Federal prosecutors indicted Hunter Biden, the son of the President, on gun charges Thursday, according to court documents.
The indictment was filed in federal court in Delaware on three counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics. Two counts relate to Hunter Biden’s purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018, while the third count alleges he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic.
According to the indictment, Hunter Biden certified on a federally mandated form that “he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.”
Two of the counts each carry a maximum 10-year prison sentence while the third carries a five-year maximum.
The indictment comes after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss, a career prosecutor and U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, as special counsel in Hunter Biden’s case last month.
Weiss began investigating Hunter Biden in 2019 during the Trump Administration and has remained on the case amid his father’s Administration. The special prosecutor announced last week that he planned to seek the indictments against Biden on gun-related charges.
In July, an agreed-to guilty plea deal with Biden was put on hold related to the gun possession charges as well as tax evasion charges. The deal between federal prosecutors and Biden had hit a snag in federal court in Delaware when U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika raised questions about its broader implications regarding prosecutors’ ongoing investigation.
Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell has argued tthat prosecutors are barred from filing additional charges under an agreement the two sides previously reached in the gun case, which contains an immunity clause against federal prosecutions for some other potential crimes. Lowell said his client has kept to his side of that deal, including making regular probation office visits.
Upon the news last week that indictments were pending, Lowell said in a statement, “We expect a fair resolution of the sprawling, 5-year investigation into Mr. Biden that was based on the evidence and the law, not outside political pressure, and we’ll do what is necessary on behalf of Mr. Biden to achieve that.”
The White House has referred questions about the indictment to the Department of Justice.
Weiss did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment. It’s DOJ policy not to comment on ongoing investigations.
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