The judge presiding over Hunter Biden’s federal weapons trial in Delaware is a former civil corporate lawyer with a background in biology who was nominated to the court by the Biden family’s main political antagonist: former President Donald Trump.
But even though that could raise partisan eyebrows and questions about political pressure in the widely watched case, District Judge Maryellen Noreika was nominated to the court by the two Democratic senators.
She has a short history of political donations to both parties — mostly Republicans — and had not worked on criminal cases or presided over a courtroom before her appointment as a federal judge. The New York Times reported that she was registered to vote as a Democrat from 2000 to 2020, until she changed her registration to no party affiliation.
She has led a trial that exposed some of the president’s son’s darkest moments, including drug addiction. Outside her courtroom, the international media try to catch a glimpse of the members of the first family as they come and go.
In her Senate confirmation hearing, Noreika said she admires judges who are willing and “willing to listen and give litigants an opportunity to be heard. … They want to make people feel like they’ve been heard and that they’ve been given a fair chance.”
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, although first-time offenders won’t get close to the maximum, and it’s unclear whether the judge would give him a prison sentence.
In a written response to questions about the sentencing of current Vice President Kamala Harris, Noreika said she would “listen to arguments from the parties, including requests for clemency, and consider statements from victims. If confirmed, I would do my best to provide a sentence that is sufficient, but not more severe than necessary.”
A native of Pittsburgh, 57-year-old Noreika graduated from Lehigh University in 1988 before earning her master’s degree in biology from Columbia University in 1990. She received her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993 magna cum laude.
Noreika spent the next 25 years at the Delaware law firm Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, where she became a partner in 2001. According to her Senate confirmation questionnaire, most of her work involved federal civil litigation involving intellectual property. It said she had tried “at least 30” cases to reach a verdict or final decision, and most were non-legal processes. She also stated that she had no criminal law experience.
When asked to list “any professional business, fraternal scientific, civic, or charitable organizations” she has belonged to since law school, Noreika responded, “None.”
For pro bono work, Noreika wrote that she spent fifteen years as a guardian ad litem for children in the Delaware Family Court.
“These cases involved difficult custody issues, including allegations of sexual and physical abuse, neglect and abandonment,” Noreika wrote. She described “taking kids for lunch and dinner and fun activities to get them to interact with me and trust me.”
Her position as a judge in the Hunter Biden criminal trial put her in the national spotlight and made her a target of political bias speculation.
It was Noreika who torpedoed a plea deal that would have resolved the gun case when she raised concerns about the terms of the agreement in 2023.
Noreika has previously presided over a Biden-related case: In March 2023, she dismissed part of a defamation lawsuit filed by the owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware where Hunter Biden left his laptop in 2019.
Federal campaign finance records show she donated at least $15,000 to political candidates between 2005 and 2014, most of which went to Republicans including current U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and Mitt Romney. But she also donated to the 2008 presidential campaigns of both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain.
