Hunter Biden trial: 'Politics never came into play,' juror says after guilty verdict

Prosecutor Leo Wise read through text messages Hunter Biden's then-girlfriend Hallie Biden exchanged with him in the days following his gun purchase and on the day that she discovered and discarded it, asking her on the stand to provide context for their communications.

Within days of buying the gun, Hunter Biden texted her that he was about to meet a drug dealer named "Mookie." Hallie Biden testified that she thought that to mean "that he was buying crack cocaine."

In another message, Hunter Biden wrote that he was "buy" and then seconds later added "ing." Asked how she interpreted that message, Hallie Biden said, "I mean, I would guess but I didn't know for sure."

In the messages, Hallie Biden repeatedly expressed concern for him, at one point saying explicitly that she didn't want him to die. Wise asked her if she was worried that he would overdose on drugs.

She said "Yes," but added that she was also worried he might die by "suicide, I didn't know."

Wise then asked her to describe the messages the two exchanged on the morning she threw the gun away.

"It's hard to believe anyone is that stupid," Hunter Biden wrote to her.

"He was angry with me" for discarding his gun and putting him in legal jeopardy, Hallie Biden told jurors.

"I'm a liar and a thief and a blamer and a user and I'm delusional and an addict," Hunter Biden texted her.

She texted back, "Let's do this right," and suggested "working on sobriety" together.

Asked what she meant by "sobriety" -- alcohol or drugs or both -- Hallie Biden replied, "Well, if you're sober, it's all of the above."

In dramatic testimony, Hunter Biden's former romantic partner Hallie Biden described how, on the morning of Oct. 23, 2018, she went to go "clean out" Hunter Biden's car and found a gun.

"What did you find, in addition to trash and clothes?" prosecutor Leo Wise asked her.

"Remnants of crack cocaine and some paraphernalia," Hallie recounted. "Oh and the gun, obviously."

Hallie Biden said she found the firearm in "the arm console" of the car, which she said was not locked because "the lock had been broken." She said it was the first time she had ever seen a gun. She also found ammunition.

"I panicked, I wanted to get rid of them," she told the jury.

Asked why she panicked, Hallie Biden said she "didn't want him to hurt himself." She said she also worried about her kids finding the gun, saying she considered "hiding" it somewhere but was worried they would find it.

She said those frantic moments led to her throwing the gun in the trash. She told the jury she found a pouch to put it in -- which authorities say later tested positive for having cocaine on it -- and put the gun inside. The jurors were then shown the brown pouch she used.

"I was afraid to kind of touch it, I didn't know if it was loaded," Hallie Biden said, telling jurors she then put the pouch into another bag.

"I took it to the grocery store up the road and I threw it away," she testified.

At this point, jurors were shown surveillance video from the grocery store showing Hallie Biden throwing the gun into the trash.

In the video, her car is seen pulling into the parking lot; she then gets out of the driver's seated, opens the back door to get out the gun, then walks over to the store and places the bag in a garbage receptacle.

"Is that you Mrs. Biden?" prosecutor Leo Wise asked about her image on the video. "Yes," she replied.

Hunter Biden, sitting at the defense table, appeared to be locked on Hallie Biden the entire time, his head resting in his hand. He periodically covered his mouth.

Hunter Biden's former romantic partner Hallie Biden told jurors that Hunter Biden was "tired, exhausted, and looked like he hadn't slept" on the evening of Oct. 22 or early morning of Oct. 23, 2018, when he arrived at her home in Wilmington to sleep.

She observed that he "could've been" on drugs when she saw him -- just hours before she found his newly purchased Colt Cobra revolver in his car and discarded it in a dumpster.

"I went to clean out his car and his stuff" as he slept in her home, in hopes that when he awoke they could "start anew and deal with stuff," she testified, referring to his addiction to "both" drugs and alcohol.

The testimony didn't appear to be quite the smoking gun sought by prosecutors, who are trying to prove Hunter Biden was using crack at the time of his firearm purchase on Oct. 12 -- one of the central questions in the case.

Hallie Biden, who is the widow of Hunter Biden's late brother Beau Biden, testified that earlier in 2018 she also became addicted to crack after Hunter Biden introduced her to the drug -- but that she is now clean.

"It was a terrible experience I went through," she said, adding that she was "embarrassed and ashamed, and I regret that period of my life."

Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden's former romantic partner who is the widow of his brother Beau Biden, has taken the stand as the prosecution's next witness.

Prosecutors have said they expect her to testify about Hunter Biden's drug at the time of his gun purchase in October 2018.

Before gun store clerk Gordon Cleveland stepped off the stand, he testified that Hunter Biden did not exhibit any symptoms of drug or alcohol abuse when he purchased the gun at the center of the case.

When asked by defense attorney Abbe Lowell if Hunter Biden exhibited any symptoms at the time of his gun purchase, such as being "glassy eyed" or smelling of alcohol, Cleveland replied, "None at all."