< Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, was charged Thursday by federal prosecutors with lying about drug use in a 2018 handgun purchase and illegal gun possession, raising the potential for a trial that coincides with his father's re-election campaign.
The indictment comes as House Republicans have stepped up efforts to use Hunter Biden's work abroad to build a case for President Biden's impeachment, the New York Times reported.
< p>And this, the NYT writes, puts the US Department of Justice in a double position, since it is pursuing cases both against the president's son and against former President Donald Trump, the current leader of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election.
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The gun charges center on whether Hunter Biden lied on a federal government form he was required to fill out when he purchased a .38-caliber handgun in Delaware in 2018.
In response to a question on the form about whether he uses drugs, Hunter Biden responded that he does not — a claim that prosecutors concluded was false. Biden subsequently publicly acknowledged that he was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and was in and out of rehab at the time he purchased the gun.
An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, charged Biden with three felonies: lying to a federal licensed gun dealer, making a false statement on a federal firearms application used to screen applicants, and possession of an illegally obtained weapon within 11 days. , from October 12 to October 23, 2018.
— Hunter Biden possessed a firearm knowing that he was an illegal user of or dependent on stimulants, narcotics, or any other controlled substance, a violation of federal law,— says the five-page indictment.
The gun was found by Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, shortly after purchasing it. Hallie Biden, with whom Hunter Biden was romantically involved at the time, threw the gun in the trash, fearing he might use it to kill himself.
If convicted, Mr. Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of $750 thousand. But nonviolent first-time offenders who have not been charged with using guns in other crimes rarely receive significant prison sentences for such charges.
His arraignment date has not yet been set.
The decision to bring criminal charges against President Biden's troubled youngest son was an extraordinary step for the Justice Department and the lead prosecutor in the case, David Weiss, whom Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed as special counsel last month. Garland granted Weiss this status after a last-minute tentative agreement that would have allowed the lengthy investigation to be completed without Mr. Biden's report fell apart.
The deal's disappearance would also allow the investigation into Biden's failure to file his tax returns on time for several years to be completed. Prosecutors did not bring tax charges against Biden on Thursday, but may still do so.
Weiss' team also said it was continuing to investigate other elements of Biden's business activities, including whether his work with foreign interests violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires disclosure of lobbying activities for other countries.
Over the course of several years, Biden engaged in a variety of lucrative activities around the world, some of which coincided with his father's time as vice president. Among them — work on the board of directors of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and investment deals in China that brought him millions of dollars in income.
Hunter Biden's international business is at the heart of House Republicans' efforts to find evidence to justify impeaching President Biden. Although Republicans have proven that President Biden, while vice president, had some collateral contacts with his son's business associates, they have not yet provided any hard evidence that he did anything to benefit Hunter or his associates, or acted illegally or unethical.
The gun incident occurred after President Biden resigned as vice president and before he announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election.
Biden's lawyers argued to Justice Department officials that the indictment was ultimately will be lifted because a series of Supreme Court and appellate court decisions have questioned the constitutionality of the federal government placing certain conditions on the purchase of firearms.
Weiss, who is the state attorney for Delaware and was appointed to that position by the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, filed gun charges in Delaware, where the gun purchase took place. If he brings charges related to Biden's taxes, his special counsel status would allow him to do so in other jurisdictions where Biden resided during the period he failed to file on time, including California and Washington, D.C.
The investigation into Hunter Biden appeared to come to a close this summer when his lawyers and Weiss announced a plea agreement and a hearing was scheduled in federal court in Delaware.
Under that agreement, Biden would have pleaded guilty guilty of two tax offenses. As for the gun purchase, prosecutors agreed not to prosecute him on that charge under a so-called pre-trial agreement that would have required Mr. Biden to admit that he used drugs when he bought the gun.
The agreement was contingent on Biden remaining drug-free for the next two years. Biden has said he has been drug-free since 2019.
But the agreement fell apart at a hearing in federal court in July. There was a major disagreement between Weiss' prosecutors and Biden's lawyer Christopher Clark over whether the agreement included an immunity clause that would have protected him from prosecution over his foreign business dealings.
Judge Maryellen Noreika of Federal District Court in Wilmington sharply questioned elements of the agreement's structure, repeatedly telling the parties that it was not intended to be a “rubber stamp.”
Her objections focused on two elements of the proposed agreement. One of them was a provision that would have given Mr. Biden broad insulation from further prosecution on issues that were scrutinized by federal prosecutors during a five-year investigation. The other was a gun diversion program in which she would play a role in determining whether Biden complies with the terms of the agreement.
Judge Noreika said she was not trying to sink the agreement, but to strengthen it by eliminating ambiguities and inconsistencies. But by the end of the stormy hearing, the parties had gone their separate ways, with prosecutors filing papers indicating they would continue to prosecute, and an irritated Weiss asking to be appointed special counsel, requiring him to file a report at the conclusion of the investigation.
Indictment , released Thursday, came as no surprise. On September 6, Weiss told the court that he plans to file gun charges before the end of the month.
Abbey Lowell, Biden's lawyer, argued that the indictment should be thrown out, saying Weiss is still legally bound by the tentative agreement to redirect the case. Biden remains sober and makes regular appearances with a federal probation officer, according to two people familiar with his activities.
The investigation into Hunter Biden has become a central issue for House Republicans and Mr. Trump, who has seized on it as a counterweight to his own legal problems. Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that the House will open a formal impeachment inquiry.
The Justice Department has been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018. Although the investigation covered a range of issues, including his work at Burisma, ties to oligarchs and business deals in China, it ultimately narrowed to questions about Biden's taxes and weapons purchases.
Those charges, while serious, were far less explosive than those brought by Trump and congressional Republicans, furious at the Justice Department for failing to find broader criminal wrongdoing by the president's son and family.
