Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, is likely to plead not guilty to gun charges. Hunter, who will be appearing in the federal court in Delaware on Tuesday (Oct 3), has been charged with illegal possession of a handgun.
The 53-year-old is facing three felony charges because of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver he purchased in 2018.
The younger Biden has been charged with two counts of making false claims while filling the form needed for gun purchase, wherein he stated that he was not illegally using drugs at the time.
Based on the same statements, he is facing a third charge for illegally possessing the gun, which he had kept with himself for just 11 days in October 2018, and later gotten rid of.
The lawyer of Hunter Biden, Abbe Lowell, informed the court that the former will be pleading not guilty at Tuesday’s 10:00 am (1400 GMT) arraignment to be held at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens.
Hunter Biden stands at risk of facing 25 years of imprisonment
Lowell further asked Judge Christopher Burke to permit Biden, who has been living in California, to appear in the court via video call and not in person. However, that request was denied.
“The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter,” wrote Burke in his ruling.
In July, Biden failed to finalise a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss, which would have freed him from the gun charges while he pleaded guilty to two tax charges and escaped prison.
Because of this, Weiss filed three felony gun possession charges against Hunter Biden.
If the court convicts Hunter Biden, he could face 25 years of imprisonment in theory, although in practice, such offences, if not pressed along with other charges, are not punished with any prison term.
For the investigation of Hunter Biden, Weiss was elevated to special counsel after the plea deal was not finalised. Weiss has hinted that he is still carrying out an investigation against Biden on possible tax charges.
The business dealings of Hunter Biden in China and Ukraine when his father was the country’s vice president in the regime of Barack Obama have been constantly targeted by Republicans.
Bowing to pressure from the hard right of the party, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last month authorised the launch of an impeachment investigation into President Biden.