Hunter Biden, the eldest son of President Joe Biden, is slated to face arraignment in a Delaware court today in a case brimming with political implications that could reverberate during the President’s 2024 re-election campaign.
Hunter, aged 53, is poised to enter a not guilty plea in response to charges of unlawfully possessing a firearm while being an illegal drug user. Moreover, he stands accused of providing false information about his drug usage on a background check form when he acquired a Colt Cobra revolver back in 2018. This case marks a historic moment, as he becomes the first child of a sitting U.S. president to face indictment.
The indictment itself was procured last month by special counsel David Weiss, following the collapse of a plea agreement between Hunter and the prosecutors in August. Meanwhile, the Justice Department remains mum about whether it intends to pursue separate tax misdemeanor charges against him.
If convicted, Hunter Biden potentially faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. However, considering his status as a first-time, nonviolent offender who did not employ the firearm for any criminal activity, a more lenient penalty is conceivable.
In a strategic legal maneuver, Hunter, who has openly acknowledged past cocaine use in his memoir, is poised to contest the gun possession charge. He intends to argue that the federal law prohibiting gun ownership by illegal drug users lacks historical precedent and infringes upon his Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms” under the U.S. Constitution.
An unexpected lifeline may emerge from the Supreme Court, which, in a recent ruling, established a new benchmark for evaluating the legality of government-imposed gun restrictions. This ruling emphasized the necessity for such restrictions to align with a “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, has hinted at the possibility of challenging some aspects of the indictment based on this legal precedent.
In a public statement issued on the day of the indictment, Lowell asserted, “We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court.”
Notably, Hunter Biden has also recently filed a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani and Giuliani’s former lawyer Robert Costello. He alleges that they violated his privacy by allegedly obtaining data from his laptop. It’s worth mentioning that Republicans have tried to make Hunter a central figure in an impeachment inquiry against the President, yet have been unsuccessful in producing incriminating evidence.
This legal saga surrounding Hunter Biden is undeniably a high-stakes affair, with implications that reach far beyond the courtroom, potentially influencing the political landscape in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
