Hunter Biden asked a judge Monday to throw out his three-count felony gun indictment, which was filed earlier this year by special counsel David Weiss.
President Joe Biden’s embattled son is challenging the indictment on several fronts, including claims that the case violates his Second Amendment rights, and a separate argument that prosecutors are reneging on a previous pledge not to charge him with gun crimes.
The gun indictment stems from a revolver Hunter Biden purchased in October 2018 and possessed for less than two weeks. He’s accused of lying on a federal form when he swore that he wasn’t using or addicted to any illegal drugs – even though he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time. He’s also accused of illegally possessing the gun.
In addition to the gun case in Delaware, Hunter Biden is also facing federal tax charges in California. Weiss sought the indictments last week after a plea deal collapsed over the summer.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have argued for months that part of their now-defunct deal with prosecutors is actually still valid and is supposed to block Weiss from filing gun charges.
The parties had struck two intertwined deals: a “plea agreement” in which Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and a “diversion agreement” in which Weiss would drop a gun charge in two years if Hunter Biden stayed sober and out of trouble.
The tax plea deal imploded under scrutiny in July and never went into effect. The two parties signed the gun deal before the plea hearing – however, there was a line for the signature of a court probation officer, and that person never signed the paperwork. It’ll now be up to US District Judge Maryellen Noreika to decide whether it is legally binding.
“Neither the Court nor anyone else is a party to the (Diversion) Agreement,” Hunter Biden’s…
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