A jury was seated on Monday in a federal gun case against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter after prospective candidates were questioned on their thoughts about gun rights and drug addiction.
First lady Jill Biden watched from the front row of the courtroom in a show of support for her son. Opening statements will begin on Tuesday.
A jury of 12 panellists and four alternates was selected in one day.
Joe Biden said that as President he would not comment on the criminal trial – but as a father, he said he has “boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength”.
The US leader said: “I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.”
Hunter Biden, who spent the weekend with his parents, has been charged in the US state of Delaware with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase 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 used to screen firearms applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
More than 65 prospective jurors were questioned and 29 had been dismissed by late afternoon. One who was sent home said she didn’t 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 an attorney asked her opinion.
Biden has pleaded not guilty and has argued he is being unfairly targeted by the US justice department, after Republicans decried the now-defunct deal as special treatment for the Democratic President’s son.
Prospective jurors who answered “yes” on a questionnaire were quizzed individually by Judge Maryellen 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.
The trial comes just days after Donald Trump, Republicans’ presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City.
A jury found the former 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 underlines how the criminal courtroom has taken centre stage during the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Biden is also facing a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay 1.4 million dollars in taxes.
Both cases were to have been resolved through a deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a years-long investigation into his business dealings.
But Judge Noreika, who was nominated to the bench by Mr 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 squabbled over the agreement, could not come to a resolution, and the deal fell apart.
US 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 the wellbeing and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch as those painful past mistakes are publicly scrutinised.
He is also protective: Hunter Biden was with his father all weekend before the case began, biking with his father and attending church together.
President Biden, in a last-minute switch in plans, shifted from his Rehoboth Beach home back to his Wilmington compound on Sunday evening. Boarding a helicopter on Sunday was the only time the US President was seen publicly without his son all weekend.
Hunter Biden arrived first at the Delaware courthouse on Monday. The first lady, who turned 73 on Monday, followed about 15 minutes later and walked briskly into court, flanked by US secret service agents. Hunter Biden’s sister Ashley Biden was also in court to support him.
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 an upcoming presidential debate while the proceedings play out.
Prosecutors are hoping to show Hunter Biden was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied on the forms. They have said they are planning to use as evidence his published memoir, and they may also introduce contents from a laptop that he left at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved.
The contents made their way to Republicans in 2020 and were publicly leaked, revealing embarrassing and personal photos in which Hunter Biden is often nude and doing drugs, and messages in which he asks dealers about scores.
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.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and his attorneys have suggested they may argue he 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 store owner.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are also planning to call as witnesses Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and his brother’s widow, Hallie, with whom he became romantically involved.
If he were to be convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it’s unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars.
