Under cross-examination by defense attorney Abbe Lowell, gun store clerk Gordon Cleveland testified about the sequence of events on Oct. 12, 2018, when he sold Hunter Biden the handgun at the center of the case -- with Cleveland and Lowell at times squabbling over details as granular as the direction of Hunter Biden's vehicle when he drove into the store's parking lot.

Cleveland will return to the stand Thursday morning when proceedings continue.

Prosecutor Derek Hines told the judge before court concluded for the day that he anticipated resting his case as soon as the end of the day on Thursday. The government has six brief witnesses remaining, he said.

Lowell said that if the government rests its case by the end of the day Thursday, he would be prepared to call his first witness on Friday morning.

Gun store clerk Gordon Cleveland testified that he watched from "about two feet" away as Hunter Biden, in the course of purchasing a handgun in 2018, filled out Form 4473 and checked the box asking applicants whether they were active drug users.

After Hunter Biden selected the Colt Cobra for purchase, Cleveland said he asked him to fill out Form 4473, which he told him was required for "every gun purchase." Cleveland testified that he instructed Hunter Biden to write in his personal information and answer the questions below, "and to take your time answering them," he said.

Cleveland testified that he watched as Hunter Biden answered several questions on the form before he approached question 11.E., which asked about drug use.

"You saw him strike that box with an 'X'?" prosecutor Derek Hines asked.

"Yes," Cleveland said.

"He didn't seem to express any confusion by that question?" Hines asked.

"No," Cleveland said.

With gun store employee Gordon Cleveland on the witness stand, members of the jury saw the Colt Cobra .38 Special that Hunter Biden purchased from Cleveland on Oct. 12, 2018, at StarQuest Shooters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Prosecutor Derek Hines said the encased gun was rendered safe by marshals and asked the judge to allow him to approach with the weapon.

He first brought the gun to the witness stand where Cleveland read aloud the serial number, and then took it to the jury box, where jurors saw the gun that prosecutors argue Hunter Biden obtained illegally by lying on a federal form.

Prosecutors then moved on to question Cleveland about Form 4473, the form that Hunter Biden filled out when he purchased the gun.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell, cross-examining Hunter Biden's former girlfriend Zoe Kestan, sought to renew his argument that Hunter Biden was not actively using drugs in October 2018 by emphasizing that Kestan wasn't in contact with him at that time and would not know.

Kestan testified that she wasn't in touch with Hunter Biden from Sept. 23, when they were in Malibu together, until November, when he summoned her to Massachusetts while he was trying out a new ketamine therapy program.

As such, Kestan testified she had "no idea" that he had gone back to Delaware, or what he was doing at that time.

"So you didn't see him between those two dates?" Lowell asked.

"No," she said.

Lowell also sought to cast Kestan as an enabler of Hunter's addiction.

"You helped him get drugs?" Lowell asked.

"Yes," Kestan responded.

Prosecutors pushed back on that argument by highlighting their significant age gap: Kestan was 24 at the time of the relationship, while Hunter Biden was 48.

"Twice my age," she testified.

Kestan subsequently concluded her testimony and stepped down from the witness stand. Prosecutors then prepared to called to the stand Gordon Cleveland, the gun shop employee who sold Hunter Biden the firearm in 2018.

Judge Maryellen Noreika has so far quizzed more than 50 Delaware residents about their fitness to serve as jurors in the first trial of a sitting president's son. And being Delaware -- a small state that Joe Biden represented in the Senate for more than three decades -- nearly all of them had some level of familiarity with Hunter Biden's legal travails.

"I live in Delaware," one prospective juror said. "You can't swing a cat without hearing something."

"Delaware is a small place," another said. "So you hear stuff."

Several jurors said they had heard or read about this trial specifically. Most had only a cursory understanding of the case, but others expressed a detailed accounting of the charges. A few jurors mentioned the ill-fated plea deal that Hunter Biden initially struck with prosecutors last summer.

"At one time there was a deal, and then there wasn't," one man said.

One woman had even read Hunter Biden's memoir, "Beautiful Things," which prosecutors plan to use to help prove their case. She was excused by the judge.

President Joe Biden has emerged repeatedly in questioning, with prospective jurors expressing both positive and negative feelings on his presidency. One woman said she believed that Hunter Biden was facing charges largely because his father is the president.

"I think it was a very strong factor," she said.

Several others have been dismissed for harboring negative views toward the Bidens. Asked for his opinion about the president, one man said, "Not a good one." Another man said, "Negative toward the defendant." Both were excused.

The jury questionnaire also includes several questions about drug and alcohol addiction -- an affliction that many prospective jurors said has personally affected them.

One woman held back tears as she described how her best friend had died of a heroine overdose. Another man said his daughter is a recovering addict.

"Everybody needs a second chance," he said.

Judge Noreika has been pressing ahead, intent on getting a jury seated as soon as possible -- perhaps even by the end of the day.

In addition first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden's wife Melissa, his half-sister Ashley Biden attended court during the morning session, and his confidant and financier Kevin Morris is also in attendance.