Appointed by Trump, Hunter Biden trial judge spent most of her career in civil law

By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press

The judge presiding over Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial in Delaware is a former corporate civil lawyer with a background in biology who was nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump. But even while that might raise partisan eyebrows and questions of political pressure in the highly watched case, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika was recommended for the bench by the two Democratic senators from one of the country’s smallest states. She spent 25 years as a top intellectual property attorney. In her Senate confirmation hearings, Noreika said she admired judges who were prepared and willing to make people feel like they had been “given a fair shot.”