Hunter Biden will attend a status hearing Friday in advance of the trial he faces next month on gun charges, a law enforcement official told NBC News.
The trial is expected to begin June 3 after a federal appeals court denied Hunter Biden’s request to postpone it. It is the first time the child of a sitting president has faced criminal charges.
At the hearing, scheduled for noon, Hunter Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors will have the opportunity to discuss what evidence they plan to introduce during the trial as well as the witnesses they plan to call for testimony. There will also be an opportunity to discuss the jury selection process and jury instructions and to argue any outstanding motions ahead of trial. The hearing is expected to last around 90 minutes.
Prosecutors are expected to call to testify Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and his late brother’s widow, Hallie Olivere Biden.
Judge Maryellen Noreika still has to rule on outstanding motions from both sides. The government, for example, wants to admit portions of Hunter Biden’s book “Beautiful Things,” and dozens of Biden’s messages over text and WhatsApp to apparent drug dealers, family members and friends. Prosecutors also want to exclude claims made by Hunter Biden’s defense team that this is a “vindictive and selective prosecution,” or that the prosecution is “somehow due to or part of a Russian malign election influence campaign.”
On the other hand, Biden’s attorneys want to exclude any references to his pending tax case in California or his child support proceedings in Arkansas. They want to exclude any reference to Biden’s discharge from the Navy and any statements Biden made at the July 26, 2023 hearing in which the original plea deal collapsed. And they also want to exclude “any reference to his alleged ‘extravagant lifestyle.’”
President Joe Biden’s son, 54, was indicted last September on three counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics. He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have accused Biden of not accurately filling out a form in which he indicated he wasn’t using illegal drugs when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. Prosecutors also alleged that he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to travel to Wilmington Friday afternoon, where he owns a house, while the pre-trial hearing is going on, to kick off the holiday weekend.
Biden has faced attacks from the right over his son’s business dealings. The Republican-led impeachment inquiry has not turned up any evidence to implicate Biden in his son’s legal issues and the president has denied any wrongdoing.
The president will be overseas during a portion of his son’s trial next month, but is expected to closely monitor developments as a concerned parent, not as an incumbent seeking re-election, according to three people familiar with the president’s thinking.
The president’s advisers will be following the trial, watching for any references to him and deciding whether to respond in real-time.
Hunter Biden also faces tax charges in California and on Wednesday, a federal judge granted his request to delay the trial from the original date of June 20 until Sept. 5. He has pleaded not guilty in that case too.
David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware and a Trump appointee, led the investigations into Hunter Biden. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel in August 2023.
Dareh Gregorian, Monica Alba, Mike Memoli and Sarah Fitzpatrick contributed.
