President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden leaves after a court appearance, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, in Wilmington, Del. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday, Aug. 11, he has appointed a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, deepening the investigation of the president’s son ahead of the 2024 election. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, was indicted on gun charges in a federal court in Delaware on Thursday, a development that was expected after plea deal negotiations around tax and gun charges fell apart this July.
In Thursday’s indictment, the charges allege that Hunter Biden failed to disclose on requisite paperwork to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he was using drugs when he purchased a gun in 2018 in Wilmington, Delaware. It is considered a crime under federal law to make a knowingly false statement to the government.
Biden is also charged with lying to a licensed gun dealer in Delaware and he is alleged to have possessed a firearm while using narcotics. The president’s son only had possession of the firearm for a little over a week in 2018.
Earlier this summer, Hunter Biden was prepared to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanor charges if the federal gun charge of possessing a weapon while being addicted to a controlled substance was dropped. Known as a diversion agreement, the deal would have meant the president’s son would be required to serve probation only, take and pass drug tests and avoid any further trouble with the law. Prosecutors were willing to recommend Biden serve no jail time.
But the specifics of his diversion agreement raised questions for U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who presided over the matter. She couldn’t reconcile how the tax and gun charge were being weighed together in the proposed agreement and after prosecutors and defense attorneys failed to come together at negotiations, Noreika ordered a trial.
Once the deal evaporated, Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned a special counsel to the matter, David Weiss. Weiss, who was appointed to the Justice Department by former President Donald Trump, oversaw the initial investigation into Hunter beginning in 2018.
The timing of Thursday’s indictment could mean that President Joe Biden will hit the campaign trail in 2024 while his son is on trial. Given the succinct nature of the charges and their lack of complexity, proceedings could be quite short. Nonetheless, Weiss still must decide whether he will charge Hunter Biden with any tax crimes. If he does, the venue for those charges could be in Washington, D.C., or potentially California.
If convicted on every charge he faces, the maximum total penalty is 25 years in prison, though it is unlikely the maximum would be requested as it often is not in similar cases. If found guilty, according to court records, the president’s son may also be forced to pay fines hovering around $750,000.
A date for Hunter Biden’s next court appearance has not been scheduled.
A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not immediately return a request for comment.
It is the first time that a sitting U.S. president’s son has been indicted; a historic novelty that joins several other novelties to emerge this year including the quadruple indictment of a former U.S. president, Donald Trump.
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