US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is to appear in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday and is ex-pected to plead not guilty to charges of illegally possessing a handgun.
Hunter Biden, 53, is facing three felony charges stemming from his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver.
Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.
He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun – which he had for only 11 days in October 2018 – before it was gotten rid of.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has informed the court that the president’s son plans to plead not guilty at Tuesday’s 10:00 a.m. (1400 GMT) arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens.
Lowell had also asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.
“The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter,” Burke wrote in his ruling.
In July, a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss – which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison – fell apart.
That led to Weiss filing the three felony gun possession charges against Biden.
If convicted, Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.
Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, in the meantime has signalled that he is still investigating Biden on possible tax charges.—AFP
