Hunter Biden — son of President Joe Biden — pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three counts of gun possession after federal prosecutors indicted him last month.
After an attorney entered a plea on Hunter’s behalf, the judge reviewed the terms of his release, which include supervision by a probation officer, actively seeking employment, not possessing weapons, abstaining from drugs and alcohol and submitting to drug testing when requested, according to NBC News. . If the probation office recommends addiction counseling, Hunter will be required to attend.
Hunter was charged in federal court in Delaware in September with two counts related to him allegedly signing a form stating that he was not using illegal drugs at the time he purchased the revolver in October 2018. The third count alleges that Hunter, who was open about his addiction problems, owned a firearm while consuming narcotics.
Hunter Biden Indicted on Federal Gun Possession Charges
Speaking with Good morning America in September, one of Hunter’s attorneys offered an overview of the defense, suggesting at one point that there might be evidence to challenge the facts of the case. “Evidence will be presented when and if there is a trial,” attorney Abbe Lowell said on the show. “It’s not going to be kind of preliminary in this interview today or any other.”
President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden leave a mass in South Carolina on August 13, 2022.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Cenet
The indictment followed a five-year investigation by federal prosecutors, the FBI and the IRS, in which Hunter was charged with two misdemeanor counts of failure to pay federal income taxes, as well as a felony count of unlawful possession of a weapon.
But the investigation reportedly evolved over time, also focusing on Hunter’s income tax return and paperwork he used to purchase a firearm in 2018, in which he allegedly denied being an “unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant, stimulant or narcotic or any other controlled substance” despite publicly admitting to struggling with addiction.
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Earlier this year, Hunter tried to take a plea deal with prosecutors that would have allowed him to avoid a felony weapons charge by pleading guilty to two tax charges. That deal, however, fell through in July.
Hunter’s business has also been a focus of Republicans since his father took office. Days before the indictment, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that his party was launching an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, accusing the president of lying “to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign affairs.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education