Jurors were told that in the months before he bought his gun in 2018, Biden spent days in hotel rooms getting stoned.

Hunter Biden's ex-girlfriend has testified about his almost constant use of crack cocaine in luxury hotels in the criminal trial in which the prosecution is trying to prove that the son of US President Joe Biden lied about his addiction buy a weapon illegally.

Zoe Kestan told jurors that in the months before he bought his gun in 2018, Hunter Biden prepared crack at the posh Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles or spent days in hotel rooms getting high.

“He wanted to smoke a cigarette as soon as he woke up,” Kestan explained in court on Wednesday. She described meetings with a “sinister” drug dealer and her search on the Internet for instructions on how to make crack from powdered cocaine.

Kestan testified at the first trial of a U.S. president’s child, where prosecutors are trying to prove that Hunter Biden knowingly lied about his drug use in the screening documents when he purchased a revolver in October 2018.

Kathleen Buhle, who divorced Hunter Biden in 2017, also testified for about twenty minutes, describing how she first found out he was using drugs.

Prosecutors also said they plan to subpoena Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter's late brother Beau.

Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three charges. He is accused of concealing his drug use when purchasing the weapon and of illegally possessing the weapon for eleven days.

Biden has publicly acknowledged his past drug use, including in his memoirs. At a hearing in 2023, he told the judge in the case that he has been clean since 2019.

Defense says there was no intent to deceive

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell countered that Hunter Biden was not using drugs at the time of the purchase and had no intention of deceiving him. Lowell pressed an FBI agent to acknowledge that prosecutors had evidence of Hunter's addiction only before or after the time he owned the gun, not during that time.

The trial follows another historic first: the criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first US President be found guilty of a crime. Trump is the Republican challenger to Democrat Joe Biden in the November 5 election.

Kestan also described a message from Hunter Biden, a month after purchasing the gun in October 2018, in which he said he might get clean, but “I will always be addicted.”

The defense tried to prove that the prosecution had not presented much evidence that Hunter Biden was under the influence of drugs at the time he purchased the gun.

Under Lowell's questioning, Kestan said she had not seen him in the weeks before and after the gun purchase. She also acknowledged that when he described himself as a lifelong addict, he used language associated with people recovering from substance abuse.

Charges against Hunter Biden He is said to have lied about his use of illegal drugs when purchasing a .38 caliber Colt Cobra revolver and to have illegally possessed the weapon for eleven days in October 2018.

The process takes place after a agreement That would have settled the case, but failed in July last year.

If convicted on all counts in the Delaware case, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. However, defendants typically receive shorter sentences.