Topline
Lawyers for Hunter Biden—who was convicted earlier this month on three gun felonies—requested the president’s son receive a new trial for his federal gun charges, arguing proper procedure was not followed as the case was brought before a previous appeal was formally dismissed.
Key Facts
In a court document filed Monday, Biden’s lawyers requested he receive a new trial because the previous trial began before a circuit court formally gave the go-ahead after dismissing Biden’s request for appeal.
“Mr. Biden’s convictions should be vacated because the Court lacked jurisdiction to proceed to trial,” Biden’s lawyers concluded in the Monday request based on a procedural matter.
Biden was convicted on June 11 on all three charges he faced related to unlawfully buying a gun while he was addicted to drugs in 2018.
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Key Background
Biden was indicted last September after a plea deal fell apart over a disagreement between Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors over the potential of future charges being brought. Biden pleaded not guilty to lying on a federal form to purchase a gun by saying he was not a drug user, lying to a federally licensed firearm dealer and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days, and the case went to trial in Delaware earlier this month. The prosecution relied heavily on Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he talked about his drug addiction and use around the time he bought the gun, and Biden’s daughter and three of his exes were called to testify. Biden’s defense said prosecutors didn’t prove his drug use overlapped with the purchase of the gun and claimed he didn’t “knowingly” lie about not being a drug user because he may have believed he was clean at the time he filled out the federal form.
What We Don’t Know
Biden’s sentence. The three charges carry a maximum of 25 years in prison and potential fines up to $750,000—though experts say it’s unlikely the president’s son will go to jail.
