Hunter Biden made history Monday, becoming the first child of a sitting president to stand trial on federal criminal charges.
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika swore in the pool of prospective jurors at 8:46 a.m., kicking off a politically charged case in a state where President Biden has been the most powerful political figure for decades.
Roughly 250 Delaware residents were summoned for jury selection, with 12 jurors and four alternates making up the final panel that will hear the case.
As of the afternoon, the judge had brought in 57 potential jurors to question them one-by-one outside of the presence of the other possible panelists.
Of that group, Noreika dismissed 22 people who said they could not be impartial or who had scheduling conflicts.
One man, juror 1, was let go because he declared that owning guns is “a God-given right” while another was dismissed after saying he believed the Department of Justice was too political.
Another woman, juror 40, said people shouldn’t be allowed to buy guns and “kill children in schools.”
“I’d ban [guns] altogether to be honest,” she added, before the judge dismissed her.
Several members of the pool of potential jurors own at least one gun, while others have relatives who have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction
Jurors 26 and 29 — both let into the pool — have concealed carry permits in more than one state.
“I believe our Second Amendment is very important,” juror 26 said.
One woman, juror 2, qualified for the pool after saying she had donated to and volunteered for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008, though she maintained “I don’t see any relation between politics” and this case.
Charges against Hunter Biden
COUNT 1: False Statement in Purchase of a Firearm
Faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100.
COUNT 2: False Statement Related to Information Required to be Kept by Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer
Faces a maximum of five years’ imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100.
COURT 3: Possession of a Firearm by a Person who is an Unlawful User of or Addicted to a Controlled Substance
Faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100.
Another woman, juror 3, qualified after admitting her sister was convicted a decade ago on credit card fraud and drug charges. The prospective juror said her relative was “currently clean” and insisted she could be fair.
One qualified woman, juror 5, revealed she had once worked for the Secret Service and her husband was still employed by the protective agency.
One man, juror 25, was let into the pool after he said he was “an acquaintance with the first lady” and had met Joe Biden at several events.
He added that he recently donated to the Republican National Committee and was a campaign manager for a city councilman years ago.
It wasn’t clear if the prospective panelist was aware that Jill Biden was present in court Monday.
One man, juror 33, was let into the pool despite his dad being shot and killed in 2004 and his brother serving time for narcotics possession.
Prospective juror 38 told the judge her childhood best friend fatally overdosed on heroin and said her family owns rifles which they hunt with. She explained she doesn’t personally own a firearm and said she could be a fair juror.
The initial pool will be made up of 36 prospective jurors, with prosecutors and the defense team given a total of 20 strikes to remove would-be panelists from the final allotment.
The court is on a break until 2:30 p.m. when they will bring in another 20 potential jurors in order to fill the last two spots in the pool.
They needed 36 prospective jurors to end up with a final jury and alternates, totaling 16, after both sides used their combined 20 strikes.
Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts pertaining to his alleged illegal possession of a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine.
The Delaware case is the first of two scheduled to take place this year.
Hunter Biden also faces tax charges out of Los Angeles, with prosecutors led by special counsel David Weiss accusing him of stiffing Uncle Sam on $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019.
The first son has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Delaware case is expected to last one to two weeks.
Noreika, a Trump appointee backed by the state’s Democratic senators, has been deeply involved in the Hunter Biden case for nearly a year.
In July, she presided over the implosion of a prospective plea deal between Hunter and Weiss after the two sides couldn’t agree on whether the first son would be protected from future charges.
Weiss, who has been Delaware’s US Attorney since 2018, was granted special counsel authority by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August of last year.
Hunter Biden is being represented by a team of several lawyers, led by well-known defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who has an extensive history of defending famous clientele in the courtroom.
The firearm case dates back to the Oct. 12, 2018 purchase of a .38 caliber Colt Cobra revolver at a Delaware gun shop. To acquire that handgun, background checks required Hunter to certify that he was not addicted to illicit drugs.
That year, the younger Biden was deep in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction, as documented by evidence from his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” leaked laptop contents and scores of witnesses.
Eleven days after the revolver purchase, his sister-in-law turned lover Hallie Biden disposed of it in a trash can near a local supermarket, right across the street from a high school, according to police records.
An enraged Hunter Biden demanded she fetch the weapon, only for her to discover it was no longer there. The gun was later returned by a man who regularly rummages through trash.
The first son’s trial begins in the aftermath of a Manhattan jury voting May 30 to convict former President Donald Trump of 34 counts of falsification of business documents to conceal hush money payments.
That conviction sparked an uproar among congressional Republicans, who have long had Hunter Biden in their crosshairs and alleged that prosecutors initially gave the first son a “sweetheart” deal.
President Biden, who was with Hunter at the family’s Rehoboth Beach vacation home over the weekend, weighed in on the verdict against his rival Trump, saying “The justice system should be respected, and we should never allow anyone to tear it down.”
Now the justice system — led by his own administration — will evaluate whether his son should be tossed in jail.
https://nypost.com/2024/06/03/us-news/jury-selection-set-to-begin-in-hunter-bidens-firearm-case/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.