Joe Biden
Biden’s son to plead not guilty upon charges. Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, will appear in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday and is anticipated to plead not guilty to accusations of illegally having a firearm.
Hunter Biden, 53, is facing three felony counts related to the acquisition of a.38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in 2018.
Biden faces two charges of making false statements for declaring on paperwork required for the gun purchase that he was not using illegal narcotics at the time.
Based on the same statements, he faces a third accusation of illegally possessing the gun, which he had for only 11 days in October 2018 before it was destroyed.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has informed the court that the president’s son plans to plead not guilty at Tuesday’s 10:00 am (1400 GMT) arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens.
Lowell had also asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.
“The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter,” Burke wrote in his ruling.
In July, a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss — which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison — fell apart.
That led to Weiss filing the three felony gun possession charges against Biden.
If convicted, Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.
– Possible tax charges –
Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, in the meantime has signaled that he is still investigating Biden on possible tax charges.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, bowing to pressure from the party’s hard right, authorized the launch last month of an impeachment investigation into the president.
However, the younger Biden has not been charged with any crimes relating to his international business transactions, and no solid proof that his father was involved in anything improper has emerged thus far.
Hunter Biden is a Yale-educated lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, but alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction have plagued his life. His legal problems threaten to overshadow his father’s reelection campaign next year.
Throughout his personal and legal troubles, the 80-year-old president has stood solidly behind his only surviving son, claiming earlier this year that Hunter has “done nothing wrong.”
“I have faith in him.” “I believe in him,” Joe Biden stated.