Chemist Jason Brewer, testifying as an expert witness for the prosecution, told the jury that a brown leather pouch that contained Hunter Biden's gun at the time the weapon was retrieved by authorities tested positive for cocaine.

Brewer said there were "minimal amounts of white powder" on two locations on the pouch, which he combined and tested.

On cross-examination, Hunter Biden's attorney sought to raise doubts about how that white powder got there and who put it there -- emphasizing it could have been old, dating back to before Hunter Biden purchased the gun.

"You can't date when it got there?" defense attorney David Kolansky asked.

"I cannot," Brewer said.

Kolansky also emphasized that five years went by from the time the pouch was collected in October 2018 to when it was tested in October 2023 -- after the indictment in this case was already filed.

He emphasized the importance of the "chain of command," which Brewer conceded was "very important."

Earlier, Hunter Biden's former girlfriend Hallie Biden testified that she put the gun in the pouch, which she found in Hunter Biden's vehicle, after she discovered the weapon in the vehicle and before she disposed of it in a trash container.

Proceedings resumed this morning with the government calling FBI chemist Dr. Jason Brewer to the stand.

Brewer is testifying as an expert witness.

Prosecutors said they would then call a DEA officer as their final witness.

First lady Jill Biden, Hunter Biden's stepmother, is in attendance at the trial this morning.

She returned from France, where she was accompanying President Joe Biden on a trip to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

She had attended the trial each day until making the trip to France.

Hunter Biden has arrived at the courthouse for Day 5 of the trial.

He was accompanied as usual by his wife Melissa Cohen Biden.

Prosecutors have introduced Hunter Biden's infamous laptop as evidence while questioning FBI agent Erika Jensen, their first witness.

Prosecutors asked Jensen about email messages found on the laptop and in Hunter Biden's iCloud account that appear to be about his drug use in 2018.

The government had said in pretrial court filings that it was planning to introduce materials on the laptop as evidence in the case.

The laptop has become a symbol of the legal and political controversy surrounding the president's son in recent years. Attorneys for Hunter Biden had previously attempted to preclude the laptop as evidence in the trial, arguing that they have "numerous reasons to believe the data had been altered and compromised before investigators obtained the electronic material."

But special counsel David Weiss argued in court filings that attorneys for Hunter Biden had not "provided any evidence or information that shows that his laptop contains false information," and the judge agreed to admit it as evidence.

Data from the laptop was purportedly obtained and later disseminated in 2019 by a Wilmington, Delaware, computer repairman after the laptop had been dropped off at his shop for repair.

With that context in mind, prosecutors did not rely on the laptop on its own; investigators said they cross-referenced every email, WhatsApp message, iMessage, and text message with Apple Inc. to establish the credibility of the data.

"Ultimately, in examining that laptop, were investigators able to confirm that it was Hunter Biden's laptop?" prosecutor Derek Hines asked Jensen.

"Yes," Jensen said.

"How?" Hines asked.

"Among other things, there was a serial number that's on the back of this laptop that matches the Apple subpoena records that they obtained in 2019, so it matches the registration of this particular device to the iCloud account at a particular date," Jensen said.

"So from the data from the laptop and the hard drive, did you -- what did you do next, or what did the FBI do next when assessing the addiction evidence?" Hines asked.

"So from the data that was extracted from both the iCloud back ups and this -- the laptop, investigators were able to go through largely WhatsApp messages, iMessages, and text messages, and found evidence of addiction within the messages," Jensen said.

Prosecutors also showed jurors an invoice for $85 from the computer repair shop where Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop for repair, which had been sent to an email address belonging to Hunter Biden.

"You said Apple Inc. provided that ... from the iCloud?" Hines asked.

"Yes," Jensen said.