Power of the Biden family undeniable as first son Hunter’s f

First lady Dr. Jill Biden, 73, was front-row, hard to miss in a bright purple pantsuit and gleaming blond coiffure.

She made a point of turning around and offering her face to the jury pool as they filed in to sit on the other side of the courtroom. She was flanked by Hunter’s elegantly dressed second wife, Melissa Cohen, 38, and, for half the day, by Hunter’s half-sister, Ashley Biden, 42, Jill’s daughter.

Next to the women were “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, the Hollywood attorney who has spent more than $6 million paying Hunter’s tax debts, buying his paintings and funding his lifestyle; Washington, DC, lawyer Peter Neal, the husband of Hunter’s daughter Naomi; and Delaware attorney John T. Owens, the husband of Joe Biden’s sister, Val.

All that was missing was the patriarch president, holed up five miles away in his lakeside spread in bucolic Greenville.

And everywhere you looked there were Secret Service agents, a praetorian guard around the first family, their big black Chevy Suburbans blockading the courthouse amid the flashing lights of police cars, blocked-off roads and gigantic satellite trucks for the world’s media.

‘Wilmington’s a small place’

The power imbalance was evident as prospective jurors were questioned about their lives as carpenters, traveling salesmen, teachers, aspiring forensic scientists and bartenders.

 

They all knew who Hunter was. Some of them knew members of the Biden family and were excluded. “Wilmington is a small place,” said one.

But of the final 12 chosen Monday, seven had a close family member addicted to drugs or alcohol, a commonality that ought to bring comfort to Hunter, as he faces the first test of his family name’s Teflon protection.

Power of the Biden family undeniable as first son Hunter’s federal gun trial begins