Delaware judge refuses to throw out special counsel gun charges against Hunter Biden
President’s son also faces tax case in California
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Your support makes all the difference.A federal judge in Delaware has refused to throw out a series of gun charges against Hunter Biden, despite the president’s son challenging the case and the authority of special counsel David Weiss to bring it.
The decision on Friday means the series of three gun charges against Mr Biden, based on allegations he lied about his drug use during a 2018 gun purchase, will likely go to trial in June.
Mr Biden has filed a number of challenges to the case, arguing he was still protected under an immunity agreement from a failed plea deal, as well as claiming that the prosecution was politically motivated.
Judge Maryellen Noreika pushed back against these arguments in her Friday decision.
"At best, [Hunter Biden] has generically alleged that individuals from the prior administration were or are targeting him (or his father) and therefore his prosecution here must be vindictive," she wrote. "The problem with this argument is that the charging decision at issue was made during this administration — by Special Counsel Weiss — at a time when the head of the Executive Branch prosecuting Defendant is Defendant’s father."
The Independent has contacted Mr Biden’s attorney for comment.
The federal judge also held that the failed plea deal didn’t cover the case at hand because a probation officer never signed onto it, what she called an “unambiguously” stated portion of the original agreement.
Mr Biden’s defence team had argued last year that the president’s son was "selectively charged" and that the special counsel "buckled under political pressure" from GOP figures seeking political gain, including Donald Trump.
In January, Mr Weiss’s office called the Biden legal strategy "stunningly weak and wholly unsupported by facts and law," comparing it to "a fiction designed for a Hollywood script."
A decision is still pending on a challenge to the constitutionality of the gun charges.
Earlier this month, a California judge blocked similar challenges to a nine-count tax case against Mr Biden.
In both the tax and gun cases, Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty.
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