Hunter Biden judge once gave stiff sentence in similar gun case
The federal judge who will soon decide Hunter Biden’s fate following his conviction Tuesday recently doled out a tougher-than-anticipated prison sentence in a similar firearms case.
Judge Maryellen Noreika sentenced that defendant, Zhi Dong, to one year — double the amount of time prosecutors had asked for — on May 2.
Dong had pleaded guilty to making a false statement during the purchase of firearms after he lied about his address on government forms when he bought more than a dozen guns in Delaware in 2020.
President Biden’s son, meanwhile, was convicted of three counts related to lying about his drug use in order to buy a gun.
Despite claiming to live in Delaware, Dong had actually resided in Maryland with his wife and daughter, according to the details of his case, which was first reported by Politico.
Prosecutors noted in their sentencing memo that the father-of-one had later copped to driving the firearms to California where he delivered them to a gun store — a move that was “indicative of trafficking firearms.”
The DOJ — who noted Dong wasn’t the “brains of the operation” — asked Noreika to sentence him to six months after acknowledging that it was his first offense.
Noreika, instead, opted to lock him up for a year.
The details of the case surfaced as speculation mounts over how hard Noreika plans to come down on Hunter Biden after jurors found him guilty of making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed firearms dealer, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of or addict to a controlled substance.
The judge has yet to determine when she’ll dole out Biden’s punishment but she did note immediately after the verdict was read that sentencing hearings are often set about four months after conviction.
While the first son is facing up to 25 years in prison, a lighter sentence is more likely given he — like the defendant in last month’s case — has no prior convictions.
The judge was nominated to the bench in 2018 by the Biden family’s chief political antagonist: former President Donald Trump.
She was recommended for the bench, though, by the two Democratic senators.
Prior to getting the nod as a federal judge, Noreika had not worked on criminal cases or presided over a courtroom.
Noreika, who spent 25 years at the Delaware law firm of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, spent much of her early career working in federal civil litigation tied to intellectual property.