1 of 3 | Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of possession of a firearm in connection with a 2018 purchase in Delaware of a revolver while he was admittedly using and addicted at the time to drugs. File Photo By Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
June 4 (UPI) — The second day in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial began Tuesday morning with a new juror as opening statements got underway at J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Delaware. “We lost a juror overnight,” U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said as she entered the courtroom. Advertisement
Noreika said the juror, a woman, “begged” to be let go of her role, citing transportation issues and adding she did not realize that she had to be at the courthouse every day as a resident of Milford, Del., an hour away south of Wilmington where the courthouse is located.
Among the 12 jurors picked on Monday, six men and six women, there also were four alternates to fill juror slots for such occasions.
First lady Jill Biden was seen sitting in the same seat she was in the day before this time with daughter Ashley Biden and Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden.
While the court waited for other jurors to arrive and opening arguments to commence, the judge took the time to speak to several motions before her, including one from Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell, who requested certain photos of Biden be excluded as evidence.
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Noreika allowed the photos to be used because they contained “circumstantial evidence” of Biden’s admitted past with drug use
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of possession of a firearm in connection with a 2018 purchase in Delaware of a revolver while he was admittedly using and addicted at the time to drugs.
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is,” prosecutor Derek Hines said as he began his opening statement Tuesday morning, outlining Hunter Biden’s past drug use and how he allegedly lied on a federal form about his addiction while he supposedly attempted to buy the gun in question.
This comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 counts related to falsifying records to facilitate hush-money payments in New York with both trials facing extra scrutiny in the shadow of an election year.
Special counsel David Weiss, an appointee of Trump, brought the charges against the president’s son after he was named by Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, to investigate the alleged crime last year. Biden’s attorneys contended that Weiss “buckled under political pressure” after a plea deal crumbled last year.
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The cases mark the first time in American history that an ex-president has ever been criminally convicted in a court of law, and the first time the child of a sitting president was ever put on trial during their father’s presidency and all in the middle of a presidential election.
If convicted on all counts, Hunter Biden could face up 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, according to court filings. However, because Biden does not have a violent past and is an alleged first-time offender, it is possible he could get a lighter sentence.