Hunter Biden gun trial opening statements | CNN Politics (2024)

A jury of Delaware residents has been empaneled in the criminal trial of Hunter Biden on federal gun charges.

Opening statements in the case involving President Joe Biden’s son were delivered on Tuesday, following the dismissal of one juror who cited difficulty getting to the courthouse each day.

One of the four originally selected alternates who also hear the case will replace that juror.

Here’s what to know about the juryas it stands now:

Under cross-examination, a key government witness conceded that Hunter Biden might not have been using drugs continuously from 2015 to 2019, which covers when he bought the gun in 2018.

This is notable because, earlier in the day, prosecutors highlighted how Hunter Biden said in his memoir that he was an “active” addict during that 5-year period.

Hunter lawyer Abbe Lowell is also trying to point out discrepancies between what his client wrote in his 2021 memoir and what actually happened. For example, in one case, Biden went on a flight that he claimed he missed or skipped.

Lowell is likely doing this because prosecutors are relying on the book as key evidence to support their case.

Hunter Biden and his his wife Melissa Cohen Biden depart from the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 4, in Wilmington, Delaware.

The second day of the Hunter Biden federal gun trial has ended. The first, and as of yet, only witness, FBI agent Erika Jensen, remains on the stand for cross-examination.

Court will resume at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

A video of Hunter Biden shirtless is seen on screen during the trial on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Prosecutors have shown several videos to the jury they say were obtained after subpoenaing his electronic devices.

One video showed a shirtless Hunter Biden holding what appeared to be a pipe. Another video showed a white substance on a scale.

Prosecutors are done questioning the FBI agent that they used to introduce a trove of Hunter Biden texts and photos to the jury.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers are now starting their cross-examination of the witness, FBI agent Erika Jensen.

The defense has previously raised concerns about the authenticity of some of the messages that were shown to the jury today.

In the days after he purchased the firearm, Hunter Biden texted that he was smoking crack, according to an FBI agent testifying Tuesday.

In one text the day after he bought the gun, Hunter Biden said he was “waiting for a dealer,” the agent said.

On an almost daily basis, Hunter Biden was withdrawing hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in cash around the time he purchased the firearm in 2018, according to an FBI agent.

On October 12, the day Hunter Biden bought the weapon, he withdrew $5,000 in cash, according to a receipt shown to the jury.

Hunter Biden, prosecutors say, paid for the gun in cash.

Prosecutors introduced into evidence the ATF form that was filled out when Hunter Biden bought the gun on October 12, 2018.

Hunter Biden’s answer to question #11E is the basis of 2 of the 3 charges against him. Biden checked the box saying he wasn’t a user of, or addicted to, illegal drugs.

Prosecutors say that was an unlawful false statement.

This photo from the US Department of Justice shows a white substance that appears to be cocaine.

Prosecutors on Tuesday afternoon showed the jury photos of drugs that they found on Hunter Biden’s devices.

They show a white substance that appears to be cocaine, as well as a scale often used to weigh drugs.

This photo from the US Department of Justice shows a white substance that appears to be cocaine on a scale.

FBI special agent Erika Jensen testified that investigators found the images on Hunter Biden’s devices, which were subpoenaed in 2019. Those devices included his iCloud backup as well as his laptop.

Prosecutors say the pictures of drugs were exchanged between Hunter and some of his drug dealers in California. Hunter described in his memoir that “depravity” and drug binges that dominated his time in Los Angeles that year.

Prosecutors showed invoices from a rehab facility in Los Angeles nearly a month before Hunter Biden purchased a gun in Delaware.

The invoice, for care including detox and a “sober companion,” ran several thousand dollars and spanned over a week in the summer of 2018.

An FBI agent testified that in his book, Hunter said he relapsed two weeks after leaving rehab.

Text messages shown Tuesday afternoon to the jury demonstrate Hunter Biden’s efforts to get drugs and meet with dealers, prosecutors say.

“ASAP if you can,” Hunter Biden allegedly texted one of his contacts, and another time he texted, “can you come this way now?”

“You want 10 grams?” another contact allegedly messaged Hunter Biden.

According to the FBI agent testifying, the messages were from the summer of 2018.

Messages extracted from Hunter Biden’s laptop are also being shown to the jury.

This photo shows "The Mac Shop" in Wilmington, Delaware in October 2020, where Hunter Biden brought his laptop in for repairs in April 2019 but never picked up.

Prosecutors are showing the jury the infamous laptop that Hunter Biden left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019.

FBI agent Erika Jensen testified that authorities verified that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden because of its serial number and other records from Apple.

In previous court filings, prosecutors said they’d use messages they found on the laptop to demonstrate that Hunter Biden was using crack cocaine in 2018, around the time when he bought a gun.

No cameras are allowed inside the Delaware courtroom where Hunter Biden’s trial is underway, but sketch artist Bill Hennessy captured the scene.

Judge Maryellen Noreika, right, speaks with lawyers involved with Hunter Biden's trial on Tuesday, June 4, in Wilmington, Delaware.

This sketch from court shows the scene inside the courtroom where Hunter Biden's trial is underway.

A sketch of the Colt revolver that Hunter Biden purchased from a gun store in Wilmington in October 2018.

A sketch of a speed loader.

US Department of Justice attorney Derek Hines gestures toward Hunter Biden in court.

A sketch of cocaine.

From left, Ashley Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Melissa Cohen Biden attend Hunter Biden's trial on Tuesday.

FBI special agent Erika Jensen.

Hunter Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell.

Hunter Biden sits in court during his trial on Tuesday in Delaware.

The trial resumed shortly after 2 p.m., with FBI special agent Erika Jensen still on the stand.

Jensen is testifying about how investigators corroborated Hunter Biden’s admissions of drug use in his memoir. Her appearance has also allowed prosecutors to introduce portions of Biden’s book into evidence, playing excerpts from the audiobook.

Hunter Biden arrives with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 4, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware.

After both sides delivered opening statements, prosecutors called their first witness, FBI special agent Erika Jensen, Tuesday in Hunter Biden’s trial on felony gun charges.

Jensen will be used by the prosecutors to introduce much of the digital evidence in this case, including embarrassing and intensely personal messages and images from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Here’s what’s happened in the trial so far:

Prosecution’s opening statement: Prosecutors began Tuesday with a fiery opening statement in the Hunter Biden trial. Prosecutor Derek Hines said that Biden was addicted to crack and lied on a federal form about his addiction when buying a gun. “We’re here because of the defendant’s lies and choices,” Hines said. “No one is above the law. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your name is.” Prosecutors also told the jury about Hunter Biden’s memoir. They quoted him describing his “superpower of finding crack anywhere, anytime.” Turning to the jury, Hines said, “those are [Hunter’s] words.”Prosecutors also showed pictures of drugs to the jury that they got from Hunter’s electronic devices.

Defense’s opening statement: Defense attorney Abbe Lowell highlighted the word “knowingly” in the charges brought against Hunter Biden as he began his opening statement Tuesday. Lowell said that prosectors had “left out the word” and argued it is a key part of the case. In addition, he said, out of the 11 days Hunter Biden possessed the firearm, it was only out of a lockbox one day. “They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hunter knowingly violated the law,” Lowell said, adding that what Hunter thought at the time was key. The defense also suggested that Hunter Biden didn’t have much interest in buying a gun, trying to undermine prosecutors’ claims that he knowingly lied to the gun dealers.

Juror dismissed: One juror was dismissed from the Hunter Biden trial Tuesday after they sent an email to the court explaining that they live an hour away from where the trial is taking place in Wilmington, Delaware. The judge entered the courtroom at 8:55 a.m. ET and began by saying, “so, we lost a juror.”

Before the lunch break, some of the jurors took notes during the most intense periods ofthe reading of Hunter Biden’s audiobook, including when he described the utter “shame” and “depravity” of his lifestyle in Los Angeles, buying crack from people in homeless encampments.

The members of the jury — which include several people who lost loved ones to addiction — heard nearlyan hour ofHunterBiden narrating his book from the audiobook version.He explained his many near-death experiences as he bounced between various rehab stints and drug binges.

The jury’s lunch Tuesday included sandwiches, sodas and a large box of cookies. Several jurors ate their lunch in a courtyard outside.

Judge Maryellen Noreika.

Federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika is overseeing Hunter Biden’s gun case in Delaware.

Noreika, a Donald Trump appointee, was confirmed by the US Senate in August 2018 by voice vote. She had the support of both Democratic senators from Delaware. Under the Senate’sblue slip tradition, nominees for district court seats require the support of home state senators to move forward.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat, praised Noreika in a statement after her nomination was announced. He described her and another appointee as “seasoned attorneys,” with “impressive trial skills, deep experience in federal practice, and profound respect for the law.”

Before becoming a federal judge, Noreika was a former patent lawyer in Wilmington, Delaware. Shegrew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvaniaand graduated from University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1993.

Noreika’s political spendinghas gone to both parties. On the presidential level, federal records indicate that she gave $1,000 to then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. She later donated $2,300 to the eventual 2008 Republican nominee, then-Arizona Sen. John McCain. She donated to the subsequent GOP nominee as well, giving $2,500 to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.

Noreika also financially supported Sen. Tom Cotton, a conservative Republican from Arkansas, during his 2014 senate race. She also donated $1,000 in 2009 to the DSCC, the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed, Marshall Cohen and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.

Hunter Biden sits in court on Monday, June 3, in Wilmington, Delaware, in this court sketch.

Roughly 10 months ago, Hunter Biden was in the same Wilmington, Delaware, federal courthouse, preparing to plead guilty to federal tax charges.

The deal would have ended the prosecution, ideally dampening the political and emotional drain on President Joe Biden, although Republicans were livid at the idea there would be no jail time.

Hunter Biden, who failed to pay between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in federal taxes before the legal deadlines, was poised to plead guilty to two tax charges, with prosecutors agreeing to recommend a sentence of probation. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, however, said she had “concerns” about the parties seemingly linking the tax plea agreement to resolving a felony gun charge.

After negotiations, the president’s son then agreed to plead guilty to the two tax charges in a deal that only includes conduct related to tax offenses, drug use and gun possession. The two sides agreed that this deal does not shield him from potential future charges. But the judge wasn’t satisfied.

“What if it is unconstitutional?” she asked. “I’m trying to exercise due deliverance and consideration to make sure we don’t make a misstep.”

David Weiss, subsequently elevated to special counsel, then indicted Biden on the gun charges in Delaware. He’ll be tried on the tax charges in Los Angeles in September.

The trial has broken for lunch and will resume around 2 p.m. ET.

FBI special agent Erika Jensen remains on the stand.

As prosecutors have played long excerpts of Hunter reading his own autobiography – detailing his addiction – Hunter Biden has sat still, looking down, with his head resting over his chin.

The clips being played to the jury detail Hunter Biden’s use of crack cocaine, describing the “repetitive nature, low-lows and high-highs of addiction.

First lady Jill Biden and Hunter’s wife Melissa Cohen Biden have sat stoically during the book’s reading, looking ahead to the FBI agent on the witness stand.

Prosecutors played audio clips from Hunter Biden reading his autobiography saying that prior to a California trip in 2019, he had been going through a four year-period of addiction.

Citing cash withdrawals, FBI agent Erika Jensen placed the time of Hunter’s trip to California in late April 2019.

Hunter purchased the firearm – the root of the charges against him – in October 2018. In his opening statement, defense attorney Abbe Lowell said prosecutors haven’t shown evidence he was a drug user at the time.

Many of the jurors were taking notes attentively during the opening statements in Hunter Biden’s trial.

One juror appeared to become emotional during defense attorney Abbe Lowell’s opening statements. The juror reached for tissues in her bag and dabbed her eyes and her nose several times. It’s unclear what prompted the reaction.

Lowell was 35 minutes into his statement, and had explained how despite claims from prosecutors, the evidence doesn’t show Hunter Biden was using drugs the day he bought the gun. Lowell was discussing the circ*mstances of the tumultuous days when Hallie Biden found the gun and threw it in a trash can outside a supermarket.

As Lowell finished his argument that the only fair verdict would be not guilty, showing the charges and emphasizing how the government must prove Hunter Biden “knowingly” violated the law, the juror folded her arms, holding her tissues.

As she stood to leave for the morning break the juror took a deep breath and walked out slowly.

Prosecutors called their first witness, FBI special agent Erika Jensen.

Jensen will be used by the prosecutors to introduce much of the digital evidence in this case, including embarrassing and intensely personal messages and images from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell told the jury that the pouch prosecutors say carried his gun and had cocaine on it was actually used by Hallie Biden.

Lowell said Hallie Biden put Hunter Biden’s gun in the pouch before throwing the gun away near a grocery store. Five years later, Lowell said, investigators tested a substance they say was on the pouch. But, Lowell said, investigators didn’t test for fingerprints.

Judge Maryellen Noreikaprovided the jury with instructions for the trial of Hunter Biden on Monday.

The instructions outlined a variety of points for jurors to follow and keep in mind for the trial including; the role of the jury, conduct of the jury, questions by jurors and note taking.

The instructions said that the court will not provide jurors with a written account of testimony, but they are allowed to take notes.

View the full jury instructions:

Abbe Lowell arrives to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 4, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell said that while prosecutors highlighted Hunter Biden’s cash withdrawals, the president’s son often used cash for various things at that time, including for rehab.

Hunter Biden, who had no credit card at the time, according to Lowell, bought the firearm at the center of the case with cash.

Prosecutors said they would use text messages and the cash withdraws to prove Hunter Biden was using drugs.

The defense is suggesting to the jury that Hunter Biden didn’t have much interest in buying a gun, trying to undermine prosecutors’ claims that he knowingly lied to the gun dealers.

The gun salesman “led Hunter” to the guns while he was browsing other items and “selected a handgun” for him, Lowell said.

The salesman, Gordon Cleveland, has referred to himself as a “whale hunter,” Lowell told jurors.

Hunter was only in the area to buy a new phone from the AT&T store across the street, Lowell added.

There haven’t been many references to former President Joe Biden in the defense’s opening statements. But Abbe Lowell did mention that Hunter Biden drove “his father’s black Cadillac” to the AT&T store on the day he bought the revolver.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell highlighted the word “knowingly” in the charges brought against Hunter Biden as he began his opening statement Tuesday.

Lowell said that prosectors had “left out the word” and argued it is a key part of the case.

In addition, he said, out of the 11 days Hunter Biden possessed the firearm, it was only out of a lockbox one day.

“They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hunter knowingly violated the law,” Lowell said, adding that what Hunter thought at the time was key.

“Like literally millions of people in this country,” Hunter had struggled with addiction, Lowell said. “He has abused alcohol since he was a teenager and drugs since he was an adult.”

During the trial of Hunter Biden on felony gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, both the prosecutors and defense will likely bring up the form he filled out to obtain the gun, Misty Marris, a defense and trial attorney, said on CNN.

One of the arguments the defense is going to present will be the language used in that form, Marris noted, and whether or not addict was actually defined and they’re going to focus on whether or not Hunter Biden saw himself as an addict at that time.

Marris added that Hunter Biden “had just finished an 11-day rehabilitation program. He had been living with a sober partner for a certain period of time.”

That will all likely be brought up during opening statements underway now and will be a key part of this trial.

In ending his opening statement, prosecutor Derek Hines said that while “addiction may not be a choice,” buying a gun is.

Hunter Biden, Hines said, “isn’t charged with possessing drugs.”

“We would not be here today if he was just a drug addict,” Hines said.

The jury in the trial of Hunter Biden is pretty diverse, Linda Moreno, lawyer and jury consultant, said on CNN.

“About half of them are gun owners or have relatives in their families who own guns. About half of them or more have had a drug addiction touch their families. So this is important. This is a cross section of America and these are the kinds of jurors that are going to figure quite largely in the decision making,” Moreno said.

She added that the selection process by the court tried to ensure that jury members did not have strong opinions about three categories.

The court’s questions to jurors were about:

If any potential juror had strong opinions about any of those three categories would not be able to sit in fairness in this trial, Moreno noted.

Prosecutors are telling the jury about Hunter Biden’s memoir. They quoted him describing his “superpower of finding crack anywhere, anytime.”

Turning to the jury, Hines said, “those are [Hunter’s] words.”

Prosecutors also showed pictures of drugs to the jury that they got from Hunter’s electronic devices.

Hines also showed text messaged allegedly from Hunter, admitting he was an addict.

Prosecutors also played portions of the audiobook from Biden’s memoir in court, meaning the voice of the defendant was one of the first the jurors’ heard.

Hines said during his opening statement that Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s girlfriend who found and threw away his gun,was given a “grant of immunity” to testify in this case about her own past crack cocaine usage. The immunity requires Hallie Biden to testify “truthfully,” Hines said.

Hines said Hallie Biden “had been a drug user too,” after Hunter “introduced” crack cocaine to her. Hines said Hallie Biden was clean when she found and threw out Hunter’s gun in October 2018.

Prosecutor Derek Hines said the employee at the gun store where Hunter Biden purchased his revolver will testify about the form the president’s son filled out.

Prosecutors showed the jury the ATF form that was filled out when Biden bought the gun.

“He lied” on the ATF form, Hines told the jury.

A Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver that Hunter Biden purchased from a gun store in Wilmington, Delaware, in October 2018.

Prosecutors showed a picture of Hunter Biden’s Colt revolver to the jury during their opening statements. They also showed images of the “hollow-point” ammunition that he bought that day.

Biden’s lawyers previously said in filings that he never used or loaded the gun when he had it for 11 days before his girlfriend threw it away.

Prosecutors began Tuesday with a fiery opening statement in the Hunter Biden trial.

Prosecutor Derek Hines said that Biden was addicted to crack and lied on a federal form about his addiction when buying a gun.

Biden “chose to illegally own a firearm,” Hines said.

One juror was dismissed from the Hunter Biden trial Tuesday after they sent an email to the court explaining that they live an hour away from the court.

The judge entered the courtroom at 8:55 a.m. ET and began by saying, “so, we lost a juror.”

The judge said that the juror sent an email overnight explaining that she lives in Milford, Delaware, an hour away from the court and is unemployed.

CNN's Paula Reid holds up a sheet of paper with notes from inside federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday.

CNN’s Paula Reid, and every other journalist outside the Wilmington, Delaware, federal courthouse this week, must rely on handwritten notes delivered from inside to deliver real-time information to the public.

But the Biden trial is even more limited than Trump’s was.

CNN producer Kit Maher shared this note from inside court with CNN Senior Justice CorrespondentEvan Pérez after the jury had been selected on Monday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Tmp’s criminal trial in New York allowed no TV or audio, but reporters were at least able to use email and Slack to transmit to the outside world. Neither option is available here, so we’re relying on notes, runners or for reporters to come out of the courthouse in person.

Before opening statements, the judge rejected several attempts by Hunter Biden’s team to exclude some photos from the trial.

The judge will allow the photos to be shown to the jury because they contain “circ*mstantial evidence”of his drug use.One of the images shows a nude Hunter Biden, but the judge said it only shows him “from the chest up,” and is redacted below that, so it will be allowed.

The court is still waiting for some jurors to show up, ahead of opening statements, which haven’t begun yet.

Democrats are dismissing attempts to compare Hunter Biden’s trial with former President Donald Trump’s conviction last week.

“Hunter Biden is not running for president. President Donald Trump’s running for president,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He also noted that Democrats have not rushed to Hunter Biden’s defense in this criminal case, or alleged that the trial is a “sham” in the way that Republicans did with the Trump trial.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California agreed:

Pressed on how Hunter’s trial could affect his father’s chances in November, Garcia replied, “I think the president loves his son. And I think that we all agree that Hunter’s made some mistakes, and he’s got to be held accountable for those. I don’t think they have anything to do with his election for president.”

Attorney Abbe Lowell arrives at court on May 24, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Abbe Lowell, a seasoned defense attorney known for his aggressive style, is representing Hunter Biden during the trial and, through scores of court filings, has outlined several strategies his team may deploy against the prosecutors’ case.

One key issue could be over whether Hunter Biden viewed himself as an addict when he purchased the pistol.

The defense wants to call an expert on addiction treatment to testify on addiction disorders and how individuals view their addiction. Prosecutors have fought against this testimony, arguing that it would be focused on the expert’s opinion around Biden’s mental state at the time of the alleged crime, which they say is not allowed in a criminal trial.

Another expert witness the defense team wants to call is a forensic chemist who could testify about the white residue found on Biden’s gun pouch, which prosecutors say tested positive for cocaine.

Lowell has also raised issues with the employees at the gun store where Biden allegedly purchased the weapon.

One of the most notable pieces of evidence in the case will be messages from Hunter Biden’sinfamous laptop, which has been at the center of a yearslong political saga.

Special counsel David Weiss said the material “is real” and will be an important part of his case, rebutting past claims from Biden that the laptop might be fake or even Russian disinformation.

Republican officialsandright-wing outletshave seized on the laptop’s embarrassing emails and sexually explicit images to attack Hunter Biden, while his lawyer says the fileswere manipulated, andsued a repair shop ownerwho helped make the materials public.

Judge Maryellen Noreika has said she’ll let Hunter Biden challenge the authenticity of any messages introduced at trial. Some of the texts contain gut-wrenching arguments between Hunter Biden and his loved ones about his sobriety. Others show him meeting up with drug dealers, including some just a few blocks from the Wilmington federal courthouse.

Prosecutors plan to use the laptop tospecifically support their claim that he was using illegal drugs when he bought the gun in 2018. Weisshas not addressed – and the case is not about – Republicans’unproven allegationthat emails from the laptop prove that Hunter Biden and his father were involved in corrupt foreign business deals.

First lady Jill Biden arrives at federal court on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware.

First lady Jill Biden has also arrived at the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, where the second day of Hunter Biden’s trial is set to begin soon.

She was in the courtroom throughout the yesterday, sitting in the pews, a few feet from Hunter, as she celebrated her 73rd birthday.

Hunter Biden on January 10 in Washington, DC.

Hunter Biden faces three charges, including making false statements on a federal firearms form and possession of a firearm as a prohibited person.

The indictment stems from a 2018 gun purchase. While buying the revolver in Delaware, Biden lied on a federal form, swearing that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs – even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase.

More context: It’s a federal crime to lie on the ATF form or to possess a firearm as a drug user. He possessed the gun for 11 days in 2018.

If convicted on all counts, Biden could theoretically face as much as 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000, according to court filings.

However, defendants very rarely get the maximum penalty, especially in cases like these, involving non-violent crimes and an alleged first-time offender.

The charges followed a botched agreement: Last June, Weiss announced a two-pronged agreement where Biden would plead guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors and enter a “diversion agreement” where the gun charge would be dropped in two years if he passed regular drug tests and stayed out of legal trouble.

However, at a July 2023 hearing, the agreement collapsed after a judge saidshe had “concerns” about the parties seemingly linking the tax plea agreement to resolving a felony gun charge. Attorney General Merrick Garland named Weiss as special counsel the month after.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen,Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this post.

Hunter Biden arrived to the Wilmington, Delaware, court for the second day of his trial, flanked by attorney Abbe Lowell.

Ashley Biden, Hunter Biden’s sister, arrived with attorney Kevin Morris.

The trial of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden will “absolutely not” interfere with the president’s ability to do his job, the White House said Monday.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is “the President of the United States and he always puts the American people first and is capable of doing his job.”

Jean-Pierre said she had “nothing to share” when asked how the president was monitoring the proceedings and if he spoke to his son after the court concluded on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, Biden released a statement in support of his son, writing in part: “I am the president, but I am also a dad.”

Jean-Pierre said that outside of the statement, she didn’t “have anything else to share.”

Hunter Biden arrives at the federal court with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden on the opening day of his trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday.

Guns, addiction and politics hung over jury selection at Hunter Biden’s criminal trial Monday, with at-times emotional questioning that resulted in the selection of a diverse 12-member panel.

Throughout the day at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, prospective jurors were asked for their thoughts on the politicization of the criminal justice system, the state of US gun laws and their relationships with people struggling with addiction.

These topics will weigh heavily in the case against Hunter Biden, who made history Monday by becoming the first child of a sitting US president to go on trial. He pleaded not guilty to unlawfully buying and possessing a firearm while abusing drugs, which is against federal law. Hunter Biden is a recovering alcohol and crack cocaine addict.

Here aresome takeawaysfrom the first day of the long-awaited trial:

Read more about Monday’s takeaways

CNN’s Kit Maher and Macayla Cook contributed to this report.

This is a historic moment for the United States and the history of the presidency. No president has tried to run the country while watching his child go on trial.

Over the decades, there have been plenty of examples of presidential family members getting in trouble. George H. W. Bush’s sonfaced civil penaltiesfor violating banking laws while his father was serving in the White House.Jimmy Carter’sbrotherwas scrutinized for his foreign lobbying. But nothing has sunk to the level of a criminal trial.

CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said “There’s always somebody considered a black sheep in the presidential family,” but that Hunter Biden’s sprawling legal debacles “cut unusually close to the bone because it’s the president’s son.”

“This trial is an albatross around President Biden’s neck and weighs very heavily on his psyche,” Brinkley said on Monday.