WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden made history Monday, becoming the first child of a sitting president to stand trial on federal criminal charges.
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika swore in the pool of prospective jurors at 8:46 a.m., kicking off a politically charged case in a state where President Biden has been the most powerful political figure for decades.
Roughly 250 Delaware residents have been summoned for jury selection (though not all of them will necessarily have to show up to court), with 12 jurors and four alternates making up the final panel that will hear the case.
Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts pertaining to his alleged illegal possession of a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine.
The Delaware case is the first of two scheduled to take place this year.
Hunter Biden also faces tax charges out of Los Angeles, with prosecutors led by special counsel David Weiss accusing him of stiffing Uncle Sam on $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019.
The first son has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Charges against Hunter Biden
COUNT 1: False Statement in Purchase of a Firearm
Faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100.
COUNT 2: False Statement Related to Information Required to be Kept by Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer
Faces a maximum of five years’ imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100.
COURT 3: Possession of a Firearm by a Person who is an Unlawful User of or Addicted to a Controlled Substance
Faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100.
The Delaware case is expected to last one to two weeks.
Noreika, a Trump appointee backed by the state’s Democratic senators, has been deeply involved in the Hunter Biden case for nearly a year.
In July, she presided over the implosion of a prospective plea deal between Hunter and Weiss after the two sides couldn’t agree on whether the first son would be protected from future charges.
Weiss, who has been Delaware’s US Attorney since 2018, was granted special counsel authority by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August of last year.
Hunter Biden is being represented by a team of several lawyers, led by well-known defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who has an extensive history of defending famous clientele in the courtroom.
The firearm case dates back to the Oct. 12, 2018 purchase of a .38 caliber Colt Cobra revolver at a Delaware gun shop. To acquire that handgun, background checks required Hunter to certify that he was not addicted to illicit drugs.
That year, the younger Biden was deep in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction, as documented by evidence from his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” leaked laptop contents and scores of witnesses.
Eleven days after the revolver purchase, his sister-in-law turned lover Hallie Biden disposed of it in a trash can near a local supermarket, right across the street from a high school, according to police records.
An enraged Hunter Biden demanded she fetch the weapon, only for her to discover it was no longer there. The gun was later returned by a man who regularly rummages through trash.
The first son’s trial begins in the aftermath of a Manhattan jury voting May 30 to convict former President Donald Trump of 34 counts of falsification of business documents to conceal hush money payments.
That conviction sparked an uproar among congressional Republicans, who have long had Hunter Biden in their crosshairs and alleged that prosecutors initially gave the first son a “sweetheart” deal.
President Biden, who was with Hunter at the family’s Rehoboth Beach vacation home over the weekend, weighed in on the verdict against his rival Trump, saying “The justice system should be respected, and we should never allow anyone to tear it down.”
Now the justice system — led by his own administration — will evaluate whether his son should be tossed in jail.
