A jury has been selected and opening statements will begin today in Hunter Biden’s trial for allegedly violating federal firearms laws.
The jury of six men, six women and four alternates was selected by late afternoon on the first day of jury selection. Much of the questioning of potential jurors revolved around whether they had friends or family members who had struggled with addiction. After selection, jurors were ordered by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika not to talk or read about the case as the trial moves forward.
Both the prosecution and the defense struck several potential jurists from the initial jury pool, including individuals who volunteered for Hillary Clinton, who read the Guardian and watch CNN, and one who had met John “Jack” Owens, Joe Biden’s brother-in-law, when she was a bartender, according to a report at Breitbart.com.
In 2018, Hunter Biden, now 54, purchased a firearm from a licensed dealer, and, while filling in Form 4473, responded “no” to the question of whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.” However, per Hunter’s own account of his addiction—as chronicled in his 2021 book, Beautiful Things—it is almost certain that he was an addict at the time he purchased the gun.
Under the terms of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993—a law that then-Sen. Joe Biden shepherded through the U.S. Senate—lying on Form 4473 is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
Interestingly, Biden’s defense team is expected to utilize a tactic used earlier in a federal court proceeding, where his attorneys argued that the charges of lying on a federal background check form and possessing a firearm while addicted to unlawful substances were “unprecedented” and “unconstitutional.”
At odds is whether the law barring lying on the background check form and another law forbidding drug addicts from possessing firearms is constitutional under the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. By the new standard, for the law to be constitutional prosecutors must show that there exists a “historical precedent from before, during and even after the founding [that] evidences a comparable tradition of regulation?”
The irony is, of course, that President Biden continues to call for “enhanced” and even “universal” background checks for firearm sales, even as his son’s attorneys are expected to argue that the existing background check law is unconstitutional.
The trial is expected to last one to two weeks. It comes a year after a sweetheart plea deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutors fell apart under Judge Noreika’s scrutiny.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, though as a first-time offender, he is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence. In fact, it is unlikely he would see any jail time.
The younger Biden also faces a number of tax charges, including tax evasion, filing false tax returns and failing to file his taxes on time. That trial is set to begin in Los Angeles this September.
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