Hunter Biden's criminal trial on gun charges begins

By: Xerexs Wilson
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Esteban Parra
Bart Jansen
and Marina Pitofsky
Delaware News Journal/USA Today Network
USA Today

WILMINGTON, Delaware - The Biden family came out in force Monday [06/03/2024] morning for the first day of Hunter Biden's felony gun trial, with first lady Jill Biden, sister Ashley Biden and Hunter's wife Melissa Cohen Biden all showing their support in the courtroom.
..... President Joe Biden did not attend but changed his schedule to be in Wilmington. "Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today," [06/03/2024] the president said in a statement.
..... Hunter Biden is facing three firearm felonies. Prosecutors say he lied on a federal gun purchase from that asked if he was addicted to drugs. the president's son has been open about his struggles with crack cocaine addiction, writing about it in a 2021 memoir and telling a court last year [2023] that he's been sober since 2019.
..... The trial comes after the collapse of a plead deal last year. [2023] It is expected to explore the depths of Hunter Biden's drug use and follow a bizarre series of events in 2018, when he purchased a .38-caliber revolver that authorities recovered after it was thrown into a supermarket trash can.
..... The form asked: "Are you an unlawful user of , or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?"
..... "At issue her is Mr. Biden's understanding of the question," his lawyer Abbe Lowell recently wrote the court. "Someone like Mr. Biden, who had just completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and lived with a sober companion after that, could surely believe he was not a present tense user or addict."
..... Some drug treatment experts told USA Today they wouldn't consider a patient cured of addiction after 11 days of treatment. But they said a person who had just completed treatment might consider themselves sober.
..... U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika barred testimony from a proposed expert defense witness who was going to talk about how people suffering from drug addiction view themselves.
..... Biden faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted, although first-time and nonviolent offenses are often given shorter terms.
..... Noreika alms to seat 12 jurors and four alternates for what is expected to be a two-week trial.
.... One challenge will be fining jurors who don't have a connection to the first family.
..... Joe Biden has been a ubiquitous presence for more than half a century. Throw in educator and first lady Jill, four children and seven grandchildren, and it can feel harder for a Delawarean not to have met a Biden than to have met one.
..... Potential jurors won't be asked about interactions, but they will be asked about connections to the family.
..... "Are you, any member of your immediate family, or close friends acquaintances with Robert Hunter Biden or any member of his family?" reads the seventh of 47 jury screening questions. The question also ask about politics, law enforcement and addiction.
..... The judge further questioned jurors who answered "yes" to nay one of the screening questions.

..... Contributing: Ryan Cornier, Delaware News Journal.

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