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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Lawyers will make their opening statements Tuesday in the federal gun case against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter after a jury was seated for the trial while the first lady watched from the courtroom and the president sent a message of support.
Hunter Biden has been charged 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 by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
The proceedings come after the collapse of a deal with prosecutors that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty and has argued he's being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department after Republicans decried the now-defunct plea deal as special treatment for the Democratic president's son.
The trial is unfolding just days after Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the courts have taken center stage during the 2024 campaign.
Jury selection moved at a clip Monday in the president's home state, where Hunter Biden grew up and where, the elder Biden often says, the family is deeply established. Joe Biden spent 36 years as a senator there, commuting daily back and forth from Washington, D.C.
People just know the story of how Biden's two young sons, Hunter and Beau, were injured in the car accident that killed his wife and baby girl in the early 1970s. And Beau Biden was the former state attorney general before he died at 46 from cancer.
Some prospective jurors were dismissed because they knew the family personally; others because they held both positive and negative political views about the Bidens and couldn't be impartial. Still, it only took a day to find the jury of six men and six women plus four women serving as alternates, who will decide the case.
One potential juror 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 said.
Another was excused because he was aware of the case and said, “It seems like politics is playing a big role in who gets charged with what and when.”
But much of the questioning focused on drug use, addiction and gun ownership, as attorneys sought to test prospective jurors' knowledge of the case, and dismiss those with strong thoughts on drug use, or who might want to regulate firearms — some of the very people Biden counts as constituents.
The panel of 12 was chosen out of roughly 65 people. Their names were not made public. They included a woman whose sister was convicted about 10 years ago of credit card fraud and drug charges in Delaware, a man whose father had been killed in a crime involving a gun, and a woman married to a former law enforcement officer who is also a licensed gun owner.
Hunter Biden also faces a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were to have been resolved through the deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a yearslong investigation into his business dealings.
But Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, which included a proposed guilty plea to misdemeanor offenses 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 could not come to a resolution on her questions, and the deal fell apart. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed the top investigator, former U.S. attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, as a special counsel in August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.
The Delaware trial isn't about Hunter Biden's foreign business affairs, though the proceedings were likely to dredge up dark, embarrassing and painful memories.
The president’s allies are worried about the toll the trial may take on the elder Biden, who’s long been concerned about his only living son and his sobriety and who must now watch as his son’s painful past mistakes are publicly scrutinized. And the president must do so while he's campaigning under anemic poll numbers and preparing for an upcoming presidential debate with Trump.
In a statement Monday, the president said he has “boundless love" for his son, "confidence in him and respect for his strength.”
“I am the President, but I am also a Dad,” he said, adding that he would have no further comment on the case. “Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.”
The first lady sat in court all day Monday, on her 73rd birthday, watching the proceedings quietly from the front row behind the defense table, as did Hunter Biden's wife Melissa and sister Ashley. The president was nearby most of the day, camped at their Wilmington home. He departed after court adjourned for a campaign reception in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Aboard Air Force One Monday night, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if the case might affect the president’s ability to do his job and replied, “Absolutely not.”
“He always puts the American people first, and is capable of doing his job,” said Jean-Pierre, who declined to say if Biden got updates on the trial throughout the day or spoke to his son after the proceedings’ conclusion.
Biden was traveling to France on Tuesday evening and will be gone the rest of the week. The first lady is scheduled to join him later this week.
The case against Hunter Biden stems from a period when, by his own public admission, he was addicted to crack. His descent followed the 2015 death of his brother 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.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces 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.
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Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Fatima Hussein aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP's coverage of Hunter Biden at https://apnews.com/hub/hunter-biden.