Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, arrives for a closed-door hearing with members of the Republican House Oversight Committee conducting an impeachment inquiry into the president, at the O’Neill House office building in Washington, U.S., February 28, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a request by Hunter Biden to throw out the pending criminal case against him for gun possession, saying his appeal was premature.
The decision clears the way for Hunter Biden’s trial in the case to begin on June 3 in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. Biden is the son of President Joe Biden.
In its ruling Thursday, a three-judge panel on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals said Hunter Biden failed to show that the trial judge’s April ruling allowing the gun case to proceed could be appealed before any final ruling, which could include his conviction.
The appeals panel, whose decision was unanimous, did not rule on the merits of Biden’s arguments that the indictment should be dismissed.
If Biden is convicted at trial, he could renew arguments for dismissal with the same appeals court that he declined to consider in his order Thursday.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abby Lowell, has suggested that he will ask a full panel of judges in the 3rd Circuit to review Biden’s appeal and could even ask the US Supreme Court to hear the case.
“In reviewing the commission’s decision, we believe the issues involved are very important and further consideration of our request is appropriate,” Lowell said.
Biden is charged with three felony counts related to the purchase of a gun while he was addicted to illegal drugs. He has pleaded not guilty.
In late 2023, Biden’s lawyers asked US District Judge Maryellen Noreika to dismiss the indictment against him on three separate grounds.
The first was that the indictment violated a nonprosecution provision in a pretrial diversion agreement that Biden and prosecutors signed before a planned deal in the case to avoid an indictment explosion last year.
In the second motion to dismiss, Biden’s lawyers claimed he was vindictively and selectively prosecuted because his father is president. According to this line of reasoning, the indictment violates the separation of powers clause in the US Constitution because it was improperly instigated by Republicans in Congress who have made him a political whip to attack the president.
The third motion to dismiss argued that the appointment of David Weiss as a Justice Department special counsel to handle the Biden cases violated federal rules requiring the selection of special counsel from outside the US government. Weiss was the U.S. Attorney for Delaware at the time of his appointment as a special prosecutor and remains in that office.
Noreika in separate rulings in April rejected all three arguments to dismiss the indictment.
Biden is charged separately by Weiss in federal court in Los Angeles with tax crimes. The judge in that case in early April rejected eight defense motions to dismiss the case, in which Biden pleaded not guilty.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.