Hunter Biden due to plead not guilty to gun charges in Delaware court
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[October 03, 2023]
WILMINGTON, Delaware(Reuters) - President Joe Biden's son
Hunter Biden is expected to plead not guilty on Tuesday to lying about
his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first-ever criminal
prosecution of a sitting U.S. president's child.
Hunter Biden, 53, was charged last month by U.S. Special Counsel David
Weiss with three counts related to lying on a federal form to acquire a
Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and for being an illegal drug user in
possession of the gun.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a court filing last month that Hunter
Biden plans to plead not guilty.
That sets the stage for a historic first: The criminal trial of the
adult child of a sitting president who is campaigning for reelection.
Biden's likely 2024 Republican rival, Donald Trump, faces four upcoming
criminal trials of his own, two of which are tied to his attempts to
overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, which he continues to falsely
claim is the result of fraud.
In July, an agreement to resolve the gun charges and separate tax
charges unraveled when a U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in
Wilmington refused to accept it.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/03/images/ads/current/peasley_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
Under that deal, Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor
tax violations and would avoid punishment on the gun charges if for two
years he did not possess a firearm and refrained from using illegal
drugs and alcohol.
Hunter Biden's lawyers have said in court filings they believe the
agreement with prosecutors remains in effect and that Hunter Biden
continues to comply with it. They accused prosecutors of reneging on the
agreement.
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![](../images/100323PIX/news_p98.jpg)
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs federal court
after a plea hearing on two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing
to pay income taxes in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. July 26, 2023.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/03/images/ads/current/lincolnheating_lda_FHG_2023.png)
Some legal experts have said that any firearms-related charges
against Biden could be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge,
after the U.S. Supreme Court last year in a landmark ruling expanded
gun rights under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which
protects the right to bear arms.
The younger Biden for years has been the focus of unrelenting
attacks by Republicans, led by former President Trump.
Republicans have accused Hunter Biden, who has worked as a lobbyist,
lawyer, investment banker and artist, of wrongdoing relating to
Ukraine and China and have made him a focus of a congressional
impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.
The president's son, who has publicly discussed his substance abuse,
never held a position in the White House or on his father's
campaign. The president has said he has not discussed foreign
business dealings with his son and has said his Justice Department
would have independence in any investigation of a member of his
family.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Scott
Malone and Alistair Bell)
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