DOJ Will Indict Hunter Biden On Gun Charges This Month

Topline

Justice Department Special Counsel David Weiss’ office plans to indict Hunter Biden on a gun possession charge later this month, prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday, after a deal the president’s son negotiated with the federal government that would have allowed him to avoid a felony gun charge unraveled in court in July.

United States President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, exits the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in … [+] Delaware, United States on July 26, 2023. (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Key Facts

Weiss’ office said the DOJ will seek an indictment from a grand jury against Biden before September 29, the deadline set by the Speedy Trial Act for bringing charges in the case.

It’s unclear what charges Biden could face, but the now-defunct agreement with Weiss’ office would have required him to enter a diversion program to avoid a felony charge for purchasing a gun in 2018 while he was an admitted drug user.

The agreement, which also would have required him to plead guilty to two federal counts for underpaying his taxes, was called off in July over a disagreement about immunity from future prosecution.

Wednesday’s filing marks the latest twist in the fallout between Biden’s legal team and Justice Department lawyers, who have feuded in court over the past several months about the details of the plea agreement—a dispute that comes as Hunter Biden hoped to put an end to his legal woes jut as his father began his reelection campaign.

Forbes has reached out to Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.

Key Background

Federal prosecutors in Delaware announced they had reached a plea agreement with Biden in June in their investigation into his foreign business dealings that began in 2018 and expanded to encompass a probe of his taxes. The agreement would have required Biden to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges for failing to file taxes in 2017 and 2018. Separately, the Justice Department agreed to allow Biden to avoid the felony gun charge by entering a two-year pre-trial diversion program. The Justice Department called off the agreement during a July court hearing—when Biden was widely expected to enter guilty pleas to the tax charges and formalize the diversion agreement—when the two sides could not agree whether the deal included future immunity from charges that are not encompassed in the tax or gun agreements. Prosecutors, when announcing the agreement, indicated the probe into Biden was ongoing, and when questioned by the judge overseeing the case in July, they did not rule out the possibility Biden could be charged with additional crimes, specifically failing to register as a foreign agent. Biden instead pleaded not guilty to the tax charges, prompting Weiss’ office to ask the court to dismiss the charges in Delaware, pending a possible trial in California or Washington, D.C., where the alleged crimes occurred.

Chief Critic

A coalition of House Republicans have launched their own sprawling investigations into Hunter Biden’s foreign business endeavors, claiming widespread malfeasance on the part of the Biden family and raising suggestions that the president’s son improperly benefitted from his father’s influence. The investigations have yet to produce any solid evidence to back up the claims and the president has denied any interactions with his son’s business partners. The GOP allegations were bolstered by an IRS whistleblower, who publicly alleged earlier this year that the Justice Department slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden in what the whistleblower said appeared to be out of political favoritism, turning the focus of the House probes onto the DOJ itself.

Tangent

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland granted Weiss special prosecutor status last month, a designation that would allow him to seek charges against Biden outside of his Delaware jurisdiction.

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