Naomi Biden testifies in father Hunter Biden's gun trial | The Excerpt

On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Network Delaware Breaking News and Public Safety Reporter Isabel Hughes has the latest from Hunter Biden's federal gun trial. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas received millions in gifts over 20 years. USA TODAY National Immigration Reporter Lauren Villagran discusses how migrants find themselves caught in a tug-of-war between federal and Texas state authorities. The U.S. economy added 272,000 jobs in May. Flamingos are being spotted along the East Coast. The Belmont Stakes are Saturday.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, June 8th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today we have the latest on Hunter Biden's gun trial, including emotional testimony from his daughter. Plus how asylum seekers at the border are caught in a political tug of war. And flamingos are being seen on northern parts of the US East Coast.

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It was an emotional day in court yesterday as Naomi Biden, Hunter Biden's daughter testified in her father's federal gun trial. I spoke with USA TODAY Network Delaware Breaking News and Public Safety Reporter Isabel Hughes for the latest.

Isabel, thank you for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Isabel Hughes:

Hey, Taylor. How are you?

Taylor Wilson:

And so the prosecution rested its case yesterday against Hunter Biden. How did they wrap things up?

Isabel Hughes:

So they finished yesterday morning with two witnesses. The first was an FBI forensic chemist. He testified to some white residue that was found on the pouch that Hunter Biden's gun was found in. And that was pretty much going through all the scientific stuff. Probably some of it went over the jury's head. Certainly some of it went over my head and I cover a fair amount of court cases and drug stuff. And then after him was a DEA agent who actually didn't investigate this case, but is an expert in coded language.

So basically if there's slang or code words used for drug names, he went through some of Hunter's text messages and said, "Oh, okay, this is what this means," for example, or this is what that means. And we knew that those two were going to be the last witnesses, but I still think it ended kind of anticlimactically.

Taylor Wilson:

So we then moved to the defense same day. And Hunter Biden's eldest child took the stand. What stood out to you from her testimony?

Isabel Hughes:

That was definitely the most vulnerable testimony of the week because of just what she has been put through over the years. A lot went into how she didn't have communication with her father for a number of months in 2018 because of his drug use and sometime before that, and she would see him sporadically and communication was sporadic. And she visited him in a treatment center in California in August of 2018. And she seemed really hopeful and he seemed really hopeful.

I think one of her quotes was, "he seemed clearer than he had since my uncle died." Meaning since Beau had died. I think they had stayed in communication for a few months, and then there was a situation in October of 2018 when she borrowed his truck because her then boyfriend, now husband Peter, was moving up to New York and the prosecution introduced a really sad series of text communications between Naomi and her father in that she was trying to set up this car swap so Hunter could get his truck back and she could take the car that Hunter had driven up.

And she would text her father and then he wouldn't respond for hours. And then at one point he texted her at like two in the morning and said, "Hey, can we meet at..." I think it was 57th and Fifth Ave. and she replied, "Now?" And then there wasn't communication for hours later, and then just the sad back and forth of him indicating that he was trying to avoid her.

And then she asked, "Oh, so I'm not going to see you?" And then sent a sad face, an emoji or something of the like. And then she sends this poignant text message later saying, "I'm really sorry, dad, I can't take this. I miss you so much and I want to hang out with you."

So it was definitely vulnerable and the prosecution laid into that too. Definitely noted that while she was trying to figure out this car swap, Hunter may have been hanging out with a guy named Frankie who had dealt him drugs months earlier and it appeared that he was trying to avoid seeing his daughter. And it was, I would say, one of the more emotional testimonies of the week.

Taylor Wilson:

So Isabel, who else can we expect to testify? I know President Joe Biden's brother James Biden has been discussed as a possibility. And the million-dollar question, will Hunter Biden himself take the stand?

Isabel Hughes:

James Biden has been really close with Hunter. I don't know how close they were before Hunter began his struggles with addiction. But I know in the years since they have really developed a close relationship and I know they've also worked together business wise. So I think James will absolutely be a key witness for the defense. We don't know exactly what he's going to say. We'll definitely see him on Monday.

And then it is the big question. Will Hunter take the stand? At this point, I really don't know. I would venture guessing, probably not. But the root of this trial is whether Hunter viewed himself as an addict when he was answering the question on the ATF form 4473. And really the only one who can say whether he believed he was or was not an addict in the moment he bought that gun is Hunter.

So if he were to testify, I'm sure he would say, "No. I did not view myself as an addict at the time." And defense would say, "See? This is the crux of the issue here." But if he were to take the stand, I think it would also open him up to potential other legal issues. So I don't know if his tax charges out of California would come up or any of that. It's always a risky move when a defendant takes a stand, so I think we just have to wait and see.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Isabelle Hughes covers breaking news and public safety for the USA TODAY Network in Delaware. Thank you, Isabelle.

Isabel Hughes:

Thank you so much.

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Taylor Wilson:

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted more than $2 million in gifts over the last two decades far eclipsing the value of those received by his fellow justices. A report released Thursday by the advocacy group Fix the Court said the total value of 93 gifts to all of Thomas's fellow justices between 2004 and 2023 were valued at $248,000, while Thomas alone received 103 gifts worth $2.4 million.

In addition to that haul, Fix the Court flagged another more than a hundred likely gifts to Thomas worth nearly $1.8 million stemming from free luxury travel and lodging he received from billionaire, Harlan Crow and others.

For more on the ethical concerns surrounding the US Supreme Court, tune in next Thursday beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern Time for a special episode when USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent Maureen Groppe will join my colleague, Dana Taylor.

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Asylum seekers are caught in a political tug of war at the border between federal and Texas state authorities. I spoke with USA TODAY National Immigration Reporter Lauren Villagran for more.

Lauren, thanks for making the time.

Lauren Villagran:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Lauren, would you just tell us about Yoneyda Villegas and her story?

Lauren Villagran:

Yeah. So Taylor, Photographer Omar Ornelas and I have spent a lot of time out on the US-Mexico border trying to get an understanding of what the landscape has been like for asylum seekers in the area. And overnight, a couple of weeks ago, we met a number of migrants including Yoneyda Villegas and other men and women and children who were at the El Paso border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, trying to find a way to seek asylum between ports of entry.

The Biden administration has a lawful pathway to seek asylum through the CBP One cell phone application. But these migrants who were camped out overnight on the banks of the Rio Grande said that they were unable after months of trying to get an appointment. And so they were looking northward trying to decide whether or not to cross, but what they were looking at were reams and reams of concertina wire and Texas National Guardsmen and women guarding the border.

Taylor Wilson:

And you wrote that Villegas stood at the center of a tug of war between President Joe Biden and Texas Governor Greg Abbott over who controls the border and its political narrative. Lauren, how are we seeing this tug of war play out between federal and Texas state authorities?

Lauren Villagran:

Yeah. It's so interesting. I mean, it does seem like both Texas Governor Greg Abbott and President Joe Biden have been almost stumbling over one another to see who can lock down the border, if you will, first. And in Texas, which was not, as I understand, it supposed to be enforcing federal immigration law.

Texas does have operational control over a stretch of the El Paso border, similar to the control it exercises in Eagle Pass, although I understand that the federal government and state government do work together on investigations and a number of other law enforcement actions. But we also saw Taylor this past week, President Biden issuing yet another order restricting asylum at the US-Mexico border.

And this time specific to asylum seekers between ports of entry. So anytime the number of people attempting to cross the US border unlawfully tops 2,500, the asylum system will essentially be shut down to them. And Taylor, I can tell you that in recent years very easily, that number tops 2,500 every day.

Taylor Wilson:

And Lauren, I'm curious, what do we hear from migrants about feeling caught between all these different versions of law around the border? What are the consequences of this confusion for migrants?

Lauren Villagran:

Well, as you can imagine with the rules constantly shifting and both state and federal tactics being applied at the border, it can be very difficult for migrants who are on route, in some cases from thousands of miles away on foot or overland to understand really what rules apply at the border and how.

In the time that we spent on the border, I saw families sleeping on blankets, in the sand, Texas guardsmen and women patrolling the border, flying a drone overhead. The migrants have been alleging, and also the journalists I work with have seen deploying a pepper ball system. Saturating the ground with pepper balls so that as one Texas official put it to me, it's like climbing up through a jalapeno bush to get into the United States where they could, prior to President Biden's executive order, seek asylum.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So going forward, Lauren, what's next on this conversation?

Lauren Villagran:

Well, it's interesting, Taylor, because I do think the order appears to have angered all sides. You have immigrant advocates and attorneys who say that Biden's order goes against US law, specifically Title 8, which affords migrants the right to seek asylum once inside US territory, even if they cross unlawfully between a port of entry.

And then you've seen Republicans come out against the order as well saying, "That it doesn't go far enough and won't stop unlawful crossings at the border." Which although they are down this spring, are still at record highs.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA TODAY. Joining us from El Paso. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren Villagran:

Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

Hiring accelerated in May as employers added 272,000 jobs despite stubborn inflation, high interest rates, and intensifying household financial strains. The unemployment rate, which is calculated from a separate survey, rose from 3.9 to 4% the highest since January of 2022, the Labor Department said yesterday.

Economists had estimated that 185,000 jobs were added last month according to a Bloomberg survey. Meanwhile, average hourly pay rose 14 cents to $34 and 91 cents, pushing up the yearly increase to 4.1%.

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Flamingo sightings are popping up along the Northeastern Coast. More than a hundred flamingos arrived with the winds of Hurricane Idalia last August, they were seen in 18 states from Florida to Wisconsin and as far west as Kansas and Texas. And bird scientists weren't quite sure what would happen next. Some birds returned to the Yucatan Peninsula, but many lingered in Florida over the winter.

Now that summer is approaching, the birds appear to be surprising scientists by wandering around. They've been seen in the Hamptons, on Long Island, and as far north as Cape Cod in Massachusetts. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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The last leg of horse racing's Triple Crown is today, the Belmont Stakes in New York. This is the sixth straight year that no horse will finish first in the three prestigious races after the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. This year's Belmont is also not being held at Belmont Park on Long Island. Instead, it's set for three hours north at Saratoga Racecourse because of construction at Belmont expected to last well into next year.

Preakness winner Seize the Gray will be running the race as will Derby winner Mystik Dan. You can tune in on Fox just after 6:30 PM Eastern Time.

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Summer movies are here. Tomorrow USA TODAY Entertainment Reporter Ralphie Aversa joins my co-host Dana Taylor on The Excerpt to give us the scoop on this summer's movie lineup. You can find the episode right here beginning at 5:00 AM Eastern Time.

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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.