Today is day four of the Hunter Biden gun trial and with just five witnesses left to call, the prosecution could rest its case as soon as this afternoon. 

Yesterday they called three devastating witnesses, Hunter Biden's ex-wife and his ex-girlfriend and a gun store clerk who sold Biden the gun. Hunter's ex-wife Kathleen Buhle testified that throughout 2018 she would frequently search Hunter's car when she knew one of their children would be using it. She did this because she was afraid her children might be pulled over and police would find drug paraphernalia in the car. In a text message from March 2018, she told Hunter that she had found "a few crack pipes" but this wasn't the only time she found such paraphernalia in the car.

Ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan's testimony was even worse for Hunter. She testified that he would smoke crack every 20 minutes from the time he woke up until he went to sleep. She spent time with him throughout 2018 including in September, just a few weeks before he bought the gun. She testified he was still smoking crack at that time, undermining the defense claim that Hunter was on the straight and narrow at the time he bought the gun and therefore didn't lie on the ATF form.

Finally, yesterday afternoon gun store clerk Gordon Cleveland testified that he watched Hunter fill out the form at the center of the case and that he saw him answer the question about whether or not he was a drug addict.

Today the trial resumed with the defense attempting to introduce new evidence which was apparently only shared with the prosecution last night. The judge was not happy with this stunt.

Judge Maryellen Noreika grilled the defense about why they're trying to use some evidence later today that they may not have fully shared and disclosed ahead of time with the prosecutors.  

She said she was “confused” by their apparently belated disclosures.  

“Why are you doing that today?” she asked.  

Whether or not any of the new test messages will come into the trial is still undecided.

The judge said she might let the defense use a small subset of the material depending on Hallie Biden’s testimony. But she largely sided with prosecutors’ effort to block most of the new messages.  

Once the jury was finally brought in, the defense resumed cross-examination of the gun store clerk. Their case literally boils down to verb tense (and the dubious claim that Hunter was clean at the time).

“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.” 

Next up was Hallie Biden, Beau Biden's widow and Hunter Biden's girlfriend at the time he bought the gun. It was Hallie who found the gun in Hunter's car. She then took it to a grocery store and threw it away in the trash.

Hallie Biden also testified that she had conversations with Hunter Biden between 2017 and 2018 about his drug use, telling him “this can’t go on, we can’t do this.”

Hunter Biden’s responses would vary, sometimes saying, “leave me alone, I’m fine” and other times saying he was an addict and that I’ll figure it out my way,” she testifies.  

Around this time, in the summer of 2018, Hallie Biden also started using crack after being introduced to it by Hunter.

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

Wise asked “Who had introduced you” to it?

“Hunter did,” she replied. “It was a terrible experience that I went through and I’m embarrassed and I’m ashamed of that period of my life.”

That was in June when she visited Hunter in California. In October, she searched his car and discovered the gun and drugs.

On October 23, 2018, Hallie Biden says she went to clean out Hunter Biden’s truck while he was asleep and found drugs and a gun.  

“I did find some remnants of crack cocaine” and drug paraphernalia, she said.  

“Oh, and the gun, obviously,” Hallie Biden said, chuckling.

She testified that she panicked, afraid Hunter might hurt himself. She took the gun, wrapped it in a leather pouch which she also found in the car and then drove to a nearby grocery store where she threw it in the trash. Surveillance video shown in court showed her dropping the gun in the trash.

Later examination found the pouch contained traces of cocaine. The defense has claimed the pouch belonged to Hallie.

After leaving the gun, Hunter Biden learned what she'd done and freaked out. He convinced her to return the store to get it back. She did but the gun was gone. She asked people at the store and eventually the police were called. Later the gun was found in the possession of a man who routinely went through the trash outside the store.

Hallie Biden also testified about two text messages that indicated Hunter was using drugs in October of 2018 (the month he bought the gun). One involved a visit to a drug dealer named Mookie.

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. 

The day after the second text about sleeping on a car, Hallie texted him back, “I just want to help you get sober, nothing I do or you do is working. I’m sorry // I am afraid you are going to die,” according to the government’s exhibit. 

“Were you afraid of him overdosing?” asked Wise.

“Maybe? Or suicide ... I didn’t know,” she answered.

Clearly, Hallie Biden did not think Hunter was clean at the time but on cross-examination, Hunter's attorney got her to admit that she didn't actually see Hunter doing drugs that month.

During cross-examination, Hallie Biden testified that she did not witness Hunter Biden doing drugs between October 6 and October 22, 2018, while he was in Delaware.  

This could be helpful for Hunter Biden’s defense, because that window covers when he bought and possessed the gun. However, earlier, when Hallie was questioned by prosecutors, she said she believed that he appeared to be high when she saw him that month.

So to sum up, Hallie thought Hunter looked high at times that month. She found crack and paraphernalia in his car that momth. She got texts from him saying he was both buying and using drugs that month. And she begged him to get sober that month. The defense counter is that she didn't actually see him smoking crack. That's a pretty thin reed on which to base a defense. The defense is awkwardly trying to walk Hallie into allowing some of those additional texts into evidence.

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.

The defense argument is that Hunter was lying about Mookie and smoking crack. He was secretly in recovery but lied to Hallie to avoid telling her what he was really doing. Again, this is the lying to my diary defense. I have no trouble believing Hunter is a liar but why make up a lie about buying and smoking crack?

That brings us up to the lunch break. Jonathan Turley has argued this week that this seems like it should be an open and shut case given the amount of evidence that Hunter was using at the time. If so, why didn't he just plead guilty and agree to a plea deal?

The day after he bought the gun, Hunter was texting a guy named “Mookie” to score drugs behind a minor league baseball stadium.

Mookie appears to have come through for Hunter since the next day (two days after denying that he used drugs), Hunter allegedly texted Hallie Biden that he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie.”

Then, two days after the gun purchase, Hunter texted, “I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney.”...

So why present unbelievable defenses in Wilmington? Because it is Wilmington. This is Biden’s hometown.

Turley expanded on this on Fox News today.

"This is Biden town. This is a Biden who is standing trial in his hometown and this is the opposite of Manhattan," Turley added. "Here, the jury pool could not be better for the defendant, and I think the defense is using a nullification strategy.

There are four prosecution witnesses left. We could get through all of them today and if so the prosecution will rest. If anything dramatic happens I'll updated below. Otherwise we'll catch up tomorrow.