Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three federal gun charges from 2018, months after an earlier plea deal fell apart.
The president’s son entered his plea during a brief arraignment in Delaware and was released on his own recognizance, according to court records. He did not speak in court except when the judge asked him questions, CNN reported.
In a statement obtained by Axios, Biden attorney Abbe Lowell said the charges “are the result of political pressure from President (Donald) Trump and his MAGA allies to force the Justice Department to ignore the law and deviate from its policies in cases like this one.”
“The only substantive and relevant changes since July, when the US Attorney decided against pursuing these exact charges against Mr. Biden, has been various court rulings undermining the constitutionality of the law at issue here and a coordinated, partisan attack on our system of justice by right-wing Republicans,” he said.
Lowell’s statement today accuses Weiss of bowing to GOP pressure: “These charges are the result of political pressure from President Trump and his MAGA allies to force the Justice Department to ignore the law and deviate from its policies in cases like this one.” pic.twitter.com/6e7dTIi4Bt
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 3, 2023
Drug users are rarely charged for having guns illegally, according to The Associated Press. In August, an appeals court found that people who use drugs shouldn’t automatically be banned from having guns, putting the law central to the Biden case in question, the AP reported.
Last month, a grand jury indicted Biden on three charges, accusing him of lying about his drug use while buying a Colt Cobra 38 special in October 2018. Authorities said he had the gun for less than two weeks before he got rid of it.
At the time, Biden was regularly abusing crack cocaine, The Washington Post reported.
Biden’s attorneys have said that he did not break the law and suggested that the charges are politically motivated.
Over the summer, Biden planned to plead guilty to a pair of federal tax charges and admit that he had a firearm while he was using or addicted to a controlled substance. However, he pleaded not guilty after a judge rejected the deal — which Republicans had criticized as a “sweetheart deal” — that had been reached with prosecutors.
In August, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss to serve as special counsel in the investigation into Biden. He has been investigating Biden’s financial and business dealings since 2019.
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