Hunter Biden attends pre-trial hearing for federal gun charges

Hunter Biden went to a Delaware court on Friday afternoon for a pre-trial hearing on federal gun charges.

Biden, who is President Joe Biden’s son, made an attempt to delay the trial, but the request was denied. His trial is expected to start on Monday, June 3, as reported by NBC News. Judge Maryellen Noreika will preside over the trial.

The first son was indicted and charged with three felony firearm offenses in September 2023. If convicted, Biden faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

According to the indictment, Hunter Biden bought a Colt Cobra revolver on Oct. 12, 2018, and “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm… certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.”

Special counsel David C. Weiss charged Biden with:

• Making a false statement while purchasing a firearm.

• Making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a licensed firearm dealer.

• Possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

Judge Noreika agreed to a defense push to keep some details about Biden’s “extravagant lifestyle,” out of the trial, such as his ongoing tax case in California and his dismissal from the Navy over a positive drug test, per CBS News.

Prosecutors plan on reading portions from Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” to the jury during trial, per AP News. Biden described his struggle with drug abuse and alcoholism in the memoir.

Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, claims the charges are unwarranted.

“We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court,” Lowell said in September, per CBS News.