Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
David Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, said Wednesday that he planned to indict the president’s son on a gun charge before the end of the month — a move prompted by the acrimonious collapse of a plea deal in July.
In a three-page update filed in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, Weiss laid out plans to bring charges related to Biden’s purchase of a pistol in 2018, when prosecutors say he lied on a federal form by stating that he was not using drugs at the time.
Biden had previously agreed to participate in a two-year diversion program for nonviolent gun offenders as part of the plea deal, which unraveled dramatically at the last minute this summer.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, signaled in a statement that he would challenge any effort to proceed with a trial, arguing that the original agreement reached over the summer “remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed.”
The status report by Weiss was filed at the request of a federal judge. It makes no mention of the status of likely separate charges stemming from the five-year investigation of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, and subsequent failure to pay taxes, conducted by Weiss, the US attorney in Delaware who was appointed last month as a special counsel after overseeing the investigation.
Last month, prosecutors told the court they intended to file the tax charges in either California or Washington, DC.
Leo Wise, a veteran prosecutor detailed to Weiss’ team in June, said in the court filing Wednesday that the Justice Department would seek the return of an indictment on the gun charge before September 29, citing a timetable set by the Speedy Trial Act.
Under the original deal, Biden had agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and to settle the gun investigation without being charged.
Despite the collapse of the agreement, Lowell said that his client had been abiding by the terms of the original deal “for the last several weeks” and had been making regular visits to his court-assigned probation officer.