Hunter Biden trial live: Gun is shown in court after his stripper ex Zoe Kestan testified

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It was a blockbuster day in Hunter Biden's gun trial as his stripper ex-girlfriend and ex-wife testified against him, detailing his addiction to crack cocaine.

On Capitol Hill, black Republican Byron Donalds hit back at Democrat claims he said black Americans 'were better off under Jim Crow.'

And Donald Trump should be happy that an appeals court halted his election fraud trial by District Attorney Fani Willis - likely pushing the case back solidly after the election.

On the campaign trail, the first major poll after Trump's conviction showed the ex-president well ahead of Biden in a critical swing state.

Finally, could Dr. Fauci be arrested for his covid 'coverup'?

Read more here to find out what you missed:

• Georgia appeals court HALTS trial of Trump and codefendants so it can review 'conflict' challenge to Fani Willis based on her affair
• Byron Donalds hits back at Democrat claims he said black Americans 'were better off under Jim Crow'... and clarifies what he was trying to say
• Trump leads Biden by FIVE POINTS in first major poll taken after the verdict in a crucial swing state
• EXCLUSIVE: Former Navy SEAL Morgan Luttrell bashes FDA after agency delivers blow to psychedelic medicine which saved his own life amid PTSD struggle: 'It's a poor decision'
• Why Fauci could be ARRESTED for Covid coverup - after confessing that social distancing and mask-wearing weren't 'based on science'

Defense lawyer Abe Lowell has tried to convince the jury that after attending a Brentwood, Los Angeles, rehab for a week in late August, Hunter was on a sober streak and did not consider himself a drug abuser when he bought a gun on October 12, 2018.

But Kestan blew a hole in the theory, telling the jury that Hunter smoked crack ‘every 20 minutes’ when she stayed with him from September 16 to 23 that year, after the rehab stint and just a few days before the gun purchase.

Kestan, who at the time was 24 and half Hunter’s age of 48, said she even hooked up Hunter with a connection to a drug dealer through a student at her alma mater in Providence, Rhode Island.

Lowell did however make Kestan admit that she did not know what Hunter did between leaving him around September 23 and when she next saw him in Newburyport, Massachusetts around November 18, 2018 – with the gun purchase happening in between.

Lowell alluded to Kestan’s potential closeness to the prosecution, getting her to state that she spent over six hours with investigators and prosecutors in the two weeks leading up to her testimony.

Kestan said Hunter stayed in a home on Plum Island and was visiting a clinic to get ketamine infusion treatments he believed could help with his addiction.

The prosecution showed text messages in which he told her: ‘I can be sober but I’ll always be an addict.’

Abe Lowell challenged the salesman that his nickname from his colleagues was ‘whale hunter’ and that in his grand jury testimony in 2022, he said: ‘I try to sway them to higher end firearms, a bit more expensive.’

But Cleveland insisted that he let customers make their own decisions, and merely described the differences of price and quality between products.

He also brushed off Lowell’s suggestion that he was being a pushy salesman by asking if Hunter wanted bullets too.

‘If you buy a gun you might as well buy ammunition because what you gonna do, throw it at somebody?’ Cleveland quipped, eliciting laughter from the jury and public benches.

Gordon Cleveland, the employee who sold Hunter Biden the gun, told the court he watched the defendant fill out the ATF form needed to complete the purchase.

Cleveland told the jury he urged Hunter to take his time answering questions during their encounter in 2018 to avoid making mistakes.

He watched as Biden checked 'no' in the box asking whether he used illegal drugs - the focus of the prosecution's case.

Cleveland then revealed that he sold Hunter ammunition, and offered more expensive bullets better suited for self-defense.

The variety was significant: he was offered full metal jacket rounds for a firing range, or hollow point for self-defense, as they expand more destructively in the target or person you are shooting at, and don’t pass through them and into something, or someone, else.

At the end of the session, prosecutor Derek Hines told the judge he expects the prosecution will rest tomorrow after they call their remaining witnesses, including Hunter’s ex-lover and brother’s widow Hallie Biden.

They are also planning to call two Delaware State Police officers who investigated when Hallie threw Hunter’s gun in a supermarket trash can on October 23 2018 after finding it in his car.

Lowell told Judge Maryellen Noreika that he plans to call the defense witnesses on Friday.

He has said in court that these will include Hunter’s uncle and Joe’s brother Jim Biden, and has briefed reporters that Hunter’s daughter Naomi will also testify.

Lowell’s cross-examination of the former gun salesman, who worked for StarQuest from 2015 to 2021, will continue on Thursday.

Hallie Biden was photographed arriving at the Delaware federal court on Wednesday ahead of her expected testimony.

Hunter Biden's ex-girlfriend and Beau Biden's widow could take the stand as soon as tomorrow in the case.

Rep. Byron Donalds went on the defense after Democrats from House Leader Hakeem Jeffries to the Biden campaign seized on remarks he made about the upside of Jim Crow for black families.

Donalds, R-Fla., at a black voter outreach event in Philadelphia on Tuesday, said he is starting to see a 'reinvigoration of the black family' that is 'helping to breathe the revival of a black middle class in America.'

He went on to say that black voters had become loyal to Democrats due to their leadership in civil rights movement but Democratic policies went on to erode their family values.

'You see, during Jim Crow, the black family was together. During Jim Crow, more black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more black people voted conservatively,' Donalds, R-Fla., had said during an event to reach out to black voters on Tuesday.

Senate Republicans blocked a Democrat-led push to codify Americans' right to contraception.

It's a pre-election effort to expand reproductive rights and further brand Republicans as the party against women's health.

The bill would have ensured that Americans have a federal right to condoms, birth control pills and patches, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and sterilization procedures like vasectomies.

But Republicans say it's just a false 'scare tactic' to try and rally voters against the GOP - who are actually also supportive of contraception.

Donald Trump will almost certainly avoid his trial in Georgia before the 2024 election after a huge ruling from the state's appeals court.

The Georgia Court of Appeals has postponed the proceedings until it hears Trump's appeal that embattled prosecutor Fani Willis should be kicked off the case.

Arguments in the appeal had been set for October, but the one page ruling released on Thursday all but guarantees the trial won't be held before November.

The gun at the center of the Hunter Biden case was shown to the jury.

The .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver was held up by prosecutor Derek Hines and then passed to the witness, Gordon Cleveland.

Cleveland, a gun store employee, sold the gun to Hunter.

He looked at the serial number and confirmed it was the same weapon.

He also described how he had watched Hunter fill out a form on which he marked that he was not a drug user.

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared surprised Tuesday after she learned that a special variety of marijuana had been named after her, even as she has a record of sending marijuana smokers to jail.

Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel revealed the details to the vice president of the strain of marijuana named 'Kamala Kush.'

'Really? Seriously? I did not know that,' she replied, laughing.

Alibi Cannabis in Oregon lists the variety as 'earthy and grounding' and contains 'a unique flavor for an active high.'

Kimmel said he was surprised that the developers of the strain had not sent her a sample, but Harris said she was not interested.

In Wilmington, Delaware the court tesimony of Zoe Kestan, a former girlfriend of Hunter Biden, has concluded.

Next to take the stand will be Gordon Cleveland, an employee at the StarQuest gun store in Wilmington, who sold a revolver to Hunter.

His tetsimony is expected to concern the federal form Hunter filled out to purchase the gun.

The form, on which Hunter said he was not using drugs, is at the center of the case against him.

Mike Tyson says that he ‘died’ after smoking toad venom, an increasingly popular psychedelic drug that has been used by celebrities including HGTV star Christina Haack and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

Tyson, the 55-year-old former heavyweight boxing champion-turned cannabis entrepreneur, said he has ingested the venom more than 50 times. There have been days he has smoked it as much as three times.

Toad venom is an illegal Schedule 1 substance in the United States - meaning that the federal government considers it without medical value but one with a high potential for abuse.

Proponents of toad venom, including Hunter Biden and Haack, said it has profound spiritual and health benefits. Biden, whose history of drug abuse has long been documented, credits toad venom with helping him stay sober.

Zoe Kestan told the court that Hunter Biden doing drugs as late as mid-September 2018, just weeks before he purchased the Colt Cobra Revolver at the center of the case.

She told the jury she saw him smoking crack over several days when they met in Malibu, California.

This is key for the prosecutors, as the crux of their case is to prove that he was still using drugs when he bought the gun.

He has pleaded not guilty to lying about his addiction on a federal gun purchase form.

Kestan also testified that Biden write in a message: 'I'll always be an addict'.

They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, so when his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, took the stand in Wilmington, Delaware as a witness for the prosecution Hunter Biden could be forgiven for bracing himself.

Dressed in a neat blue pants suit and white shirt, Kathleen was the image of calm as she told the court how she discovered her then husband was using drugs when she found a crack pipe in an ashtray on their porch on July 3, 2015.

It was the day after their 12th anniversary and two days before she kicked him out of the house for good. Kathleen told the court she confronted him and 'he acknowledged smoking crack.'

Even before she found the incriminating paraphernalia, Kathleen admitted, she had suspected her husband was using drugs given that he had earlier been kicked out of the Navy for testing positive for cocaine.

'I was definitely worried and scared,' she said.

Joe Biden's mental acuity and frequent gaffes are highlighted in a concerning new report that Democrat lawmakers are calling BS.

The Wall Street Journal detailed concerns by both Republicans and Democrats  that the commander-in-chief's abilities are declining and he is aging out of being an effective executive.

But Democrats are rushing to Biden's defense, saying the 45 sources in the report are politically motivated.

'Bulls***,' close Biden ally Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., 70, exclaimed to DailyMail.com. 'I can tell you it's an absolutely positively untrue cheap shot.'

Zoe Kestan told the court Hunter Biden would use cash to buy most things, and believed a 'good amount' was to buy drugs.

She told the jury he would get temporary codes for his Wells Fargo bank account so he could make withdrawals without his debit card.

Somtimes he would send the code to drug dealers so they could take cash directly from his account, the court heard.

House Republicans referred Hunter and James Biden to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution, alleging they lied under oath during testimony on Capitol Hill.

They say Hunter lied about using his last name to help business partners with visa issues, his association with a company that was taking in massive foreign payments and threatening a Chinese businessman over WhatsApp.

'We’ve caught President Biden’s son and brother making blatant lies to Congress in what appears to be a concerted effort to hide Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s schemes,' Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement.

'This is not the end of our efforts to hold the Bidens accountable; it’s only the beginning.'

Former girlfriend Zoe Kestan told the court about Hunter's attempts to quit crack.

She said he talked about a method which involved putting the venom of a frog on the addict's skin and she looked into it for him.

Kestan also described how she once brought a dealer called 'Frankie' up to Hunter's room at the Four Seasons hotel in New York

Hunter used to clean his crack pipe using chop sticks and parts of a pen, she said.

She told the jury he would 'smoke (crack) as soon as he woke up.'

Her social media name is weed_slut_420 and some might say it’s appropriate handle for someone who was closely associated with America’s best known crack cocaine addict.

Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan is a 30-year-old New Yorker whose other claim to fame is a range of lingerie, erotic dancewear and weed-smoking paraphernalia under her own similarly-named brand.

The entrepreneur and founder of Weedslut was described as a ‘quintessential businesswoman’ in a 2021 magazine piece in which she revealed she is a former ‘online cam-girl’ and ‘sex worker’, discusses her ‘ideal lover’ and poses topless in her own creations.

Kestan, is giving evidence in Hunter Biden’s criminal trial, also testified for five hours at a federal courthouse in Delaware in 2022 during the grand jury hearing over the first son’s alleged tax crimes.

Zoe Kestan - a garment, lingerie and textile designer - has taken the stand.

She told the jury she met Hunter at the end of 2017 while she was working part-time at a New York gentleman's club.

Kestan said she was asked to perform a private dance for Hunter along with another woman. She did not recognize him but said he seemed 'charming.'

Kestan said Hunter was smoking what she believed to be a crack pipe. He asked her to go with him to his hotel but she did not.

Kestan is testifying under an immunity agreement. The court has previously heard that she was in a romantic relationship with Hunter.

the jury has also been told that Kestan had described Hunter as using crack 'every 20 minutes except when he slept.'

On social media, she has previously used the handle 'weed_slut_420.'

A top House Republican says he 'likes the idea' that Dr. Anthony Fauci could face criminal charges over his conduct during COVID and for lying to Congress.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., charged the former health official with lying to Congress and making up social distancing rules that became a staple in social life during the pandemic years.

'I don't know that I said he should be arrested, but I like the idea,' Comer told Fox Business' Stuart Varney on Tuesday. 'At the end of the day, if you lie to Congress, that's a felony.'

His claims came a day after Fauci testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, where he blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with making up the six-foot social distancing rule. Previously Fauci said the rule 'sort of just appeared.'

Prosecutors are asking Judge Juan Merchan to keep in place the gag order that continues to infuriate former President Donald Trump.

In a Tuesday letter to the judge, they argued against Trump’s own request to lift the order, which limits his attacks on court personnel and family members. The judge ordered him to pay $10,000 in fines after determining he violated the order multiple times, then suggested in May jail could be in the offing if there were further violations.

The government’s interests ‘have not abated’ since the guilty verdict in the trial, prosecutors wrote.

The Court ‘has an obligation to protect the integrity of these proceedings and the fair administration of justice at least through the sentencing hearing and the resolution of any post-trial motions,’ they argued. Trump’s lawyers have already vowed to appeal.

Kathleen Buhle told the jury she found a broken pipe, something to clean the pipe, white powder, white crystal remnants, and other drug paraphernalia in Hunter's car.

She also explained how she would search the vehicle when his daughters were about to use it, because she didn't want them to see the drugs.

Buhle also revealed how he kept working and visiting friends and family while using drugs.

Hunter's defense lawyer Abe Lowell described in court as a 'high-functioning crack addict'.

In reference to his behavior at the time, she said he was 'angry' and 'short-tempered'.

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 told the court

She also said she was ‘scared’ about possible drug use due to Hunter Biden’s 2014 exit from the Navy.

He tested positive for cocaine and was administratively discharged.

Hunter Biden has quietly been embroiled in years of court battles and multi-million-dollar debts at the same time his alleged crimes are in the spotlight, according to a report.

While the First Son is set to face a criminal trial next week over felony gun violations, Hunter, 54, has also been slapped with several damning rulings in recent years that slipped under the radar, reports Axios.

This included a ruling in January 2021, shortly after his father's presidential inauguration, that found he owed his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle over $1.7 million in alimony, legal fees and interest following their 2017 divorce.

The revelations come as Buhle is expected to be a key witness in Hunter's upcoming trial, where he is accused of lying on federal background checks about his crack cocaine addiction when he bought a gun in 2018.

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and the mother of three of his children Kathleen Buhle has taken the stand in his federal gun trial.

They were married for 24 years before an acrimonious split over his debaucherous lifestyle.

Buhle's testimony is expected to include intimate details of his finances and drug use, which was once described by his ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan - who is also set to testify - as smoking crack cocaine 'every 20 minutes except when he slept.'

And according to previously reported divorce filings, Buhle made no secret of her contempt for Hunter's conduct.

She said her ex-husband spent 'extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.'

Hollywood lawyer and Hunter Biden's 'sugar brother', Kevin Morris, is back in court to support the president's son.

He is said to be 'tapped out' of cash after financially supporting Hunter's legal battles over the last four and a half years to the tune of $6 million.

Morris, 61, decided to step in after believing Hunter had little support, but he has since confirmed he is no longer going to continue to lend money to him to fight his battles.

The withdrawal of financial support for the president's son comes at the worst possible time for Hunter, 54, with two trials looming which could end up seeing him serve jail time.

Hunter's attorney is trying to establish that Hunter's large bank withdrawals could have gone to child support and other matters unrelated to drug purchases.

Abe Lowell asked the FBI agent Erika Jensen to comb through a $3.4 million statement from November 2018.

'You’re not suggesting that all that money was used to buy drugs?' Hunter's attorney asked.

Jensen replied: 'No.'

The agents went on to say that she did not know exactly where Hunter spent the money.

Lowell suggested it could have gone to Hunter's business, family and others.

After FBI agent Erika Jensen is finished being cross-examined by the defense, Hunter Biden's ex-wife Kathleen Buhle is expected to take the stand.

Buhle was married to the president's son for 24 years and have three daughters together: Naomi (below), Finnegan and Maisy.

She has said she has forgiven Hunter for the thousands he spent feeding his addiction to crack cocaine, his infidelities and his lies.

The First Lady entered the court building for the third day of the trial accompanied by her sister Bonny Jacobs.

She has been at the case on each of the first three days.

She has been sitting directly behind Hunter in the first row of public benches.

During breaks in the trial she has been hugging and chatting with Hunter.

Hunter Biden walked into the Delaware court just before 9am on Wednesday morning with his wife Melissa Cohen.

She was at the center of drama on Tuesday for her reaction to prosecutors revealing his laptop in court and for calling a former Trump aide a 'Nazi piece of s***'.

Vice president Kamala Harris took a victory lap over Donald Trump during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night, joking in reference to the shocking guilty verdict last week: 'Cheaters don't like getting caught.'

The former San Francisco DA deflected a light-hearted question from Kimmel about whether the people she watched the verdict with were 'pretending to not be happy' when the conviction was announced.

Last week, Trump was convicted on all counts related to a scheme during his 2016 presidential campaign to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels, who said the pair had sex in 2006, something he has denied.

An attack on the US embassy in Lebanon was foiled after a Syrian man opened fire and was captured.

The man was was arrested after the shooting near the US embassy in Beirut on Wednesday, the Lebanese army said, with the embassy saying its staff were safe.

The embassy, in the northern suburb of Awkar, 'was subjected to gunfire by a person holding Syrian nationality.' the army said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

President Joe Biden arrived in France on Wednesday for a state visit that will include marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day at Normandy and a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

During his trip, Biden, 81, will push to deepen transatlantic ties as Russia steps up its attack on Ukraine and the Europe faces elections that could upset the current geopolitical order.

He will make what the White House is billing as a major speech, where he will warn about the threats to democracy and the rise of dictators.

'It's going to be action packed and, I think, extremely moving,' National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, adding that it's an 'opportunity for him to say thank you directly to the veterans who saved democracy, saved the free world, and set the stage for the decades of peace and prosperity that followed.'

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday officially got behind his supporters using mail-in ballots and voting early in the November election with the launch of an initiative dubbed 'Swamp the Vote USA.'

'Many Republicans like to vote on Election Day and we must swamp the radical Democrats with massive turnout on Tuesday, November 5,' Trump said.

The ex-president and presumptive Republican nominee filmed a video at Mar-a-Lago where he explained that he still wanted elections to be conducted only on Election Day with paper ballots and voter ID.

Joe Biden's cognitive decline has become readily apparent to dozens of high-ranking officials in recent months, a bombshell new report claims.

More than 45 Republican and Democratic lawmakers and staffers offered insight on the subject, citing recent mistakes by the commander-in-chief they found concerning.

Aired in the midst of an election year, the report paints a picture of a president considerably slower than days' past, while the White House maintains the 81-year-old is still a top leader.

The dozens who spoke to The Wall Street Journal disagreed - describing a president who today speaks so softly that some struggle to even understand what he's saying.

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Hunter Biden will return to a Delaware federal court for the second day of testimony in his gun trial, after his infamous laptop was dramatically revealed to the jury.

His wife Melissa Cohen was also at the center of drama when she called a Trump aide a 'Nazi piece of s***'.

President Joe Biden landed in Paris on Wednesday morning to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy.

He will try and invoke Ronald Reagan with a speech on Pointe du Hoc - the clifftop that saw one of the heroic missions from American troops.

Here is what happened yesterday in court.