News of Tuesday, 3rd October 2023
US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to gun charges in Delaware court
US, Sun, 3: US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is scheduled to return to a Delaware courtroom on Tuesday to plead not guilty to federal firearms charges. The president’s son is accused of lying about drug use on a gun purchase form in October 2018, which he had for about 11 days.
Hunter was believed to have struggled with cocaine addiction during the period, but his lawyers have said he did not break the law. An appeals court has found that banning drug users from owning guns violates the Second Amendment under new Supreme Court standards. Hunter Biden’s lawyers suggest that prosecutors bowed to pressure from Republicans, saying the charges are the result of political pressure.
He was indicted this summer after striking a plea deal with federal prosecutors on tax and gun charges. The deal came after several questions were raised about the judge who was to sign the deal instead. Federal prosecutors had been investigating her business dealings for five years, and the agreement ended criminal proceedings before her father began actively campaigning for president in 2024.
Now, a special counsel has been appointed to handle the case. No new tax charges have been filed yet, but the special counsel has indicated they could come in California or Washington.
House Republicans in Congress want to connect Hunter Biden’s dealings with his father through an impeachment inquiry. Republicans have been scrutinizing Hunter Biden for years, since his father was president. Although questions have been raised about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international businesses, no evidence has yet emerged to prove that Biden abused his role or accepted bribes in his current or previous office.
The legal dispute could stretch into 2024, with Republican GOP primary frontrunner Donald Trump eager to divert attention from multiple criminal charges, whose trial could open around the same time. After years of silence, Hunter Biden has taken a more aggressive legal stance in recent weeks, filing a series of lawsuits over the alleged transmission of personal information from his laptop and the alleged release of his tax data by whistleblower agents who testified before Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry.