(WILMINGTON, Del.) — Hunter Biden’s federal gun case will proceed to trial next month, a judge said Tuesday, denying a request by lawyers for Hunter Biden to delay the prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected Hunter Biden’s request to push the trial until September, which the defense said was necessary to give the defense time to review evidence provided by prosecutors and line up witnesses.
President Joe Biden’s son is accused of falsely stating his drug use in October 2018 on a form to purchase a gun that he kept for about 11 days.
Hunter Biden, who has pleaded not guilty, has acknowledged struggling with a crack cocaine addiction during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he did not break the law.
His attorneys have argued that prosecutors gave in to pressure from Republicans, who claimed the Democratic president’s son was initially given favorable treatment, and that he was indicted due to political pressure.
But the judge overseeing the case last month ruled that the prosecution is not politically motivated along with other efforts to dismiss the case. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week also ruled to proceed to trial.
Hunter Biden was supposed to plead guilty last year to misdemeanor tax charges and would have avoided prosecution on the gun charges had he stayed out of trouble for two years. It was the culmination of a years-long investigation by federal prosecutors into the business dealings of the president’s son, and the agreement would have ended criminal proceedings and spared the Bidens weeks of headlines as the 2024 election approached.
But negotiations fell through after the judge who was supposed to sign off on the agreement instead raised a series of questions about it.
Hunter Biden was indicted on three gun firearms charges in Delaware and was charged separately in California, where he lives, with tax evasion.
He’s charged in the Delaware case with two counts of making false statements, first for falsely checking a box saying he was not addicted to drugs and second for providing the false information to the shop for their federally required records. A third count alleges he possessed the gun for about 11 days despite knowing he was a drug user.
In California, Hunter Biden is charged with three felonies and six misdemeanors over at least $1.4 million in taxes he owed during between 2016 and 2019. Prosecutors have accused him of spending millions of dollars on an “extravagant lifestyle” instead of paying his taxes. The back taxes have since been paid.
