Federal prosecutors rested their case in Hunter Biden’s gun trial Friday after calling a series of witnesses who testified about Biden’s use of crack cocaine around the time he purchased a gun in October 2018.
Biden’s attorneys called their own witnesses before the trial paused for the weekend, and they are expected to wrap up their defense by early next week. It is unclear whether Biden himself will testify. The prosecution will have the option to present a rebuttal case next week after the defense calls its last witness.
Special counsel David Weiss has charged Biden with purchasing a gun while addicted to drugs and lying about his drug use on a federal firearms application. Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges following the collapse of a plea deal last July, which would have allowed him to avoid felony prosecution.
The prosecution called its final witnesses Friday, FBI forensic chemist Jason Brewer and DEA special agent Justin Romig. Brewer testified that residue found in a pouch where Biden kept his gun tested positive for cocaine. Romig testified about a series of text messages that showed Biden bought and used drugs the year he purchased the gun.
Other witnesses for the prosecution included Biden’s ex-girlfriends, as well as his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle. Former girlfriend Zoe Kestan, who dated Biden from December 2017 to October 2018, testified that she saw Biden smoking crack "every 20 minutes or so."
The defense is arguing that Biden did not believe he was addicted to drugs when he purchased the gun, despite Biden’s admission in his own memoir that he was smoking crack "every 15 minutes."