Judging essentially ensures that the trial, which will see Hunter Biden—the first child of a serving president to be charged—take place this summer. If found guilty, Biden could spend more than 20 years behind bars.
As the Democratic US president steps up his reelection campaign, a US court has refused to drop gun charges against Hunter Biden, one of the two criminal cases against his father.
Hunter Biden sought to have two counts of lying about using illicit drugs when he bought a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and a third allegation of unlawfully carrying the firearm dismissed. However, federal judge Maryellen Noreika made a decision against his request on Friday in Wilmington, Delaware.
The decision paves the path for the gun charges trial, which is tentatively set to begin in Wilmington on June 3. Hunter Biden entered a not guilty plea.
In September, Special Counsel David Weiss filed the firearms charges against Hunter Biden, making him the first presidential child to face legal action. Should he be found guilty of the firearms charges, he could spend more than 20 years behind bars.
Legality of gun control measures
Hunter Biden’s lawyers had argued that the gun charges should be dropped for a number of reasons, one of which being that the statute under which he was charged was probably unconstitutional following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to expand gun rights and establish a stringent new standard for determining whether or not firearms restrictions are legal.
Hunter Biden was being unfairly prosecuted, according to Biden’s legal team, and he was protected from prosecution by a legally binding agreement. Weiss was also said to have been improperly appointed.
In a different lawsuit filed by Weiss in California, Hunter Biden entered a not guilty plea to federal tax offenses. If found guilty, he could spend up to 17 years in jail. The start of that trial is set for June 20.
Hunter Biden was charged by the special counsel with evading paying $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 while squandering millions of dollars on luxury automobiles, escorts, drugs, and other expensive stuff.
On April 1, US District Judge Mark Scarsi in Los Angeles denied Hunter Biden’s requests to have the tax indictment dismissed.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
