WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law-turned-lover Hallie Biden testified Thursday that the first son introduced her to crack cocaine in the summer of 2018 and she was “embarrassed” and regretted “that time of my life.”
Hallie, the widow of Hunter’s late brother Beau Biden, told a federal court that she had become romantic with Hunter, now 54, in either late 2015 or early 2016 — and soon found out he used the addictive street drug.
“I found it [crack] and Googled it because I didn’t know what it was,” Hallie said of the first time she saw the stimulant in her Wilmington home. “He told me what it was, crack cocaine.”
She explained that she began using in June 2018, when the pair were on a trip in California and staying at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
When prosecutor Leo Wise asked Hallie “who had introduced you” to crack, the witness was quick with a response.
“Hunter did,” Hallie answered. “It was a terrible experience I went through and I’m embarrassed and I’m ashamed. I regret that time of my life.”
Hallie said that she had quit by August 2018, but Hunter continued to use.
Early in her testimony, Hallie said she and Hunter had known each other since they were in middle school and their romance budded gradually after Beau’s death from brain cancer on May 30, 2015.
She testified that Hunter didn’t deny using crack when she first confronted him. Later in their relationship, Hallie recalled, she saw him smoke it and even went with him on drug deals.
Despite Hunter’s dependence, Hallie saw him carrying on working and interacting with friends and family.
At times, he became “agitated [and] high-strung” when using, she recalled. “But other times [he was] functioning as well.”
At certain points, the witness recalled, she couldn’t tell when Hunter was using and when he wasn’t.
Her testimony, like that of Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle and ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan, seems to rebut the argument of defense lawyer Abbe Lowell in opening statements that “there is no such thing as high-functioning crack addicts.”
Hunter had drugs at his apartment in Washington, DC and at the home the couple shared in Annapolis, Md, Hallie claimed.
When they lived together, she said his crack use became more and more frequent until he began using “daily.”
Hallie also recalled the pivotal moment she found Hunter’s gun — which he’s charged with illegally owning while on drugs — on Oct. 23, 2018.
She said she hadn’t seen him for a while and he showed up at her home that morning looking worse for wear.
“He was tired, exhausted looked like he hadn’t slept,” Hallie testified.
When Wise asked if Hunter was on drugs at the time, Hallie responded he “could have been.”
Hallie went to tidy up his Ford Raptor truck “to clean out any drugs or alcohol in the car… in an effort to help him get or stay sober.”
Asked what she found inside, Hallie said: “Aside from trash and clothes, I found remnants of crack cocaine, paraphernalia — oh, and the gun obviously.”
“I panicked and I wanted to get rid of them,” she said of the gun and ammunition. “I didn’t want him to hurt himself or [for] my kids to find it and hurt themselves.”
“I considered hiding it somewhere but I was afraid one of my children would find it,” she explained. “I was afraid to kind of touch it. I didn’t know if it was loaded.”
Hallie said she got a plastic shopping bag and put the gun inside. Realizing it was still recognizable through the bag, she grabbed a brown leather pouch, shoved the weapon inside, drove to the local grocery store and tossed it into the garbage.
At this moment, the jury was shown the pouch — which had scuff marks and ink stains on it and which Hallie said Hunter had used for either his business cards or drugs.
“I was so flustered from the whole thing,” Hallie said. “I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking.”
The jurors were then shown surveillance footage of Hallie driving up to Janssen’s Market and putting the pouch inside the garbage can. They were then shown another clip of her coming back to the bins hours later and searching for the gun without success.
Hallie said when she told Hunter what she’d done with the gun, he told her “to go look for it.”
“When I looked for it and didn’t find it, he told me to file a police report for it,” Hallie said. “Because it was registered in his name.”