Hunter Biden indicted on gun charges

Joe Biden’s son is indicted for illegally buying a gun when he was using drugs, casting a new shadow over his father’s campaign for reelection.

Hunter Biden (R), son of US President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday on gun charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018, as special counsel David Weiss moved forward with a prosecution set to play out as his father, President Biden, campaigns for re-election.

While expected, the indictment deepens the younger Biden’s legal jeopardy and sets the stage for a politically fraught prosecution that Republicans are likely to seize on in attacking the president on the campaign trail.

It adds another high-profile prosecution to a 2024 election season that is unfolding against the backdrop of politically explosive criminal proceedings, with former President Donald Trump leading in the Republican primary while defending himself against two federal cases and separate charges brought by local prosecutors in Georgia and New York.

Weiss said earlier in the month that he planned to bring charges against Hunter Biden in connection with his purchase of a pistol in 2018, when prosecutors say he lied on a federal form by claiming that he wasn’t using drugs at the time. The younger Biden has acknowledged he was addicted at the time to crack cocaine.

The three-count indictment alleges that Hunter Biden knowingly lied in certifying that he wasn’t addicted to drugs when he purchased a Colt Cobra 38SPL in October 2018., and that he possessed the firearm illegally.

US President Joe Biden, with son Hunter Biden, arrives at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York, in February.

The White House has maintained it isn’t involved in Hunter Biden’s legal matters and that the president has never discussed them with the Justice Department. Ian Sams, the White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, referred inquiries to Hunter Biden’s representatives and the Justice Department. Hunter Biden’s legal team didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Hunter Biden’s indictment, filed Thursday in federal court in Delaware, came in the continuing fallout from the collapse of a plea deal in which he hoped to resolve a five-year investigation into his business dealings and taxes. As part of the agreement, the younger Biden planned to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges and avoid prosecution on a gun charge if he remained drug-free and promised to never own a firearm again.

But during a July court hearing, the plea deal imploded under questioning from a federal judge, which exposed differences in how Biden’s defense team and federal prosecutors interpreted the terms of the agreement. Biden had agreed under the plea deal to admit to failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018.

After negotiations to salvage the agreement foundered in the following weeks, Attorney General Merrick Garland conferred special counsel status on Weiss, who had previously overseen the investigation as the U.S. attorney in Delaware.

The special-counsel appointment formally granted Weiss added flexibility to pursue charges outside of Delaware. Last month, prosecutors signaled that they intended to bring tax charges against Hunter Biden in either California or Washington, D.C., where he lived during the years at issue in the case.

Despite the unraveling of the plea deal, Hunter Biden’s defense team has said he is abiding by the terms and has been making regular visits to his court-assigned probation officer.

The indictment came days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the launching of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden that is centered on the activities of his only surviving son.

For months, House Republicans have investigated the finances of the Biden family with a focus on Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. No evidence has emerged to show that the president benefited from Hunter Biden’s activities or that he wielded government authority to favor them.

In launching the impeachment probe, McCarthy also accused the Biden administration of giving Hunter Biden special treatment in the criminal tax investigation. In closed-door and public testimony, two Internal Revenue Service agents have said Justice Department officials slow-walked and stymied the investigation into the president’s son.

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley said Justice Department officials blocked Weiss’s efforts to bring charges against Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., and in California. Weiss pushed back against that claim, saying he had broad latitude to pursue charges and had “never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction.” Last week, a senior FBI official countered the IRS agents’ claims that Weiss was hindered in his investigation of Hunter Biden. Thomas Sobocinski, the special agent who oversees the FBI team involved in the investigation, specifically disputed Shapley’s claim that Weiss had told investigators that he wasn’t the “deciding official on whether charges are filed.” “In my recollection, if he would have said that, I would have remembered it,” Sobocinski said, according to a copy of the interview transcript obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

Sobocinski added that he was “consistently aware” that Weiss had the authority to bring charges wherever he deemed appropriate.

The Wall Street Journal