Hunter Biden was using drugs around the time he bought a gun, Hallie Biden says

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and former romantic partner, Hallie Biden, took the stand at his trial on gun-related charges Thursday and told jurors she believed he was using crack cocaine around the time he bought a pistol in the fall of 2018.

Federal prosecutors asked Hallie about a series of text messages she exchanged with Hunter in the days after he bought a Colt revolver on Oct. 12, 2018.

In the texts, Hunter said he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie” and said he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack.”

The texts, along with Hallie’s testimony, are pivotal evidence as prosecutors try to prove that Hunter was an active drug user when he purchased the firearm. Special counsel David Weiss has charged the president’s son with three federal felonies for allegedly lying about his drug use when he bought the gun and then illegally possessing the gun for less than two weeks.

Hallie was married to Hunter’s brother, Beau, who died in 2015. She later became romantically involved with Hunter.

She testified that on the morning of Oct. 23, 2018 — the day she found and threw away the gun — Hunter appeared as if he could have been using drugs. He had arrived at her home either early that morning or late the night before, she said.

“He was tired, exhausted, looked like he hadn't slept,” she told the jury.

She said she cleaned out his truck and found remnants of crack cocaine, as well as drug paraphernalia.

“Oh, and the gun,” she added. “Obviously.”

She “panicked” and decided to throw away the gun at a nearby high-end grocery store in Wilmington. So she put it in a leather pouch she found in his truck, then put the pouch in a bag, and drove the bag to Janssen’s Market, where she put it in an outside garbage can.

“I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking,” she said.

She also testified that Hunter introduced her to crack cocaine, and she began using the drug during the relationship.

“It was a terrible experience that I went through, and I'm embarrassed and I'm ashamed and I regret that period of my life,” she said.

She is the third former romantic partner of the president’s son to be called to the stand by prosecutors. On Wednesday, Hunter’s ex-wife and another woman described in harrowing detail Hunter’s abuse of crack cocaine, but neither of those witnesses testified about his alleged drug use at the exact time he bought and owned the gun.

Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, has argued that Hunter had recently completed a rehab program when he bought the gun and believed at the time that he was not addicted.

During an arduous and detail-heavy cross-examination, Lowell pressed Hallie on when exactly her brother-in-law arrived at her house on Oct. 23, when she first knew he was there, and when she found the gun in his truck. Her recall of those details seemed to grow fuzzy during the questioning.

Hallie also said she did not see him using drugs that day, and conceded he could have just been exhausted.

He also asked her if she knew whether Hunter was telling the truth when he texted her about meeting a dealer named Mookie and laying on a car smoking crack.

She said she did not know if those statements were true.