Hunter Biden, son of the President, pleaded not guilty Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, to charges he lied lied on a gun purchase application about his drug addiction.
The 53-year-old Biden was charged last month on three criminal counts brought by prosecutors in the office of Special Counsel David Weiss.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed 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.
In July, an agreed-to plea deal fell apart related to the gun possession charge as well as tax evasion charges. The plea deal between federal prosecutors and Hunter Biden had hit a snag in federal court in Delaware when U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika had raised questions about its broader implications regarding prosecutors’ ongoing investigation.
On Tuesday Hunter Biden appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke and answered, “Yes, your honor,” in response to the question of whether he understood the charges against him as well as the not guilty plea that had been entered by his attorney, Abbe Lowell.
Lowell said on Tuesday he planned to file a motion to dismiss the case because he believes the July plea agreement remains in effect. It included a stipulation that Biden would avoid punishment on the gun charges if for two years he did not possess a firearm and refrained from using illegal drugs and alcohol.
Burke said he would have to file by November 3.
Congressional Republicans have accused Hunter Biden, who has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, investment banker and artist, of wrongdoing relating to Ukraine and China and have made him a focus of an impeachment inquiry in the House.
During the House Oversight Committee’s first hearing on the impeachment inquiry last week, its own witness, conservative legal expert Jonathan Turley, testified that while he believed the House had “passed the threshold,” for holding an inquiry, “I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment.”
Hunter Biden, who has publicly discussed his substance abuse, never held a position in the White House or on his father’s campaign.
President Biden has said he has not discussed foreign business dealings. He has also deferred all questions about investigations into his son’ actions to the Department of Justice.
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