If the defense team for Hunter Biden believed that allowing his daughter Naomi to testify would help him appear more human during his felony firearms trial, they were mistaken.
When Hunter purchased a firearm in 2018 and swore on a federal document that he did not use drugs, it was evident that the 30-year-old daughter of the deceased intended to assist her father in persuading jurors of his innocence.
However, the president’s son appeared more like an unstable father than a decent father who was sobering up the week after he purchased the pistol, thanks to probing inquiries and old text messages that the prosecution produced on Friday.
Following Naomi’s testimony, Hunter’s team was under pressure to provide a strong case, and without warning, they pulled out a witness who was at the courthouse and probably the president’s brother Jimmy, who was on the defense’s list of potential witnesses.
In her testimony, Naomi stated that she saw Hunter in August 2018 while he was undergoing treatment at a rehab facility in California. Hunter looked the “clearest” he had since his brother Beau’s death from brain cancer in 2015.
She recalled telling her father she was “proud” of him and that he appeared “great” and “hopeful” when she saw him again in mid-October.
However, days after he said he wasn’t using drugs and purchased a pistol in Delaware, texts submitted by the prosecution refuted her account of meeting him at that time.
Although Hunter’s defense team has admitted that he was an addict, they have attempted to show that on October 12, 2018, he was clean from crack cocaine rather than alcohol.
Zoom in: Text messages between Hunter and Naomi from that week he spent in New York City were disclosed by the prosecution. There, Naomi was enrolled in law school.
Hunter contacted his daughter to have his Ford Raptor truck, which Naomi had taken one evening, exchanged for Joe Biden’s black Cadillac. However, the texts revealed that Hunter did not reply to his daughter’s messages until two in the morning.
Following a few days of back and forth, they changed cars, but Naomi enquired as to when she may be able to see her father again:
She texted, “So no c u!?,” along with a dejected face.
The letter read aloud in court stated that woman continued, saying, “I can’t take this…I really do miss you a lot. All I want to do is spend time with you.”
Hunter retorted, saying, “I apologize for being so inaccessible. You are not treated fairly.”
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While Naomi confirmed that she was “nervous” and that she was coughing up a bottle of water, she also noted that she couldn’t remember specific texts from that time and that her meetings with Hunter were frequently short.
Between the lines: Despite the fact that the texts were sent just a few days after Hunter is said to have purchased the firearm, Hunter’s attorneys, lead by Abbe Lowell, seemed taken aback by them.
Ashley Biden, the president’s sister Val Biden, her husband Jack Owens, their daughter Missy Owens, and other Biden family members were there for the testimony.
First Lady Jill Biden attended Friday’s event after returning by plane from the D-Day festivities in France, where she had earlier in the week appeared in court.
Following Naomi’s evidence, the court broke for lunch. The Biden family members were rattled and filed into a small room reserved for the defense team. The room was so packed that it was difficult to shut the door.
As she left the courtroom, Naomi gave her father a hug and, as she made her way back to the witness room, she clasped her husband Peter Neal’s hand and seemed to wipe away her tears.
She emerged a few minutes later, her big black sunglasses glaring in the fluorescent lights.
Reality check: According to some family members, Hunter’s team made a mistake by calling his daughter to testify during a trial that covered his interactions with strippers and detailed his drug problems in great detail.
However, Naomi was eager to take part and support her father.
Next up: When the defense team abruptly stated that it wouldn’t be calling any more witnesses for the day, Hunter’s uncle Jimmy Biden—who had assisted in putting Hunter into a treatment center in August of 2018 and was anticipated to speak about him getting clean—was waiting in the witness room.
Hunter’s willingness to testify has not been resolved by the defense team.
Next week is when the trial is supposed to end.