Zoe Kestan, Hunter Biden’s Former Girlfriend, Describes Drug-Fueled Partying

The muted mood of Hunter Biden’s trial, which had focused on his struggle with addiction, shifted abruptly on Wednesday, with the appearance of Zoe Kestan, a former girlfriend who described him as a charming free-spender who loved the party-hopping high life in New York.

Ms. Kestan, a dancer Mr. Biden met at a gentleman’s club in 2018, said the two immediately connected — “catching feelings” as she put it — after she sat with him in a quiet back room and clicked on a song from Fleet Foxes, an indie rock band, to remedy the silence.

Her entrance produced one of the more awkward moments in a trial already brimming with them. When Leo Wise, the lead prosecutor, asked her to identify to Hunter Biden in the courtroom for the record, he offered an uncomfortable wave, and a fleeting smile before looking down, head in hands.