Hunter Biden in Tears as Daughter Testifies She Was ‘Proud’ of Him, Believing He Had Kicked His Drug Habit

He was ‘the cleanest’ she had seen him ‘since my uncle died,’ she said.

AP
Naomi Biden departs from federal court June 7, 2024, at Wilmington, Delaware. AP

Hunter Biden wiped away tears in court Friday as his eldest daughter, Naomi Biden, testified that, during a 2018 visit to Los Angeles, her father was the cleanest she had seen him since Beau Biden died.

Ms. Biden, who was the final witness of the day, described a visit she and her now husband, Peter George Heermann Neal, made to Mr. Biden in 2018, when he was in a rehabilitation facility at Los Angeles.

Ms. Biden described meeting her father at a cafe where they had lunch and met Mr. Biden’s sober coach. She said after she visited Mr. Biden that she texted her father to say that she was “so proud” of him and that she was glad she was able to introduce him to her then-boyfriend.

She added that it was “the cleanest” she had seen him “since my uncle died,” as Mr. Biden tried to hold back his emotions.

Ms. Biden also described a trip that she and her partner took to New York from Washington, D.C., when they were moving in together. She said she was “hopeful” about her father’s battle with addiction when she saw him in October of 2018, adding that he appeared to be as clean he was when she visited him at Los Angeles.

After meeting up with her father in New York, Ms. Biden said that she and her father exchanged cars and that Mr. Biden took his truck back and that she began driving President Biden’s Cadillac. She described the truck’s interior at the time, saying it was in good conduction.

Mr. Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, asked whether there was any drug paraphernalia in the car at the time of the exchange, to which she responded that there was not.

She was also asked whether she had ever put any drug paraphernalia in Mr. Biden’s truck, to which she also answered “no.” When asked whether she had ever done drugs herself, she said that she had not.

During cross-examination, Prosecutor Leo Wise asked Ms. Biden when she first became aware of her father’s struggle with addiction. She responded that “after my uncle died, things got bad,” referencing Mr. Biden’s older brother, Beau Biden, who passed away from a brain tumor in 2015.

Mr. Wise also asked Ms. Biden about a text message exchange she had with her father late in the night of October 17, 2018. In the exchange, Mr. Biden asked Ms. Biden to have her boyfriend bring the truck to 57th and 5th so they could swap cars.

“Do you know what your father was doing at 2 o’clock in the morning and why he was asking for the car then?” Mr. Wise said. Ms. Biden responded, “No.”

The next day she texted her father saying, “I’m really sorry dad, I can’t take this. I don’t know what to say. I just miss you and want to hang out with you.” 

“I’m sorry I’ve been so unreachable, it’s not fair to you,” Mr. Biden responded, according to Mr. Wise.

Mr. Wise then asked Ms. Biden whether she knew why her father had been so hard to reach and whether she knew that he was meeting up with an alleged drug dealer, Frankie, that Mr. Biden met with in New York that fall.

“Did he tell you he was meeting with someone named Frankie? That he had Frankie come to his hotel room? That he gave him the access key to his Wells Fargo account?” Mr. Wise said.

After her testimony, Ms. Biden embraced her father before the court went on break, though the Biden team appeared to be in low spirits when the court took a break. 

The president’s brother, James Biden, and his wife, Sara Biden, were also at court Friday, though neither of them took the stand to testify.

After the break the jury was dismissed early and the defense announced that it would decide on its final witness over the weekend.

Mr. Biden is facing charges of lying about his drug use on a form when purchasing a firearm.


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