A judge in Delaware has rejected Hunter Biden’s attempts to have three federal gun charges against him dismissed, which means that a trial will likely proceed this summer.
Hunter Biden’s legal team launched a series of challenges to the indictment filed by special counsel David Weiss in December. They questioned Weiss’ authority to bring charges and alleged that the indictment was a product of selective and vindictive prosecution.
The defense attorneys also made the argument that an immunity provision tied to Hunter Biden’s unsuccessful plea agreement was still valid.
According to prosecutors, Hunter Biden allegedly provided false information on a federal form regarding his drug use while acquiring a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in 2018. In his memoir titled “Beautiful Things,” Hunter Biden admitted to struggling with drug addiction during that period. It is worth noting that he possessed the firearm for a brief period of eleven days and did not discharge it at any point, as stated by his legal representatives.
In January, Weiss’ office pushed back against Hunter Biden’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, calling his different arguments “absurd,” “stunningly weak and wholly unsupported by facts and law,” and “a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”
Judge Maryellen Noreika sided with the prosecutors on Friday, ensuring that the case will go to trial, tentatively scheduled to start in early June.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys hoped for dismissal, arguing that both parties’ signatures ratified an immunity provision in their plea deal, which ultimately failed. However, Weiss’ office maintained that the contract required clearance from a probation officer, who never signed it.
On Friday, Noreika stated that “the relevant language [in the agreement] unambiguously requires probation to approve the agreement.”
Hunter Biden also said that Weiss “buckled” under political pressure from Republicans and former President Trump. But Noreika delivered a scathing criticism.
“At best, [Hunter Biden] has generically alleged that individuals from the prior administration were or are targeting him (or his father), and therefore his prosecution here must be vindictive,” Noreika said in a statement. “The problem with this argument is that the charging decision at issue was made during this administration—by Special Counsel Weiss—at a time when the head of the Executive Branch prosecuting Defendant is Defendant’s father.”
“The defendant’s claim is effectively that his own father targeted him for being his son, a claim that is nonsensical under the facts here,” he said.
The ruling is another legal loss for Hunter Biden, who had identical arguments to a nine-count indictment on tax allegations denied earlier this month by a California federal judge. We anticipate the trial of that lawsuit shortly after the Delaware gun case.
