By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, CLAUDIA LAUER and RANDALL CHASE
WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three federal firearms charges that emerged after his earlier deal imploded, setting the case on a track toward a possible trial in 2024 while his father is campaigning for reelection.
President Joe Biden’s son has been charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
When asked by Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke if he understood the charges against him, Biden said, “Yes, Your Honor.”
His lawyer Abbe Lowell said in court he plans to file a motion to dismiss the charges, challenging their constitutionality.
“Mr. Biden pleads not guilty to the three counts that have been brought against him,” Lowell said to the judge.
Hunter Biden has acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn’t break the law. Gun charges like these are rare, and an appeals court has found the ban on drug users having guns violates the Second Amendment under new Supreme Court standards.
On Tuesday, the judge noted Hunter Biden had been repeatedly tested for drugs and is negative.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys are suggesting that prosecutors bowed to pressure by Republicans, who have insisted the Democratic president’s son got a sweetheart deal, and that the charges were the result of political pressure.
Earlier this summer, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and would have also avoided prosecution on the gun charges had he stayed out of trouble for two years. It was the culmination of a yearslong investigation by federal prosecutors into the business dealings of the president’s son, and the agreement would have dispensed with criminal proceedings and spared the Bidens weeks of headlines as the election loomed.
The deal broke down after…
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