Inside the Whirlwind 48 Hours Before Hunter Biden Bought His Handgun
In the 48 hours before Hunter Biden's handgun purchase that is now under investigation by federal prosecutors, President Joe Biden's troubled son was being hounded about hundreds of thousands of dollars he owed in debts, juggling texts from his brother's widow and her sister, who were also his lovers, and coordinating what appears to be a drug deal at a local 7-Eleven with a man saved in his phone only as "Q."
Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly investigating the younger Biden for several potential offenses related to his Oct. 12, 2018, gun purchase, including whether he lied on a federal firearms application when asked, "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?"
A Washington Free Beacon review of emails, photographs, and text messages from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop reveals a series of chaotic days that led up to his trip to the gun store and provides further evidence that Hunter Biden was an active drug user at the time of his gun purchase.
Photos published by the New York Post show Hunter Biden asleep with a crack pipe in his mouth on Oct. 8. A few days after he purchased the gun, on Oct. 19, Hallie Biden texted him a photo of crack cocaine paraphernalia forgotten on a table in an unknown location.
In the early morning of Wednesday, Oct. 10, Hunter Biden received a high balance alert email from his bank, warning that the outstanding balance on his credit card had exceeded $65,000.
Hunter Biden appears to have ignored the warning and texted an individual he met days earlier at a 7-Eleven. In text messages, the individual refers to himself as "Jr," though Hunter Biden appears to have saved him in his phone as "q."
"Can you meet me @ 7/11 now," Hunter Biden wrote the man at 9:47 a.m. A day earlier, the man had texted Hunter Biden, "Hey this jr the one you got that at the 711."
Q told Hunter Biden he was free to meet him later that afternoon. Biden agreed. Q asked whether Hunter Biden wanted to purchase "the same" thing.
A Free Beacon review of phone records found the number where Hunter reached Q was associated with an individual who has a long criminal rap sheet that includes drug charges. Reached by the Free Beacon for comment, the man initially identified himself as "Jr.," but hung up when asked about his interactions with Hunter Biden. In his memoir, Hunter Biden wrote that he was "smoking crack every 15 minutes" in the spring of 2018.
The pair never met that day. Shortly after midnight, Q texted Hunter Biden to say his phone had been stolen and provided Biden the address of another individual, named Jon Jon, whom Hunter Biden could meet instead.
It is unclear whether Hunter Biden ever made it to the 7-Eleven or attended the private party at Jon Jon's house. But that evening, someone—presumably Hunter Biden—withdrew $800 in cash from his account at a Wells Fargo ATM in Delaware.
Hours after his first text to Q, Elizabeth Secundy, Hallie Biden’s sister, asked Hunter Biden to wire her money. Hunter Biden had sexual relationships with both Hallie Biden and Secundy, whom he texted to say he had wired $2,200.
"Thank you!!!! I love you," Secundy replied.
The next day played out similarly. At 5:25 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11, Hunter Biden's ex-wife Kathleen Buhle texted him indicating he had failed to wire $6,000 owed to her. Hunter Biden ignored her, responding instead to Q.
"Meet me 7/11 at 3," Hunter Biden said.
But Hunter Biden also had late lunch plans with his daughter Finnegan in Philadelphia. During the drive there, he checked in with Hallie.
"I love you so much my secrets girl," Hunter Biden texted his brother's widow. "I love you and love you too much for you to understand why I'm so sad sorry angry overwhelmed and incapable of making you feel like you have any chance of being the you you've always shown the real world."
After lunch, Hunter Biden wired Finnegan $1,500.
Not everyone who wanted money from Hunter Biden got it. Hunter Biden received an email from his accountant early the next morning indicating that he owed nearly $800,000 in back taxes.
At some point that night, however, Hunter Biden lost one of his cell phones, emails indicate. Joey Hernandez, a woman who Hunter Biden was regularly in touch with, sent him two emails letting him know that he had left his phone. "You left your phone and other things," Hernandez wrote to him on Oct. 12. "Tried to reach you at 202 and 302 all day but no luck."
Hernandez declined to comment for this story, hanging up on a Free Beacon reporter.
A trip to the AT&T Store for a new cell phone put Hunter Biden in proximity to StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, where he purchased a .38-caliber handgun, claiming on a federal firearms application that he was not on drugs.
Prosecutors opened their firearms investigation into the purchase based on Hunter Biden’s memoir, in which he stated he was "smoking crack every 15 minutes" around the time of the handgun purchase.
According to a New York Times account of Hunter Biden's gun purchase that was sourced to his close friends, Hunter Biden "believed he was sober that day" and went into the gun store "on a whim," hoping that "spending time at a shooting range would help him avoid a relapse."
Law enforcement agencies won't say whether they have probed the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop for further evidence of his drug use.
Less than two weeks after the gun purchase, Hallie Biden, upset over Hunter Biden’s drug addiction, disposed of the firearm by throwing it into a trash can behind a grocery store. She said she was "scared" of him owning a gun. "I want a sober life with you without a gun in your car and me scared when you walk out the door," she texted Hunter Biden on Oct. 23.
The incident sent Hunter Biden into a rage. He told Hallie Biden that she had given the FBI, which was investigating the missing handgun, the impression that he was "an abusive pedophile with homicidal tendencies." The gun was later found by an elderly man who was searching the trash for cans and bottles.
The Secret Service was also brought into the investigation and, according to a report from Politico, obtained the paperwork related to the purchase from the firearm dealer.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms says the Gun Control Act of 1968 bars any individual who has used an illicit drug in the past 12 months from purchasing a firearm. The agency warned Minnesota residents on Tuesday that ingesting marijuana would make them ineligible to possess a firearm or ammunition, even though the state legalized the drug in May.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly defended his son from allegations of unlawful conduct while pledging he would not interfere with the Department of Justice’s investigations. Those investigations also include potential tax crimes. Federal agents believe they have enough evidence for the Department of Justice to bring charges against Hunter Biden, the Washington Post reported last October.
The Department of Justice, which has not pressed charges against Hunter Biden, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither Hunter Biden nor his attorney responded to a request for comment.
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