Hunter Biden plans to plead not responsible to a few federal gun costs throughout an preliminary courtroom look and is requesting to carry the listening to by videoconference as a substitute of showing in federal courtroom in Wilmington, Del., his lawyer mentioned in a submitting on Tuesday.
Mr. Biden, 53, was indicted final week by David C. Weiss, the particular counsel overseeing the case, on two costs that he lied about his drug use to buy a handgun in 2018 and on one cost of illegally possessing the weapon, which he had for lower than two weeks.
The not-guilty plea was anticipated. The choice to file legal costs in opposition to Mr. Biden, the president’s troubled youthful son, got here after the collapse of a plea deal in July that will have resolved the long-running investigation with out him serving jail time.
“Mr. Biden additionally will enter a plea of not responsible, and there’s no motive why he can not utter these two phrases by videoconference,” Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden’s lawyer, wrote in a two-page letter to Decide Christopher J. Burke.
If convicted, Mr. Biden may resist 25 years in jail and $750,000 in fines. However nonviolent, first-time offenders who haven’t been accused of utilizing the weapon in one other crime hardly ever obtain critical jail time for the fees.
A considerable share of these accused of mendacity on a federal firearms utility, as Mr. Biden has been, are by no means indicted on that cost until they’re additionally accused of a extra critical underlying crime, present and former legislation enforcement officers mentioned. Most negotiate offers that embrace probation and enrollment in applications that embrace counseling, monitoring and common drug testing.
No date has been set for Mr. Biden’s arraignment.
The defunct plea deal additionally would have resolved an investigation into Mr. Biden’s late submitting of his tax returns for a number of years. Prosecutors didn’t file tax costs in opposition to Mr. Biden final week however may nonetheless accomplish that.
Mr. Weiss’s staff has additionally signaled that it continues to analyze different parts of Mr. Biden’s enterprise actions, almost certainly together with whether or not any of his work with international pursuits violated the International Brokers Registration Act, which requires disclosure of lobbying actions for different international locations.
