Jury picked for federal trial of Hunter Biden in gun case

A jury was chosen on Monday for the trial of President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden, who is charged with three felonies for illegally owning a gun as a drug user and with lying about his drug use on a government form he filled out when he bought the weapon in 2018.

The son of a sitting president has never before faced a criminal trial.

If convicted, Hunter Biden, 54, could face up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, although first-time and nonviolent offenders are often given shorter terms.

Opening statements will begin on Tuesday, and the first witness to provide testimony is an FBI agent who was responsible for investigating the case.

Hunter Biden's trial comes after the collapse of a plea deal with federal investigators last year. He pleaded not guilty last September after being indicted by special counsel David Weiss and has denied the charges.

The collapsed plea deal led to Biden's indictment on three felony gun charges in Delaware and nine tax charges in California, in a trial set for Sept 5 in which he is accused of avoiding paying at least $1.4 million.

He is facing three felony and six misdemeanor charges connected to the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

First lady Jill Biden was seated behind Hunter Biden all day, her 73rd birthday. When court was dismissed, Mrs. Biden gave Hunter Biden a hug and a kiss before he walked out hand-in-hand with his wife.

Hunter Biden's wife Melissa Cohen Biden and his sister, Ashley Biden, attended the first day of proceedings.

President Biden said in a statement issued Monday that he has "boundless love" for his son.

"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's resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us," Biden said in the statement as jury selection got underway.

The elder Biden remained in Wilmington, Delaware, until after a jury was empaneled.

Hunter Biden arrived this morning and walked through the front entrance of the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building, named after J. Caleb Boggs — a former Delaware senator who lost his 1972 reelection bid to Joe Biden.

As Hunter Biden entered the building, he would have passed a photograph of his father, which hangs in every federal courthouse in the country.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard an Air Force One that Hunter Biden's trial would "absolutely not" affect President Biden's work.

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika told jurors they would likely need to be available for the trial through June 14, with the possibility of deliberations stretching into the week of June 17.

The jury has six men and six women. The jurors include a Secret Service retiree, a man whose father was killed by a gun and a number of jurors whose family and friends have suffered from addiction — a central theme in the case against Hunter Biden.

The panel was picked from 250 prospective jurors who arrived Monday morning at the courthouse in Delaware — a small state that Joe Biden represented in the Senate for more than three decades.

In October 2018, Hunter Biden purchased a revolver at a gun store north of Wilmington. People who purchase firearms are required to fill out a standardized form that asks whether they are an unlawful user or are addicted to controlled substances, narcotics and other listed substances. Biden is accused of answering "no" to that question on the form.

Biden has been open about his longtime struggles with crack cocaine addiction, including in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, and discussed it during a court hearing last year, stating he has been sober since 2019.

Weiss obtained two indictments for gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden after Noreika rejected a plea agreement in July that aimed to resolve the investigation.

Weiss, as US attorney in Delaware, had investigated Biden for years. Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for nonpayment of taxes in 2017 and 2018, and to enter a pretrial program on a gun charge.

Noreika questioned prosecutors and defense lawyers about whether the deal would protect Biden from future charges, and the judge refused to "rubber-stamp" the agreement.

The collapsed plea deal led to Biden's indictment on gun charges in Delaware and the tax charges in California.

Agencies contributed to this story.