Jury selection set to begin in Hunter Biden’s firearm case

WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden is poised to make history as the first child of a sitting president to stand criminal trial, with jury selection beginning Monday in his felony firearms case.

The court will face a difficult challenge because of the politically sensitive nature of the case and the Biden family’s significant influence in Delaware, the second-smallest state. Biden, who was first elected to public office in Delaware in 1971, was just visiting Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, over the weekend.

The judge said about 250 Delawareans have been summoned for jury selection — not all of them are required to appear — and that the jury pool will then be narrowed down to 12 jurors and four alternates.

Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges alleging he illegally possessed a firearm while under the influence of drugs.

This is one of two charges against him, the second of which is tax-related and is scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles on September 5. He has also pleaded not guilty in that case to six misdemeanor and three felony counts of evading $1.4 million in taxes from the U.S. government.

In an effort to weed out biased jurors through the jury selection process, potential jurors will be asked questions about the 2024 presidential election.

It is unclear how long jury selection will take, but the entire trial is expected to take about one to two weeks.

The firearms case is being handled by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware, who was appointed by President Trump with the support of Delaware’s Democratic senators.

She is the judge who oversaw the plea deal on the tax charges and a pretrial diversion agreement on the firearms charges that dramatically collapsed in court last July.

Special counsel David Weiss, who has been retained as U.S. attorney for Delaware in a rare move under the Trump administration, is overseeing the prosecution of the scandal-scarred eldest son.

Hunter Biden is being defended by a small team of lawyers led by prominent lawyer Abe Lowell, who has an extensive history of defending high-profile clients in court.

His firearms case dates back to his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver from a gun shop in Delaware on Oct. 12, 2018. To purchase the handgun, he was required to pass a background check to prove he was not dependent on illegal drugs.

That year, Hunter Biden was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction, as documented in his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” the contents of his leaked laptop, and numerous witness testimony.

About 11 days after purchasing the revolver, his sister-in-law and mistress, Hallie Biden, dumped it in a trash can near Janssen’s Market, directly across from the high school, according to police records.

An enraged Hunter Biden demanded that she retrieve the gun, which she went to retrieve but found was no longer there. Police were then called to the scene. The gun was later returned by a man who regularly rummages through the trash.

The trial of former President Donald Trump’s eldest son began after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 charges related to falsifying business documents to conceal hush money payments.

The conviction caused an uproar among Republican lawmakers who have long targeted Hunter Biden, arguing that prosecutors initially gave the elder son a “sweet” deal.

President Biden President Trump’s national security adviser, John F. Kennedy, who met with Hunter on Friday, said of the sentence against his rival, “The justice system must be respected and no one should be allowed to destroy it.”