Hunter Biden’s eldest daughter, Naomi, brought the perspective in her father’s defence on Friday, telling the bench how her father seemed to have taken possession of his drug use in the months before prosecutors say he lied on an administration background check form.
“He appeared like the most obvious thing that I had seen since my uncle died, and he just appeared amazing,” she said of seeing him in rehab in Los Angeles with her then-boyfriend Peter Neal.
Hunter Biden brushed away tears as she vowed to be proud of him. Naomi Biden described the bench she saw her father again just a couple of months later in New York when he arrived to carry up his truck after she and Neal had borrowed it.
“He appeared great. He appeared hopeful,” the younger Biden said of the visit, which came during a period after her father bought the gun that is at the centre of the claim against him.
President Joe Biden said in an interview that he would not forgive his son, who meets a punishment that could bring up to 25 years in jail if he’s discovered guilty.
Sitting behind the defendant was first woman Jill Biden, who passed in from France and is set to return to Europe on Saturday. Hunter grabbed her hand as he departed court after his daughter’s testimony, with his wife, Melissa Cohen-Biden, stepping behind him.
Before the administration rested its issue on Friday morning, a drug enforcement agency testified to the court that readers from Hunter Biden offered by prosecutors were related to drug use and deals, and a forensic chemist swore about the tiny amount of white powder located in the pouch in which Biden held his gun.
The court suspended the jury early on Friday after the judge mailed the jury home. Here’s what you skipped on Day 5 of Hunter Biden’s trial:
Naomi’s testimony
Wise questioned Naomi about other texts from her dad during his period in New York and how she appeared dismayed at being incapable of reaching him.
“I’m sorry, Dad, I can’t accept this,” her text read after shipping him a painful face emoji. “I don’t understand what to say. I just like to hang out with you.”
She also said she noticed no drug remains in the car and no drug paraphernalia when she picked it up and returned it to him.
In what appeared to be a particularly bruising time, Wise asked Naomi whether her father had asked her if he was meeting an “individual named Franky” or that that individual would be arriving at his hotel room.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
A former girlfriend of Biden’s informed the bench in earlier testimony how, early in their coordination, she was introduced to an individual by the same name who gave him drugs in New York.
As Naomi Biden left the bench, she brushed away a tear.
The defence selected not to put Hunter Biden’s uncle, James Biden, in the position after breaking for lunch.
The prosecution rested its case
The government rested its claim on Friday after providing evidence from different witnesses who testified to Biden’s drug utilization, along with an ex-girlfriend and his brother Beau’s widow.
Thursday saw Hallie Biden, the prosecution’s star testimony, testify about Biden’s drug utilization and about the day she recalled searching, throwing away, and then going to discover his gun in the trash can where she had thrown it.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys said Friday that they would weigh the decision over the weekend about whether to put him in the position when the bench continues on Monday. The defence also said it would provide a written motion on Friday afternoon calling for an acquittal, arguing that the claim is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.