EX PIPES UP
Hunter Biden’s former wife tells court she found pipe and white powder in car as president’s son faces exes at gun trial
Kathleen Buhle told the courtroom how she routinely checked Hunter Biden's car for drugs
HUNTER Biden's ex-wife took the stand during the third day of his gun trial, testifying how she uncovered crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia in his vehicle.
Kathleen Buhle told jurors that she learned her ex-husband, 54, was using drugs in July 2015 after finding a crack pipe in an ashtray on the porch of their home in Washington DC.
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Buhle took the stand on Wednesday during the third day of 's gun trial and described her ex-husband's demeanor while using drugs as "angry and short-tempered."
"He acknowledged smoking crack," Buhle, 55, told the courtroom.
Buhle, who was married to Hunter from 1993 to 2017, said she worried that he would abuse drugs again after he was booted from the Navy in 2014 for testing positive for cocaine.
Hunter's ex-wife testified how she always searched his car before he left it for his daughters.
"When my daughters would use his car... I would check," she said on the stand.
At times, Buhle said she found a broken pipe, a pipe cleaning product, white powder, white crystal remnants, and other drug paraphernalia in his vehicle, including in 2018.
She said Hunter would socialize with family and friends while on drugs but tried to hide it.
"Did you see him, for lack of a better word, function," prosecutor Leo Wise asked, to which Buhle replied, "Yes."
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Wise questioned Buhle for roughly 15 minutes before Hunter's defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, cross-examined her.
Buhle told jurors that Hunter moved out of the home after she found the crack pipe.
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When asked by Lowell if she ever saw Hunter using drugs, Buhle said, "No."
Hunter and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, returned to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, , on Wednesday morning for day three of his gun trial.
First Lady arrived moments later as she continued to show her support for her stepson.
Zoe Kestan, Hunter's ex-girlfriend, took the stand after Buhle.
Kestan, who dated Hunter for several months in 2017, told jurors her ex would use crack "every 20 minutes or so" throughout the week.
However, she said Hunter's behavior never changed while he was on drugs.
"I remember thinking to myself that there was no change in his behavior. Nothing had changed, he was the same charming person," Kestan told jurors.
No one is allowed to lie on a federal form like that, even Hunter Biden.
Prosecutor Derek Hines.
Hunter's sister-in-law turned lover, Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, is also expected to testify during his trial.
During opening statements on Tuesday, prosecutors used Hunter's own words against him, pulling excerpts from his memoir, Beautiful Things, as they went into detail about his drug addiction.
Prosecutor Derek Hines hammered into a narrative that Hunter, 54, was a functioning drug addict who lied to his family and friends.
The prosecution played an excerpt from Hunter's 2021 memoir, where he spoke about his first attempt at buying crack from a homeless woman in Franklin Park in Washington DC.
Hines argued that the president's son knowingly broke the law when he checked the box on a federal firearms form, claiming he was not a drug user in 2018.
"No one is allowed to lie on a federal form like that, even Hunter Biden," Hines told jurors.
"He crossed the line when he chose to buy a gun and lied about a federal background check. The defendant's choice to buy a gun is why we are here."
'IMPULSE BUY'
However, defense attorney Lowell argued Hunter did not knowingly lie on the firearms form, saying the purchase was an "impulse buy."
Lowell also argued Hunter did not do anything with the gun in the short time he had it.
The defense attorney told jurors the gun wasn't even loaded.
Prosecutors read out a 2018 text message exchange between Hunter and his brother's widow, Hallie Biden, who at the time was his lover, which took place on October 12, 2018, the day he purchased the gun.
Hallie texted him, "I called you 500 times in the past 24 hours," to which Hunter replied that he was "sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney."
FBI agent Erika Jensen testified that she unearthed the conversation on a laptop Hunter left behind at a Delaware repair shop.
SISTER-IN-LAW TO LOVER
Prosecutors are also expected to explore Hallie and Hunter's brief romance, which started after Beau died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015, and how she became addicted to crack during the relationship.
Hallie discovered the gun in Hunter's pickup truck on October 23, 2018, eleven days after he had purchased it, and disposed of it in a trash can of a grocery store about a mile away from her home in Delaware.
"Did you take that from me... are you insane?" Hunter angrily texted Hallie after learning she had disposed of the gun.
"This is no game. And you're being totally irresponsible and unhinged.
"Tell me now, this is very very serious," Hunter added, insisting she discloses where she tossed the firearm at.
Hunter has pleaded not guilty to three firearms-related charges.
His trial in Delaware is expected to last about a week. He is facing 25 years in prison if convicted.
Hunter also faces a separate trial in on charges of failing to pay taxes. That trial is expected to start in September.
Meanwhile, House Republicans issued criminal referrals against Hunter and Joe Biden's brother, James Biden, claiming they made false statements to Congress members during a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill in February.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer accused the Biden family members of lying about "key aspects" of the impeachment inquiry of President .
The committee sent a letter to the Justice Department recommending the prosecution of Hunter and his uncle, James.
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