Hunter Biden’s federal gun case is set to go to trial next month, a judge said on Tuesday, formally denying a bid by Biden’s lawyers to delay prosecution on three gun firearms charges.
The US district judge Maryellen Noreika, who threw out a plea-deal agreement between Biden and the US government in August, rejected Biden’s request to push the trial until September.
Lawyers for the president’s son had argued that a delay was necessary to give the defense time to line up witnesses and go through evidence handed over by prosecutors.
Hunter Biden, 54, is accused of lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days.
Two counts refer to making false statements: first for allegedly checking a box falsely saying he was not addicted to drugs, and second for allegedly giving it to the shop for their federally required records. The third count alleges he possessed the gun despite knowing he was a drug user.
The weapon was later found discarded in a dumpster behind a grocery store. Investigators said cocaine residue was found on the gun’s pouch.
Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has acknowledged he was struggling with addiction during that period in 2018.
His attorneys, led by Abbe Lowell, who also represents Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, have said prosecutors indicted Biden because of political pressure from Republicans.
In arguing for the case to proceed – jury selection is scheduled to begin on 3 June –prosecutors have said “the strength of the evidence against him is overwhelming” and point to “incriminating statements” Biden made about his drug use in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things.
Biden faces a separate federal trial in California on nine counts, including failure to file and pay taxes; evasion of assessment; and false or fraudulent tax return on income from foreign business dealings that have come under broad political scrutiny.
In the California case, the government alleges Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4m” in taxes that he owed from 2016 through 2019 and “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills”.
The government listed those extravagances as “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature”. The back taxes have since been paid.
In statement in December, Lowell said: “Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”
Both prosecutions were revived after a deal to plead guilty last year to misdemeanor tax charges that would have avoided prosecution on the gun charges was rejected by Judge Noreika when she learned that it would extend an unusually broad immunity over future prosecution.
After that, Biden’s relationship with prosecutors turned combative. Biden has also been questioned by a Republican House committee probing whether his father, the president, benefited from his business dealings.
In allowing the gun charges case against Biden to move forward next month, Judge Noreika rejected Biden’s claim that the case is politically motivated.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the third US circuit court of appeals said also said the case could proceed, ruling that “the defendant has not shown the district court’s orders are appealable before final judgment”.
But Biden’s lawyers can seek review from the full bench of the third circuit, or petition the supreme court to consider the case. “In reviewing the panel’s decision, we believe the issues involved are too important and further review of our request is appropriate,” Lowell said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
