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By Erin Keller
Reporter (Live News)
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Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, is expected to testify Wednesday in a Delaware federal court about his drug use as his gun trial rages on.
Buhle, 55, and Hunter Biden, 54, married in 1993. The couple, who have three children—Naomi, 30, Maisy, 23, and Finnegan, 23—divorced in 2016.
Buhle claimed in her 2022 memoir If We Break that Hunter Biden's infidelity and drug use led to the demise of their marriage. She also sued him in 2019, claiming he has not paid her alimony legal fees, interest, and other debts owed to her since their split.
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Hunter Biden, who is the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be criminally tried, married his current wife, Melissa Cohen, shortly after Buhle filed the suit.
He is charged with three felonies stemming from the purchase of a gun in October 2018, accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
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Swarms of media tents were set up outside the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, hours ahead of Wednesday's testimony.
Jurors could also hear from Hunter Biden's former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, as well as Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau Biden, with whom Hunter Biden also had a brief relationship.
As the 2024 presidential election approaches, allies are concerned about the impact this trial will have on his father President Joe Biden, who is deeply worried about his only living son's health and continued sobriety.
What happened in court
Federal prosecutors spent hours on Monday showing jurors evidence of Hunter Biden's drug problem and his lying.
"No one is allowed to lie on a federal form like that, even Hunter Biden," prosecutor Derek Hines told jurors on Tuesday. "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."
"When the defendant filled out that form, he knew he was a drug addict," and prosecutors don't have to prove he was using the day he purchased the firearm, Hines said.
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The 12-person panel also heard opening statements Tuesday and testimony from an FBI agent who read aloud some of Hunter Biden's personal messages, including some that came from a laptop he left at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved. In 2020, the contents made their way to Republicans and were publicly leaked, revealing some highly personal messages about his work and his life. He has since sued over the leaked information.
Hunter Biden's attorney argued that his client did not believe he was in the throes of addiction when he stated in the paperwork that he did not have a drug problem.
In the short time that he had the gun, he did nothing with it, and the weapon was never even loaded, attorney Abbe Lowell said in his opening statement.
First lady Jill Biden and her daughter, Ashley Biden, sat in the courtroom for much of Tuesday.
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