US Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel David Weiss revealed on Thursday that a federal grand jury indicted Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, on three firearms charges. The indictment followed after a federal district judge rejected a plea deal in which Hunter Biden would have avoided federal gun charges in exchange for a guilty plea to two misdemeanor tax charges.
According to the indictment, Hunter Biden allegedly falsified federal firearm purchase forms to acquire a firearm in October 2018. Federal prosecutors claim that despite being addicted to crack cocaine at that time, Hunter Biden declared he wasn’t an unlawful user of, or addicted to drugs while procuring the firearm. Hunter Biden has admitted to past addiction struggles and drug abuse issues in a July 2019 New Yorker article.
Two counts of making false statements on the federal firearm purchase forms and one count of owning a firearm while using drugs are the charges filed against Hunter Biden. The potential penalties for these counts range from a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment for the first two charges to a maximum of 5 years for the third charge. Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
In an interview with CNN, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, suggested the charges were results of political pressure from Republican lawmakers. Lowell argued his client’s possession of an unloaded gun for 11 days didn’t constitute a threat to public safety, instead the bending of prosecutorial power to political pressures threatens the justice system.
David Weiss did not provide comments on the indictment. The charges come amid political pressure on the Biden family following a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, as announced by US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this week. This inquiry stems from scrutiny regarding Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Republican lawmakers were also critical about an attempted plea deal by Hunter Biden in June, on the heels of a whistleblower from the Internal Revenue Service suggesting that federal officials were slow with their investigation into him.