Jury Selection Begins In Hunter Biden Gun Trial
Of all the things Hunter Biden has been accused of, and recorded himself doing, he'll be in a Delaware courthouse this week on three federal felony gun charges.
Jury selection begins in the case brought against him by special counsel David Weiss, who has charged the First Son with making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a licensed firearm dealer, and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
According to the indictment, Hunter bought a Colt Cobra revolver Oct. 12, 2018 - during which he "knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm … certifying 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."
Specifically, Hunter answered 'no' when asked if he was "an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance."
Eleven days after Hunter bought the gun, his brother's widow, Hallie Biden, threw it in a dumpster behind a market near a school. An elderly man discovered the items and police later obtained them from him. Authorities placed the items into “an evidence vault” and no charges were brought.
Searches of Mr. Biden’s account, undertaken as federal agents investigated him for tax crimes, uncovered evidence that led to the firearm charges. That included pictures showing drugs and texts relating to how Mr. Biden was using drugs. He later wrote in his memoir that he was addicted to drugs during the period he bought and owned the revolver.
Maximum prison time on all charges could be up to 25 years (we'll wait for you to catch your breath), and each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of unsupervised release.
The trial begins almost a year after Judge Maryellen Noreika blew up a sweetheart plea deal, which would have conveyed broad immunity to Hunter on a wide swath of unrelated potential criminal charges. The deal sought to cap a five-year investigation into Hunter's tax affairs and business dealings.
After the plea deal unraveled, David Weiss requested and was granted "special counsel" status by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
During the trial, prosecutors will not be allowed to let the jury know about Hunter's 2014 discharge from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine, nor his salacious child support case for his out-of-wedlock daughter in Arkansas. Judge Noreika also said that Weiss only has to show that Hunter was addicted to drugs, not that he was on them the day he purchased the gun.
The prosecution does not plan to bring out the entire infamous laptop containing details of Hunter Biden's life but will introduce certain portions. Noreika ruled that Hunter Biden’s team will be able to question aspects of the laptop in front of the jury. The laptop, which leaked in 2020 just before the presidential election, was decried as Russian disinformation by 51 former intelligence officials.
Noreika also ruled that the special counsel cannot mention Hunter Biden's pending federal tax trial in California during the trial in Delaware, which is also part of Weiss's investigation and scheduled for a September trial. -Fox News
In January, federal prosecutors said that Hunter can't hide behind the 2nd Amendment that Democrats seek to destroy.
"Anglo-American law has long recognized that the government may disarm those who, by their conduct or characteristics, present an increased risk to public safety if they possess firearms," prosecutors said in a Jan. 16 filing. That means a U.S. law against gun ownership by people who use or are addicted to drugs can still stand under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that struck down restrictions in New York, they added.
Hunter's trial is expected to last around two weeks. He separately faces nine tax-related federal charges in a case scheduled to go to trial in September in Los Angeles.