Members of the Biden family, sitting in court in Wilmington, Delaware, for the start of Hunter Biden’s gun trial on Monday, share many of the challenges as the jurors who will weigh the fate of the president’s son. Hunter Biden himself is a former drug addict, accused of illegal possession of weapons and perjury. He divorced and remarried. He died in 2015, as his brother died of a brain tumor.
Hunter Biden is also the president’s son, it was impossible not to notice that members of the Biden family repeatedly name-dropped or blithely admitted during jury selection. yes – it was for “Badens”.
Biden, wearing peach-colored glasses, sat straight as dozens of potential jurors filed into U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika’s court during the sometimes grueling selection process. At noon, Hunter’s attorney general, Abbe Lowell, gently asked, “For the sake of the schedule, do you think I’m forgetting if there’s a lunch break today?”
Behind him sat not only the lawyers, reporters and sketch artists who filled the courtroom in high-profile cases, but also First Lady Jill Biden, who hugged her son, half-sister and even her son-in-law.
It was a moving scene in a historic event where the president’s son could have been jailed for up to 25 years. The first lady called the accusations “brutal” in an interview with MSNBC this year. He sat directly behind his son, carefully watching the proceedings and supporting him and other family members.
Occasionally, he nodded, as the former police officer described the potential juror on the news after the case. The first lady also sometimes put Hunter’s wife, Melissa Cohen, in Biden’s arms.
“We’ll be here tomorrow,” Cohen Biden said quietly to the defense at the end of the day.
Here’s what you missed on Day 1 of Hunter Biden’s trial:
The jury is sworn in
Dozens of potential jurors were on the benches in Noreika’s courtroom when voir dire began Monday morning. In the end, a jury of 12 people – six men and six women – and four alternates was sworn in. The group included Obama voters, gun owners and people who have seen addiction first hand.
The jurors, who say they get their news from a variety of sources including broadcast, cable and even YouTube, are prohibited from researching and talking about the case. That includes a juror who said he learned from his father on his way to the courthouse early Monday morning.
Noreika told the panel to ignore targeted ads or pop-up ads as they use the internet, warning that “even foreign governments” could try to “influence” or “persuade” them during the trial.
During the selection process, Lowell analyzed the jurors’ personal views on firearms, including whether they thought it appropriate for drug users or alcoholics to ever have access to them. Lowell also asked for clarification on what the people who expressed some knowledge of the case understood and where they got their news.
If they or family members had bought a gun, they were asked if they had undergone a background check. Biden faces three felony counts of purchasing a gun in which he failed to disclose his drug addiction.
A potential juror was outraged last year after learning that there was “supposed to be a plea deal” in the case, “and then the plea deal wasn’t accepted by the judge,” he said. Lowell said he disputed whether he was impartial and went to shoot him for cause.
“When you say you think you can be fair and impartial, it causes people heartburn,” Lowell said. “I know he corrected himself later and then said, ‘I guess.'”
Another prospective juror, who vowed to remain impartial, spoke of his belief that government agencies such as the Justice Department and the FBI are looking into politicized cases involving former President Donald Trump, citing the so-called Steele dossier and Trump’s recent conviction. Money business in New York. That person was not elected.
The Biden family emerges
A strong quorum of allies and family members was on hand to cover and support Biden before he stepped into court on Monday. First came Hunter’s half-sister Ashley and entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris, who helped pay for Biden’s legal fees.
Biden’s son-in-law, Peter Neal, exchanged notes on legal paper with Morris. Morris could be seen writing on sticky notes he gave to the defense. There was also Biden’s brother-in-law, Jack Owens, who was well-known to potential jurors as tending a bar that Joe Biden’s sister Valerie’s brother Owens would frequent in nearby Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
Joe Biden’s longtime friend Richard “Mouse” Smith, president of the Delaware branch of the NAACP, was also among the group. Smith, who has known the president since they met as teenagers at a Delaware pool, hugged Hunter Biden during a break in the morning session.
A source familiar with the matter said he expected a “steady stream” of friends and family in attendance throughout the trial.
Also present was Trump-appointed special counsel David Weiss, who arrived in the courtroom after the first recess and was present until the end. He looked up and surveyed the room, looking either at the ceiling, the jury, or the media.
The contrast to Trump, whose high-profile aides and defense attorneys followed him into the courtroom during a silent money trial in New York last month, was unmistakable. It’s been days since Trump’s family members joined him in the courtroom of Judge Juan Merca, who presided over the case. His wife Melania Trump was never seen.
Delaware separation rates
The former police officer described himself as an acquaintance of Jill Biden from when he worked at the same school. “And I met her husband,” said the man, who was not wearing a spade.
When asked what he knew about the case, another man said Delaware is not a place that goes under the radar for local news. “I live in Delaware; you can’t wave a cat without hearing something,” he said.
Others claimed to be more closely related to the Biden family, not just colleagues but family friends, the kind you can say “hello” to socially, one woman said. She added that her husband was “very good friends” with Hunter Biden’s late brother Beau at the time of his drowning.
Another juror, who described playing a squash tournament with Beau Biden at the Wilmington Country Club in 2010, said Beau coached his son “a few times” in baseball, basketball and flag football. He is also “very friendly” with Hallie Biden, his wife, Beau Biden’s widow, she said, because of a connection from a private college prep school in the area.
“The bond at Tatnal School is strong,” the man said. He admitted that this relationship would make it difficult for him to be impartial.
Sometimes that familiarity was more pedestrian, like when a shot potential juror told Lowell about his familiarity with the location of the grocery store where Hunter Biden’s gun was found.
But there was no escaping the presence of the first family, their influence, and the long history scattered over the courtroom.
At one point, Noreika echoed a statement from a woman who said she knew the Bidens and felt for Hunter: “You don’t think it’s easy being the president’s son?”