On Monday, the jury selection in Hunter Biden’s federal gun case kicked off as the president’s son faces three counts tied to possession of a firearm while using narcotics.
Last September, Biden was charged with three crimes, including unlawfully possessing a gun as a drug user, lying on a federal form when purchasing a gun, and making a false statement about information required to be collected by a lawful gun dealer.
Biden has pleaded not guilty to all three charges, but on Monday, he made his first appearance in court with First Lady Jill Biden by his side.
The case marks a monumental moment as it is the first time that a child of a sitting president has faced a criminal trial.
However, it won’t be the last, as Biden has also been charged in a separate criminal case related to tax crimes he may have committed. That case will go to trial this September.
President Joe Biden released a statement ahead of his son’s trial on Monday.
“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,” he said. “Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean.”
The start of the trial comes a week after former President Donald Trump wrapped up his hush money trial, where he was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents.
While Trump has maintained that his trial was a sham and a weapon of political persecution, President Biden called his comments dangerous and offered his thoughts on the country’s due process.
“The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed,” President Biden said of the trial’s outcome.
As for the younger Biden, his trial will include 12 jurors, with the process of selecting the dozen beginning Monday.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika is overseeing the case. The prosecution includes prosecutors from special counsel David Weiss’s office.
Weiss’s team is planning on calling around 12 witnesses in the case, among whom will be Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and his late brother’s widow, Hallie Olivere Biden.
Biden’s indictment claimed that he certified on a federal form that “he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.”
That action is expected to be at the center of the case as prosecutors look to prove he lied, pointing to several pieces of evidence, including his own memoir “Beautiful Things.”
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, says he wants to call the owner of the gun shop and two or three excerpts as witnesses.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.