Hunter Biden was using crack cocaine shortly after he illegally bought a gun in 2018, his criminal trial has heard.
Hunter Biden, 54, texted that he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack” in one message sent to his brother’s widow days after the firearm purchase, an FBI agent testifying at his trial has said.
The US president’s son is accused of knowingly lying on a form about his drug use to buy a revolver and ammunition from a gun shop in Wilmington, Delaware.
His defence says he was in recovery, so he was truthful when he wrote on the form that he was not a user of illicit drugs as he bought the weapon.
The case marks the first time a sitting US president’s son has gone on trial.Biden could face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty of all three federal counts in the case.
The trial continues on Wednesday, with more testimony from FBI agent Erika Jensen, who read text messages found on Biden’s laptop that was left behind at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved.
In her testimony on Tuesday, Ms Jensen said the laptop contained “evidence of addiction”.
The text messages, she said, used coded language for crack cocaine like “baby powder”, and that Biden appeared to be arranging to get illegal drugs in the months leading up to him buying the gun.
In one text sent the day after the gun purchase, he told Hallie Biden – the widow of the president’s late son, Beau Biden – that he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie”.
The same day, Hallie Biden texted him: “I called you 500 times in past 24 hours.”
Hunter Biden replied less than a minute later that he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney”.
“There’s my truth,” he added in another text.
The jury is expected to hear during the trial how Hallie Biden also became addicted to crack cocaine during her brief relationship with Biden after her husband Beau’s death in 2015.
She took the gun from Hunter Biden and threw it in a grocery store bin 11 days after he bought it, concerned about what he might do with the weapon.
He is charged with 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. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The president’s son also faces a trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4m in taxes.
