A jury was sworn in on Monday for the trial of Hunter Biden on gun charges, a historic criminal prosecution of a sitting president’s son with the potential to influence the 2024 presidential election.
Hunter Biden, 54, went on trial at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, four days after Republican Donald Trump, the Democratic president’s rival for the Nov. 5 U.S. election, became the first former president found guilty of a crime.
President Joe Biden’s son is accused of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought a Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days in October 2018.
He has pleaded not guilty to the three felony charges.
The case, brought by U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee, is one of Hunter Biden’s two criminal cases. He also faces federal tax charges in California.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika ended the day by swearing in the 12 jurors and four alternates. “Your job is to find the facts,” she told them and instructed them not to discuss the case with anyone, even among themselves.
The case is expected to center on Hunter Biden’s years of crack cocaine use and addiction, which he has discussed publicly and which was a prominent part of his 2021 autobiography, “Beautiful Things.” He told Noreika at a hearing last year that he has been sober since the middle of 2019.