Hunter Biden again moves to dismiss Delaware gun indictment charges
Hunter Biden's lawyers are again moving to have federal gun charges dropped against the president's son. They say a diversion agreement previously agreed to is still valid.
Lawyers for President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, have once again moved to dismiss federal firearms charges filed against him in Delaware.
Hunter Biden's lawyers filed a motion in federal court on Tuesday arguing that a diversion agreement previously agreed to by the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden's legal team should remain in effect.
The agreement would have allowed Biden to avoid jail time. The government would also not charge Hunter Biden with the more serious federal gun charge — if he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor tax charges and behaved under certain terms of the agreement for a period of approximately 24 months. If Hunter Biden breached the diversion, the government would try to bring the serious gun charge against him.
However, in July 2023, Judge Maryellen Noreika did not accept the plea agreement, questioning its constitutionality — specifically the diversion clause and the immunity Hunter Biden would receive.
HUNTER BIDEN FILES TO DISMISS INDICTMENT ON GUN CHARGES IN DELAWARE, CITING COLLAPSED PLEA DEAL
Special Counsel David Weiss argued the diversion agreement died the day the plea deal died.
Hunter Biden's defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, is once again sticking to the argument that the agreement between the DOJ and Hunter Biden should remain in effect, because both parties agreed to it last spring.
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"The prosecution is bound by the agreements that it makes, approves, and signs with a defendant, just as it often seeks to hold defendants to the terms of the agreements that defendants make and sign," Lowell wrote. "No matter how fervently the prosecution’s decision to enter into the Diversion Agreement is criticized by extremist Republican politicians and the right-wing press, the prosecution remains bound by the agreement it struck. The Court must not allow the prosecution to renege on its agreement."
The president's son pleaded not guilty to all counts in October. Hunter has been charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
An appeals court previously found that a federal ban on drug users having guns violates the Second Amendment under recent Supreme Court precedent.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors said a brown leather pouch used by Hunter Biden to store a gun had cocaine on it.
Hunter Biden previously made damaging statements about his drug use in a 2021 memoir, but now investigators are saying the cocaine, which a chemist determined was in fact the residue, was found on the gun pouch after it was pulled from a state police vault last year.
Hunter Biden is also facing nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles for allegedly not paying his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
