Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, will ask a judge to throw out his federal indictment on felony gun charges, his attorneys said in a court filing late Thursday, according to CNN.
His attorneys said they will ask for the case to be dismissed because, in their view, special counsel David Weiss was prohibited by a previous agreement from bringing the indictment.
“Mr. Biden maintains that the ‘stand alone,’ ‘bilateral’ Diversion Agreement that both parties signed remains in force, and he will seek to dismiss the Indictment against him pursuant to the immunity provisions of that Agreement,” Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote in the filing.
Hunter Biden was charged last month with three counts related to lying on a federal form to acquire a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and for being an illegal drug user in possession of the gun.
Earlier this week, he pleaded not guilty to three federal crimes related to his purchase of a revolver at a Delaware gun shop in 2018. It was the first-ever prosecution by the Justice Department of the child of a sitting president.
Weiss said in a Wednesday filing that the “proposed diversion agreement” wasn’t signed by a court official as required, and therefore, “it did not enter into effect.” The two sides have been fighting for the past two months over whether the deal to resolve the gun offense is still valid and legally binding.
The President's son also attended a hearing in July in Wilmington related to the charges.
In that hearing, an agreement to resolve the gun charges and separate tax charges unraveled when a US District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Wilmington refused to accept it.
Under that deal, Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax violations and would avoid punishment on the gun charges if for two years he did not possess a firearm and refrained from using illegal drugs and alcohol.
Biden’s legal troubles could also have political implications, as Republicans have questioned his father’s connections to his financial affairs.
Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that House Republicans will launch an impeachment inquiry against President Biden over “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption" in his involvement with the foreign business dealings of his son.
President Biden linked the impeachment inquiry to a showdown over funding the government.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Simchat Torah and Shmini Atzeret in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)