Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, faced charges for illegally purchasing a firearm while under the influence of narcotics. This has raised new doubts over his father’s reelection bid next year.
Joe Biden’s son Hunter indicted: Hunter Biden faced two counts of making false statements because, on the paperwork required for the 2018 gun purchase, he falsely claimed that he was not using narcotics unlawfully at the time.
According to a third accusation, he illegally owned the gun for 11 days in October of that year based on the false assertions.
Though in reality the accusations rarely result in any jail time, Biden could theoretically spend 25 years in prison if found guilty on all three counts. “The Justice Department claimed that Biden knew the statement was false when he affirmed that he wasn’t an illegal drug user at the time he purchased the Colt Cobra revolver.”
The indictment came two days after Republicans in Congress launched an impeachment investigation against Joe Biden over claims that he profited financially from his son’s international business dealings while serving as vice president.
Justice Department Special Counsel David Weiss, who has been looking into Biden since 2018 on a number of allegations, largely concerning his international business dealings, has brought the firearms charges.
“Disagreements and Legal Drama: The Unraveled Biden-Weiss Plea Agreement”
A plea agreement between Biden and Weiss that covered both the gun charge and suspected tax irregularities fell down two months ago due to disagreements about whether the president’s son may face further charges.
Biden, 53, agreed to enter a guilty plea to two minor tax counts in federal court in Delaware as part of the July agreement.
Previously, he had settled his debt with the government, including penalties. In return, he received probation.
Weiss promised to drop the felony gun charge from the agreement if Biden successfully completed “pretrial diversion,” which frequently include counselling or rehabilitation.
However, the plan fell through in a dramatic hearing on July 26. The hearing focused on whether Biden would have been exempt from other charges that Weiss was investigating, including potential offenses related to his business dealings in Ukraine, China, and other places.
The judge suggested that Biden would face allegations of lobbying for foreign governments without filing a report with the Justice Department.
Three weeks later, Weiss dropped the tax accusations after the purchase fell through. “In a court statement, he announced that he would file new charges in other jurisdictions.”