Former First Lady Jill Biden has expressed lingering doubts about testimony given during Hunter Biden’s 2024 gun trial, particularly the account provided by a woman who described his alleged drug use. In her forthcoming memoir View from the East Wing, she also reflects on how deeply the issue of addiction has affected her family, describing it as something that continues to emotionally trouble her.
According to The Daily Mail, which obtained an early copy of the book ahead of its Tuesday release, Jill Biden recounts in detail the period surrounding the trial. Without naming the individual directly, she refers to “a woman I’d never seen before” who testified that she had stayed with Hunter Biden in hotels in 2018 and supplied him with drugs.
That witness was identified as Zoë Kestan, who reportedly met Hunter Biden in December 2017 at New York’s Vivid Cabaret, where she worked as a performer. During court proceedings, prosecutors presented photographs attributed to Kestan, including images of drug paraphernalia and one showing Hunter Biden in a bathtub holding a crack pipe.
Jill Biden wrote in her memoir, “I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but I was sitting there thinking, Do drug users often get their fellow drug users to pose with drugs?” She further reflected on the images, stating, “She had taken well-framed, well-lit pictures of the drug scale, of the drugs, of her and Hunter together with the drugs, almost as if she was filming a nature documentary,’ the former First Lady mused.
The memoir does not outline then-President Joe Biden’s reaction to the trial, which centered on Hunter Biden’s 2018 firearm purchase and whether he misrepresented his drug use on federal forms. Jill Biden instead focuses on her personal experience as she watched the proceedings unfold.
She describes addiction as a painful learning experience, writing that the “horror of addiction” came as a “steep learning curve for me.” She also admits, “Even now, I can barely say the words, “My son was a drug addict.” Barely,’ she said.
Jill Biden notes that the family often avoided directly labeling Hunter Biden’s condition, which developed into crack cocaine addiction following the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden. She also recalls how emotionally triggering reminders of his struggles can still be, including everyday objects. “The other day, I was cleaning out a drawer and found one of Hunter’s lighters, and I was instantly triggered,’ she wrote. ‘How many times had I seen him using it, obsessively smoking cigarettes?’
Hunter Biden recently marked seven years of sobriety. In the memoir, Jill Biden explains why she never publicly took on addiction as a First Lady advocacy issue, writing, “Many people have asked why I never took on addiction as a cause as First Lady,’ she wrote. ‘I couldn’t.’ She adds that while she empathizes with families facing addiction, she was “raised to stay stoic and contained,” and believed her son would eventually recover on his own.
The memoir also includes diary-like entries from the period of the trial, noting her travel schedule, which included official trips to France while attending court sessions in Wilmington. She recalls prosecutors playing excerpts from Hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir Beautiful Things, including a passage describing a surreal journey through the California desert.
“In the section they shared, Hunter was on the road, strung out, and he got lost driving through the California desert. An owl flew overhead – he felt it was there to guide his car – and he followed the owl to where he needed to be,’ Biden wrote. She adds, “‘Beau, I thought. Whether the owl was real or a hallucination, I believed that the spirit of Beau was at work trying to guide his brother to safety,’ the former First Lady said.
She also reveals that the testimony and evidence in court had an emotional impact on the family, noting that her granddaughter Ashley became visibly upset during proceedings. Jill Biden described her role as helping to keep family members composed during the trial, even as tensions ran high in the courtroom.
The memoir references incidents involving Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, who was seen reacting strongly to individuals attending the trial. Jill Biden does not name political operative Garrett Ziegler in the book, nor does she frequently mention President Donald Trump directly when discussing related political tensions.
She also reflects on Hunter Biden’s past relationship with Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, expressing complex emotions about her remarriage. “I couldn’t bring myself to attend, but I went over to say goodbye before they left for the wedding weekend,’ Biden recalled. “I was happy for them, but I found it overwhelming to see her starting a new life with someone else. In my mind, she would always be Beau’s wife, no matter her new marriage or what had occurred with Hunter,’ she said.
Hunter Biden was convicted on June 11 on three felony counts related to illegal firearm possession. However, he was never sentenced after President Joe Biden issued a pardon in December 2024 following the 2024 election outcome.
Jill Biden also reflects on the political dimension of the case, writing, “It was hard for me not to think about the role politics played in the matter going to trial in the first place,’ Biden wrote. She adds that the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, sought impartiality, but that this approach ultimately had unintended consequences. “‘Joe might have gone too far, in my opinion, to show that his family was being treated with complete impartiality,’ Biden added.
