Wait, so she didn’t find out, or they hadn’t been tampered with?
Drawn and quartered, head put on a pike outside Mar a Lago, maybe gibbeted. The possibilities are endless.
So my thought on this. Are the GOP sure this is a good idea? E.g. has Matt Gaetz brought a gun? Then arrest that sex trafficker. There is plenty of sworn testimony from the teenagers he trafficked that he took them to drug fueled sex parties. If he brought a gun around that time then he signed the same declaration Hunter did.
If this is what we are doing then, let’s appoint a special investigator to go through Congress and catch these drug addled gun toters.
They crafted exactly that argument in a motion to dismiss. Judge Noreika denied the motion.
I’m as left as they come, but I have no problem with Hunter being found guilty if indeed the prosecution proves its case. The punishment should be proportional to the crime so a short jail sentence with a fine and probation would be appropriate in my opinion. I’d also be cool with the jury finding him not guilty due to what seems to be selective prosecution.
per cnn:
Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle testified that she first learned of his drug use in July 2015.
“I found a crack pipe … on an ashtray on the side porch of our home,” she said.
She previously “worried” and was “scared” about possible drug use due to Hunter Biden’s 2014 exit from the Navy.
Buhle is testifying under subpoena.
Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle testified Wednesday that she found drugs and paraphernalia in Hunter Biden’s car on multiple occasions, including in 2018.
“When my daughters would use his car … I would check” to make sure there were no drugs in it, Buhle testified.
Buhle said of Hunter Biden’s demeanor at the time: “He was angry, short tempered” and tried to hide his drug use from family and friends.
Hunter Biden defense attorney Abbe Lowell is questioning Kathleen Buhle on cross-examination.
Prosecutor Leo Wise only questioned Buhle for about 15 minutes.
In her appearance, Buhle answered questions from the prosecutor with short, staccato answers.
Under cross examination, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle said she didn’t know exactly when she checked Biden’s car and found drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors contend that this occurred in 2018, the same year Hunter Biden bought the gun.
“I don’t recall the exact days,” Buhle testified, adding that she only knew she cleaned the car when their daughters were using it.
Buhle also testified during cross examination that Biden moved out of their house after she found the paraphernalia.
“He moved out, really, after I found the crack pipe,” she said, but only considered them separated “after I found out about the infidelity.”
Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle is off the stand.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell concluded his questioning asking if her ever saw Hunter Biden use drugs.
“No,” she said.
Zoe Kestan told jurors how she met Hunter Biden at a gentleman’s club she worked at in December 2017.
“It was late at night,” she said, adding that she was asked for one final private dance.
“He was already in the room,” Kestan said of Hunter Biden.
Kestan found Hunter Biden to be “charming,” adding that when the music was off at the club, he played a song by Fleet Foxes on his phone.
That night, she said, Hunter Biden smoked something from a strange pipe.
“I assumed it to be crack cocaine,” she testified.
Zoe Kestan met Hunter Biden for a second time in New York City and testified that she saw him smoking crack during that trip.
A friend invited them to hang out, and “I felt a connection with him,” she said. So she decided to spend a week with him at the SoHo Grande Hotel.
She also saw him smoking crack during the trip. And eventually she witnessed him smoking “every 20 minutes or so.”
Hunter was “incredibly friendly” and “charming” in their interactions and Kestan said she developed feelings for him.
“I already felt myself really caring for him,” she added.
Kestan is much more forthcoming and talkative on the stand than Buhle was.
“We were in therapy together” where Hunter Biden’s addiction was discussed, Buhle told prosecutors.
cnn commentary:
Hunter Biden’s lawyers are trying to use a “remarkably clever and remarkably careful” defense in the trial on federal gun charges against him, one criminal defense attorney said on CNN.
The indictment stems from a 2018 gun purchase. While buying the revolver in Delaware, Biden lied on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs — even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase.
Ron Kuby, a defense lawyer, said the defense is trying to convey two arguments to the jury:
- Biden did not know he was lying on the form “because he thought when he was asked ‘are you using drugs,’ that meant right now"
- Biden did not identify as a drug addict at that time
On the other side, the prosecution is trying to portray Biden as a “drug-addled wreck of a human being” during the general time period when the gun purchase at the heart of the case was made, Kuby said.
Kuby said to combat that, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell is trying to give the jury a variety of reasons to disregard certain unsavory depictions.
“In order to get the jury to kind of disregard some things, first you need to make them want to acquit your client,” Kuby said. “It’s a redemption here — here was this drug addict and now here is this fine-looking, clean, sober man. The jury is going to want to find a reason to vote not guilty.”
“Once the jury has decided to hunt for reasonable doubt, they’ll usually find it,” he added.
rc: looks like someone is smart enough to use his right to remain silent, and let his lawyer use their best case and judgement. from what i’m reading, i’m leaning toward the jury finding that doubt.
per cnn:
Jurors were shown a picture of Zoe Kestan during the time she says she was with Hunter Biden and saw him smoke crack.
“It’s a used crack pipe,” Kestan said of one image of an item on a bathroom sink and countertop.
Kestan also testified that she brought a drug dealer named Frankie up to the room at the Four Seasons in New York to meet with Hunter Biden.
She also said she witnessed Biden clean out a crack pipe, using “chop sticks and disassembled pens.”
Biden also asked her to get cash for him to buy drugs, she testified, using his mobile banking app to give her a code to use at the ATM.
Kestan said that he told her that he also used this maneuver with dealers, so they could directly withdrawal cash from his bank account.
Zoe Kestan testified in court that Hunter Biden smoked crack almost constantly in private but not while out in public, where he was affable.
“He was super charming,” Kestan said. “Everybody loved him.”
Back in their hotels when they stayed together, Kestan testified Biden “would want to smoke as soon as he woke up.”
Kestan also said that Hunter Biden would drink alcohol often while doing drugs.
Biden’s defense team has previously pointed to receipts of the president’s son purchasing alcohol around the time he bought the firearm to suggest he was only drinking at the time.
Kestan also said that the pair discussed a frog venom treatment that could “purge” Hunter Biden’s system.
Prosecutors introduced more pictures of Hunter Biden into evidence on Wednesday during the testimony of his former girlfriend Zoe Kestan.
One showed Biden wearing a shirt that said “ADDICTED,” with an Adidas logo that was made to look like a marijuana plant.
“I thought that was funny because he didn’t smoke weed,” Kestan said.
Another image shown to the jury was of Hunter Biden in a bathtub holding what Kestan said was a crack pipe.
Court is in a lunch break until roughly 2 p.m. ET.
Is it just me or is this really weird?
not just you. i raised an eyebrow.
That treatment only has two outcomes: you’re still hopped up, or you croak.
I had that problem with a test for a Navy psych evaluation. I thought the question “Do you lie?” was stupid and must have meant was I lying on the test.
Toadally.
The two positions are not actually mutually exclusive and could both be true. Not sure what that would mean for legal liability though.
Based on the summaries kindly and endlessly provided by rocking_chair, I have to say that I’m surprised how slipshod the prosecution case is coming across as. My impression is that they could have a much tighter and more compelling case but they’re just relying on portraying Biden as the aforementioned drug-addled wreck and hoping the jury will extrapolate to “and therefore did this crime”. I thought they had a slamdunk case but if they keep this up they could potentially lose it.
Definitely not just you.
i’m really surprized they brought this case. usually federal prosecutors don’t do this unless they are super duper double sure they will win.
from what i am seeing they are relying on the laptop and hunter’s book.
i can’t believe this is all the evidence they have. there has to be more than that.
I had to look up the frog venom thing. Yes, ‘they’ claim it can cure addiction. Yes, it’s woo.
In non-indigenous use, the frog secretion is described and marketed as a “detox” treatment, cleanse,[18][24] purge,[17] and as a “vaccine” that is “good for everything”… “Detox” has been described by Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine, as a term for conventional medical treatments for addiction, which has been “hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks, and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment.”
Non-indigenous users and practitioners of kambo claim that the alternative medicine helps with a wide variety of issues and conditions. These claims include treating addiction, depression, and chronic pain,[17][21][22] reducing fevers,[17] increasing fertility,[17] boosting energy and physical strength,[19][21] and improving mental clarity.[21] It is also claimed that kambo removes negative energy.[17][19] There is currently no scientific evidence to support positive health effect claims.[5][6][a].
Of these two points, the first one is insulting to the intelligence of the people involved with the trial. I doubt anyone believes that Biden thought the question meant something like “Are you puffing on a crack pipe at this exact moment that you’re answering the question?” I feel a better tactic would be for the defense to frame it as “Biden thought the question was asking if he was under the influence of drugs at that moment.” But maybe it will give the jury a bit of wiggle room to acquit him.
The second point I can totally believe. I’m sure many of us have dealt with drug and alcohol addicts who insist they don’t have a problem even as their addictions are tearing their life apart. And along the same lines, experience with drug and alcohol addicts means I know that just about anytime they’re asked “Have you been drinking/using?”, their answer will always be “No” regardless.
per cnn:
At the start of the trial proceedings Wednesday, the jury struggled to remain attentive while an FBI agent was asked meandering questions about mundane bank records and ATM withdrawals. At times, one of the male jurors was starting to close his eyes.
But when Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle took the stand, members of the jury sat up straight in their seats, leaned in and started tuning in. Her brief answers and subdued tones didn’t seem to pull in the jurors, however.
Zoe Kestan, another one of Biden’s former romantic partners, proved to be a much more captivating witness for the jury. Her delivery was much more animated, and she volunteered interesting details in her answers, like which restaurants they dined at in New York City and which fancy hotels they stayed at in Los Angeles. It seemed like some of the jurors were hanging on every word she said.
Overall, Biden has not been reacting much to the testimony.
There was no acknowledgement or interaction between Hunter Biden and Buhle when she walked into the courtroom or when she exited once her testimony was over. He looked somewhat sheepish while Buhle was testifying and telling the jury about his repeated acts of betrayal, by turning to drugs and having affairs.
While Kestan was on the stand, Biden was watching closely and looked more comfortable hearing the nice things she had to say about him. She said he was “charming” and that “everyone liked him.”
rc: biden is leaning a bit trumpy there. the jury report is interesting. different from the nyc jury.
If Hunter is found not guilty, the MAGAts will have more fuel for their claim that our judicial system is corrupt and is biased against True Patriots.
I dunno. My very limited understanding is that in contract law, legitimate ambiguities in the contract are interpreted against the writer. Does something similar apply to forms? If Biden read the form with its ambiguous language, and chose to answer the question “are you using drugs” as “right now,” that might be skeezy, but is it illegal to answer the question literally, ignoring its obvious spirit?
It also seems like he may have just checked “no” down the column of questions, ignoring what they actually asked, in the same way that somebody might hypothetically click “I agree” when prompted that “I have read and understand all the terms and conditions of this end-user licensing agreement.” It’s a bad idea to do that, but does that show the mental state of knowingly lying?