Kestan on Hunter Biden: "He was super charming. Everybody loved him"
Zoe Kestan testified in court that Hunter Biden smoked crack almost constantly in private but not while out in public, where he was affable.
“He was super charming,” Kestan said. “Everybody loved him.”
Back in their hotels when they stayed together, Kestan testified Biden “would want to smoke as soon as he woke up.”
Kestan also said that Hunter Biden would drink alcohol often while doing drugs.
Biden’s defense team has previously pointed to receipts of the president’s son purchasing alcohol around the time he bought the firearm to suggest he was only drinking at the time.
Kestan also said that the pair discussed a frog venom treatment that could “purge” Hunter Biden’s system.
Kestan testifies she helped Hunter Biden buy drugs
Jurors were shown a picture of Zoe Kestan during the time she says she was with Hunter Biden and saw him smoke crack.
“It’s a used crack pipe,” Kestan said of one image of an item on a bathroom sink and countertop.
Kestan also testified that she brought a drug dealer named Frankie up to the room at the Four Seasons in New York to meet with Hunter Biden.
She also said she witnessed Biden clean out a crack pipe, using “chop sticks and disassembled pens.”
Biden also asked her to get cash for him to buy drugs, she testified, using his mobile banking app to give her a code to use at the ATM.
Kestan said that he told her that he also used this maneuver with dealers, so they could directly withdrawal cash from his bank account.
Analysis: Hunter Biden's lawyers trying to use "remarkably clever" argument, criminal defense attorney says
From CNN's Elise Hammond
Hunter Biden’s lawyers are trying to use a “remarkably clever and remarkably careful” defense in the trial on federal gun charges against him, one criminal defense attorney said on CNN.
The indictment stems from a 2018 gun purchase. While buying the revolver in Delaware, Biden lied on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs — even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase.
Ron Kuby, a defense lawyer, said the defense is trying to convey two arguments to the jury:
- Biden did not know he was lying on the form “because he thought when he was asked ‘are you using drugs,’ that meant right now"
- Biden did not identify as a drug addict at that time
On the other side, the prosecution is trying to portray Biden as a “drug-addled wreck of a human being” during the general time period when the gun purchase at the heart of the case was made, Kuby said.
Kuby said to combat that, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell is trying to give the jury a variety of reasons to disregard certain unsavory depictions.
“In order to get the jury to kind of disregard some things, first you need to make them want to acquit your client,” Kuby said. “It’s a redemption here —here was this drug addict and now here is this fine-looking, clean, sober man. The jury is going to want to find a reason to vote not guilty.”
“Once the jury has decided to hunt for reasonable doubt, they’ll usually find it,” he added.
Kestan testifies about second time meeting Hunter Biden in NYC
Zoe Kestan met Hunter Biden for a second time in New York City and testified that she saw him smoking crack during that trip.
A friend invited them to hang out, and “I felt a connection with him,” she said. So she decided to spend a week with him at the SoHo Grande Hotel.
She also saw him smoking crack during the trip. And eventually she witnessed him smoking “every 20 minutes or so.”
Hunter was “incredibly friendly” and “charming” in their interactions and Kestan said she developed feelings for him.
“I already felt myself really caring for him,” she added.
Kestan is much more forthcoming and talkative on the stand than Buhle was.
Zoe Kestan, Hunter Biden’s former girlfriend, testifies about meeting him for the first time
Zoe Kestan told jurors how she met Hunter Biden at a gentleman’s club she worked at in December 2017.
“It was late at night,” she said, adding that she was asked for one final private dance.
“He was already in the room,” Kestan said of Hunter Biden.
Kestan found Hunter Biden to be “charming,” adding that when the music was off at the club, he played a song by Fleet Foxes on his phone.
That night, she said, Hunter Biden smoked something from a strange pipe.
“I assumed it to be crack cocaine,” she testified.
Here's what has happened so far today in Hunter Biden’s trial
From CNN Staff
Court is back in session Wednesday for day three of the Hunter Biden trial, with some notable guests in court to support the president’s son.
Among them is first lady Jill Biden, who arrived in court on Wednesday morning, as well as his wife Melissa Cohen Biden.
Here’s how the rest of the day has played out so far:
- Memoir evidence: The day began with a defense attorney arguing that Hunter Biden’s memoir had no evidence of drug use when he bought the gun. “We used the items that were evidence of addiction,” FBI special agent Erika Jensen said on the witness stand in response to defense attorney Abbe Lowell’s questions over the book.
- FBI unable to confirm some events: Under cross-examination, Jensen said investigators couldn’t verify that Hunter Biden actually did what he claimed he was doing in the texts being used as evidence against him.
- Defense tries to undermine cash withdrawal allegations: Defense attorney Abbe Lowell, while questioning Jensen, suggested that some of the cash that she tried to link to the October 2018 gun purchase may have actually been for rehab and addiction treatment.
- Hunter Biden’s ex-wife testifies: Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle took the stand, where she testified that she first learned of his drug use in July 2015. She previously “worried” and was “scared” about possible drug use due to Hunter Biden’s 2014 exit from the Navy. Buhle also said she found drugs in Biden’s car on multiple occasions. Under cross-examination, Buhle said she didn’t know exactly when she checked Biden’s car and found drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors contend that this occurred in 2018, the same year Hunter Biden bought the gun. She said she "no" when asked if she had ever seen Hunter Biden use drugs.
Hunter Biden's ex-wife is off the stand
Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle is off the stand.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell concluded his questioning asking if her ever saw Hunter Biden use drugs.
“No,” she said.
Under cross, Buhle says she didn't know exactly when she checked Hunter Biden's car
Under cross examination, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle said she didn’t know exactly when she checked Biden’s car and found drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors contend that this occurred in 2018, the same year Hunter Biden bought the gun.
“I don’t recall the exact days,” Buhle testified, adding that she only knew she cleaned the car when their daughters were using it.
Buhle also testified during cross examination that Biden moved out of their house after she found the paraphernalia.
“He moved out, really, after I found the crack pipe,” she said, but only considered them separated “after I found out about the infidelity.”
Direct examination of Kathleen Buhle ends after roughly 15 minutes
Hunter Biden defense attorney Abbe Lowell is questioning Kathleen Buhle on cross-examination.
Prosecutor Leo Wise only questioned Buhle for about 15 minutes.
In her appearance, Buhle answered questions from the prosecutor with short, staccato answers.
“We were in therapy together” where Hunter Biden’s addiction was discussed, Buhle told prosecutors.
