Biden’s son before judge for illegal gun possession
Hunter Biden, whose adventures are at the origin of an impeachment investigation against his father, must plead not guilty to illegal possession of a weapon on Monday in Delaware.
Updated October 3, 2023, 04:41
Joe Biden continues to trust his son Hunter.
AFP
US President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, appears Tuesday in federal court in Delaware (east) where he must plead not guilty to illegal possession of a weapon.
Hunter Biden, 53, is one of the favorite targets of his father’s Republican opponents, starting with his predecessor Donald Trump, who consider him the Achilles heel of the Democratic president. He is accused of lying when filling out forms to acquire a firearm in 2018, in which he denied the drug addiction he later admitted to.
His lawyer, Abbe David Lowell, indicated that he would plead not guilty at his public arraignment in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, the Biden family’s home state.
He had requested that his client, a resident of California (west), be able to appear by videoconference. But Judge Christopher Burke denied the request, arguing that this first appearance “is one of the rare occasions in a criminal case in which a defendant physically appears in our court, before a judge.” In addition, “most of the accusations against the defendant are new and were not mentioned during his previous appearance in July 2023, so this will be the first time that they will be debated in court,” he said. -He underlines.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, but in practice such prosecutions rarely result in prison time alone.
Special Prosecutor
He reached a plea agreement in June with prosecutor David Weiss covering both charges of tax evasion and illegal acquisition of a firearm, which would likely have allowed him to avoid the prison and an embarrassing trial for him and his father. But this agreement was canceled following doubts expressed in July by a judge about its validity.
The Republicans, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, began impeachment investigation proceedings against the Democratic president on September 12, motivated by his son’s controversial affairs abroad. Conservative parliamentarians accuse Hunter Biden of having made questionable deals in Ukraine and China by capitalizing on his father’s networks and name.
But they go even further by attributing the pressure exerted on Kiev by Joe Biden, as vice-president of Barack Obama, to obtain in 2016 the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Chokine, to a desire to protect the Ukrainian gas group where sat his son.
Republicans accuse the Democratic administration of doing everything to bury the procedures targeting Hunter Biden. During the hearing of Justice Minister Merrick Garland on September 20, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican Jim Jordan, again criticized him for the appointment in August of David Weiss as special prosecutor for handle cases involving Hunter Biden. “The guy he knows will protect Joe Biden,” said Jim Jordan. Minister Garland assured that the prosecutor had complete freedom to carry out his investigation, recalling that David Weiss had been appointed by the Trump administration and maintained in his post under Joe Biden.
Lawyer then businessman, Hunter Biden converted to painting after recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. Joe Biden told MSNBC in May that he had “faith in him” and was “proud of him.”
(AFP)Show comments
2023-10-03 02:41:11
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