A jury was seated on Monday in the federal gun case against US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, after prospective panellists were questioned about their thoughts on gun rights and drug addiction while First Lady Jill Biden watched from the front row of the courtroom.
Opening statements were set to begin on Tuesday after the jurors – six men and six women plus four women serving as alternates – were instructed by Judge Maryellen Noreika not to talk or read about the case.
Hunter Biden has been charged in Delaware with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm transaction when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. He has been accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
The case is going to trial following the collapse of a plea deal that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty and has argued he is being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department, after Republicans decried the now-defunct plea deal as special treatment for the Democratic president’s son.
The proceedings are unfolding just days after Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York. A jury found the former US president guilty of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the courts have taken centre stage during the 2024 campaign.
Jury selection moved at a clip. Roughly 65 prospective jurors were questioned, and 29 had been dismissed by late afternoon. People who answered “yes” on a questionnaire were questioned individually by Noreika to determine whether they could be fair and impartial. Their names were not made public.
The questions tested their knowledge of the case, surveyed their thoughts about gun ownership and inquired whether they or anyone close to them have struggled with substance abuse or addiction. Other questions focused on the role politics may have played in the charges.
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What if Trump wins?
What if Trump wins?
One potential juror who was sent home said she did not know whether she could be impartial because of the opinion she had formed about Hunter Biden based on media reports.
“It’s not a good one,” she replied when a lawyer asked her opinion.
Another was excused because he was aware of the case and said: “It seems like politics is playing a big role in who gets charged with what and when.”
Jurors who were chosen included a woman whose sister was convicted about 10 years ago of credit card fraud and drug charges in Delaware. One male juror’s father had been killed in a crime involving a gun, and his brother was jailed for possession of a narcotic. Another woman on the panel has a husband who is a gun owner and formerly worked for the police. A third juror, also a woman, gets her news from YouTube and said she was vaguely aware of the case.
Hunter Biden also faces a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay US$1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were to have been resolved through the deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a years-long investigation into his business dealings.
But Noreika, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, which included a proposed guilty plea to misdemeanour offences to resolve the tax crimes and a diversion agreement on the gun charge, which meant as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years the case would be dismissed. The lawyers could not come to a resolution, and the deal fell apart. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed the top investigator as a special counsel in August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.
This trial is not about Hunter Biden’s foreign business affairs – which Republicans have seized on without evidence to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt. But it will excavate some of Hunter Biden’s darkest moments and put them on display.
The president’s allies are worried about the toll the trial may take on the elder Biden, who has long been concerned about his only living son and his sobriety and who must now watch as his son’s past mistakes are publicly scrutinised.
Allies are also worried the trial could become a distraction as the president tries to campaign under anaemic poll numbers and as he is preparing for a coming presidential debate with Trump.
In a statement on Monday, the president said he has “boundless love” for his son, “confidence in him and respect for his strength”.
“I am the president, but I am also a dad,” he said, adding that he would have no further comment on the case. “Jill and I love our son and we are so proud of the man he is today.”
The president was nearby, in their Wilmington home, which he left soon after court adjourned for a campaign reception in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is travelling to France on Tuesday and will be gone the rest of the week. The first lady is expected to join him later. Hunter Biden’s sister, Ashley Biden, was also in court, and his wife, Melissa.
When the court took a break for lunch, Hunter Biden walked over to his mother and leaned over the railing that separates the audience from the trial participants to hug and kiss her on the cheek. Monday was the first lady’s 73rd birthday.
A family friend, Ricky Smith, sat in the audience and embraced him warmly during a break.
“It ain’t right for him to be sitting there because he was a drug addict,” Smith said.
The case against Hunter Biden stems from a period when, by his own public admission, he was addicted to crack. His descent into drugs and alcohol followed the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden, from cancer. He bought and owned a gun for 11 days in October 2018 and indicated on the gun purchase form that he was not using drugs.
Defence lawyers have suggested they may argue that Hunter Biden did not see himself as an addict when prosecutors say he checked “no” to the question on the form. They will also attack the credibility of the gun shop owner.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it is unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars.
