The jury in the trial of Hunter Biden, the president's only living son, will hear sordid details of his personal life when opening arguments in his criminal trial begin on Tuesday.
Hunter, 54, is accused of possessing a handgun while using drugs, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges. On Monday, the jury was seated for the Delaware trial which is likely to become politicized as it evolves.
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika is overseeing the proceedings. Several of those who were selected for the jury are professed gun owners and others said that they had loved ones who suffered with drug problems.
The president's son owned the Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver for 11 days in October 2018 while he was taking crack cocaine. Heis the first child of a sitting president to be criminally tried. He faces a separate tax trial in California later this year.
On Monday, First Lady Child Biden showed up in person for the first day of the trial, clad in a purple blazer and seen scribbling on a legal pad, while sat in the court.
Hunter Biden arrives at the federal court with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, the couple married in 2019 after knowing each other for just a week
First Lady Jill Biden seen arriving at the court in support of her stepson Hunter amid his ongoing legal woes
President Joe Biden arrives on Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland following an event in Connecticut
In a rare statement on his troubled son, President Joe Biden also issued a statement of support.
'I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.Hunter's resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us.'
'As the President, I don't and won't comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength,' the release concluded.
The trial is expected to center on Hunter Biden's years-long crack cocaine use and addiction, which he has discussed publicly and which was a prominent part of his 2021 autobiography, 'Beautiful Things.'
He told U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika at a hearing last year that he has been sober since the middle of 2019.
Prosecutors will seek to prove that Hunter Biden knew he was lying when he ticked the box 'no' next to a question on a federal gun purchase form asking if he was an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss is expected to call FBI agent Erika Jensen to testify about Hunter Biden's messages discussing his drug use and Hunter Biden's autobiography, 'Beautiful Things.'
'I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney,' was one of the messages prosecutors disclosed in a court filing.
In another, Hunter Biden said he was behind a minor league baseball stadium in Wilmington 'waiting for a dealer named Mookie.'
Prosecutors said they may call as a witness his former wife, Kathleen Buhle, who accused Hunter Biden in their 2017 divorce proceedings of squandering money on drugs, alcohol and prostitutes.
Weiss, a Trump appointee, has hit Hunter Biden with federal tax charges separately in California.
The trial comes days after Trump was convicted by a jury in state court in New York of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents to cover up hush money paid to a p*rn star to avoid a sex scandal shortly before the 2016 U.S. election that put him in the White House.
Hunter's trial gives Republicans a chance to deflect conversations about legal troubles away from Trump's conviction of falsifying business records involving a payment made to p*rn star Stormy Daniels
Hunter Biden's trial gives Republicans a chance to shift attention away from Trump's legal troubles. Trump is due to be sentenced in New York on July 11.
He has pleaded not guilty in three other pending criminal cases, two related to his efforts to overturn his loss in 2020 to Biden and one charging that he unlawfully kept classified national security documents after leaving office in January 2021.
If convicted on all charges in the Delaware case, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though defendants generally receive shorter sentences, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Noreika, also a Trump appointee, entered multiple orders over the weekend that were requested by prosecutors and that appeared to undercut Biden's legal strategy.
The judge said Biden's legal team could not introduce expert testimony that people suffering from substance abuse disorder might not consider themselves an addict.
