three courts (the maximum sentence is 25 years), two of which allege that he lied about being a drug user on the federal application he filled out to get the weapon; and a third count relating to firearm possession while using narcotics. He has also been charged separately over unpaid taxes in California, a case that will be heard in September.
Last week he was also referred with James Biden, the president’s brother and also in the courtroom on Friday, to the Department of Justice by the House of Representatives, recommending the pair be criminally charged with making false statements to Congress.
Just 11 days after Biden bought the gun, it was discovered. Hallie Biden, his lover and his brother Beau’s widow, said she went to clean out his truck while he slept. She saw the revolver, bullets and “some remnants” of crack cocaine. “I panicked and wanted to get rid of [the gun],” she told the jury.
She hid it in a leather pouch belonging to Biden, which later tested positive for cocaine, and drove to Janssen’s Market in Greenville, Wilmington, a neighbourhood supermarket where she dumped the gun in a bin.
Biden found out – and was angry. “The f***ing FBI, Hallie, it’s hard to believe anyone is that stupid,” he texted - suggesting he understood the seriousness of the situation. The call log showed a flurry of calls that day, but she could not recall their details. She returned to the car park, looking through the bins, eventually reporting it to the police. After an investigation, officers tracked down an 80-year-old who collected recyclables from bins as a hobby. He took the police to his home, opened a cabinet, reached for a sock - and pulled out Biden’s gun, the pouch, a speed loader and bullets.
Hunter is the second son of Joe and Neilia Biden, born just over a year after his brother, Beau, and nine months before their sister, Naomi. In 1972, Neilia’s car collided with a truck, killing her and Naomi on impact. Hunter and Beau survived, bound to their father forever by grief.
Where Joe and Beau abstained from alcohol, due to family history, Hunter reportedly enjoyed collapsing into inebriation. When he later struggled with addiction, Beau took him to meetings and booked him into rehab facilities on numerous occasions.
Hunter trained as a lawyer and started his own consultancy firm, while Beau followed their father into politics, serving as attorney-general of Delaware. He died of a brain tumour in 2015. Biden, he wrote in his memoir, Beautiful Things, was “at sea” after his death, the brothers more like twins. He started drinking again - and taking drugs.
Kathleen Buhle, his ex-wife with whom he has three children, testified last week. She told the jury that she was first made aware of Biden’s addiction in 2015, the day after their 22nd wedding anniversary, when she found a crack pipe at their home.
Around that time he began a relationship with Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden, 50, spiralling into further addiction to crack cocaine, which he smoked during business meetings, according to his memoir. In 2017, while still seemingly with Hallie, he met a stripper in a gentleman’s club in New York - Zoe Kestan, 30, told the jury she later went his room at the Soho Grand hotel. She didn’t leave for five days.
In the following months they bounced between high-end hotels in New York and Los Angeles, filling his suites, according to his memoir, with a crew of “thieves, junkies, petty dealers, over-the-hill strippers, con artists, and assorted hangers-on”. In this period Kestan said she saw him smoking crack as soon as he woke up and then “every 20 minutes, except when he slept”.
In June 2018, he asked Kestan to leave their suite at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, because Hallie was coming to visit. She told court that this is when he “introduced” her to crack cocaine. “It was a terrible experience I went through and I’m embarrassed and I’m ashamed,” she said.
The spiral continued. He withdrew $US151,640 in cash, between September and November that year. On October 12, he went to the gun shop. Gordon Cleveland, the salesman, said he saw Biden answer “no” to the question: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” The defence maintains that he did not fill out the form at the gun store knowingly and that he only relapsed in the period after the gun was found.
His daughter Naomi Biden walked into the courtroom on Friday. “Sorry, I’m nervous,” she said softly, looking down at her hands. She knew her father had struggled with addiction. “After my uncle died things got bad,” she said. “We didn’t see him whenever he was using.”
She said she saw her father over the summer in LA, looking sober. In mid-October, she was in New York where her father said he wanted to swap cars with her, so he could have the truck and she the Cadillac. The prosecution brought out a 20-page document of text messages between father and daughter. It was a surprise bundle.
“When are you getting the car,” she texted at 2.45pm on October 18. At 2am, he asked her to bring it to him. She was asleep. After messages to and fro they finally swapped cars, but then Naomi tried to set up a meeting without success. “So no see you?” she asked, followed by a sad face emoji. Then: “I’m really sorry dad I can’t take this. I don’t know what to say, I just miss you so much.” She left the stand close to tears, hugging her father, and followed out by the first lady, also wiping away tears.
Evidence heard in court pointed to Biden’s erratic behaviour following the discovery of the gun, texting Hallie that he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack”. She said she had called him 520 times in 24 hours. “I am afraid you are going to die,” she said. Minutes later she added: “And I can’t live without you.” He gave up drugs in May, 2019 - the day he met Melissa Cohen in LA. They were married six days later and had a child the following year.
On Friday night, Jill Biden flew back to France, after 24 hours in Wilmington, Delaware. The president, who she will rejoin, has reiterated his “boundless love” for his son. The trial continues, and will resume on Monday. The child of the President of the United States of America versus the United States of America.
The Sunday Times
