WILMINGTON, Del. — Jurors in the federal firearms case against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, were seated Monday, as potential jurors were asked about their thoughts on gun rights and drug addiction as the first lady looked on from the front row of the courtroom.
Opening statements were scheduled to begin Tuesday after the jurors — six men, six women and four female alternates — were instructed by Judge Maryellen Noreika not to talk about or read about the case.
Hunter Biden was indicted on three felony counts in Delaware for buying a gun in 2018 while he was in the midst of a crack addiction, according to his memoir. He is accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, falsely representing he wasn’t a drug user on his application, and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days.
The case is going to trial after a plea deal that would have avoided the drama of a trial collapsed with the 2024 election looming. Hunter Biden has maintained his innocence and says he was unfairly targeted by the Justice Department. Republicans have denounced the now-void plea deal as special treatment for the son of a Democratic president.
The trial began just days after presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York City. A jury found the former president guilty of a scheme to conceal hush money payments to pornography actors to avoid damaging his 2016 presidential election. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how central the courts are to the 2024 presidential election.
Jury selection moved quickly. About 65 people were chosen. Those who answered “yes” to the initial questionnaire were asked individually by Noreika if they would be able to be fair and impartial in their decisions. Their names were not made public.
The questions tested their knowledge of the case, explored their thoughts about gun ownership and asked whether they or someone close to them had ever struggled with substance abuse or addiction. Other questions focused on the possibility that politics played a role in the prosecution.
One potential juror who was sent home said she wasn’t sure she could judge impartially because of an opinion she had formed about Hunter Biden based on media reports.
When the lawyer asked her what her opinion was, she responded, “It’s not a good one.”
Another defendant was exonerated because he knew about the incident, he said, and “politics appears to play a large role in who is charged with what and when.”
Among the women selected for the jury was a woman whose sister was convicted in Delaware about 10 years ago on credit card fraud and drug charges. One male juror had his father murdered for a firearms offense and his brother served time in prison for drug possession. Another woman on the jury is married to a gun owner and former police officer. The third juror, also a woman, said she got her news from YouTube and was vaguely familiar with the case.
Hunter Biden is also due to stand trial in California in September on charges of paying $1.4 million in back taxes. Both cases were supposed to be resolved in an agreement with prosecutors last July as the culmination of a years-long investigation into his business dealings.
But Noreika, who was nominated to the judge by President Trump, questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, including a proposed guilty plea to a misdemeanor to resolve the tax evasion crimes and a conversion agreement that would have dismissed the gun charges if they remained quiet for two years. The lawyers could not reach a resolution, and the deal fell apart. Then, in August, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss, a former Delaware attorney and top investigator, as special counsel, and Hunter Biden was indicted a month later.
This trial is not about Hunter Biden’s overseas business affairs, which Republicans have been trying to bring up without evidence to corrupt the Biden family, but this trial will dig up and expose some of Hunter Biden’s darkest moments.
The president’s aides worry about how the trial will affect Biden, who has long worried about his surviving son and his lack of sobriety, and now must watch as his painful past mistakes come under public scrutiny.
Allies also worry the trial could be a distraction as the president campaigns amid weak poll numbers and prepares for the upcoming presidential debate with Trump.
In a statement on Monday, the president said he had “boundary love” and “faith” for his son and admired his strength.
“I’m president, but I’m also a father,” he said, adding that he would not be commenting further on the matter. “Jill and I love our son and are so proud of the man he has become.”
The president was at his home in nearby Wilmington, but left shortly after the court adjourned for a campaign reception in Greenwich, Connecticut. The president left for France on Tuesday and will be away this week. The first lady is due to join him later. Hunter Biden’s sister, Ashley Biden, and his wife, Melissa, were also in the courtroom.
When the court broke for lunch, Hunter Biden walked over to his mother, leaned over the barrier separating the public from the courtroom, hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. Monday marked what would have been the first lady’s 73rd birthday.
Rickey Smith, a family friend, was sitting in the bleachers and gave him a warm embrace during the intermission.
“It’s not right to sit there just because he was a drug addict,” Smith said.
The case against Hunter Biden stems from his publicly admitted crack addiction, and his subsequent turn to drugs and alcohol after his brother Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015. He purchased a gun in October 2018 and owned it for 11 days, even though he claimed to be drug-free on his gun purchase application.
The defense has suggested that Hunter Biden may argue that he didn’t think he was an addict when prosecutors say he answered “no” to questions in the dossier. They will also attack the credibility of the gun store owner.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, but nowhere near that maximum for a first-time offender, and it’s unclear whether a judge will give him any prison time.
Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Alana Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
