Ahead of US Presidential election in 2024, Joe Biden’s re-election effort may get hampered as his son Hunter Biden’s legal troubles seem far from getting over. Junior Biden has criminal accusation brought against him on Thursday for duping a gun dealer into selling him a handgun.
Hunter Biden was charged with three felony offences for allegedly lying about the fact that he was taking illicit narcotics at the time, which would have made it illegal for him to possess a pistol under the law. This is the first time a sitting president’s kid has ever been indicted. The case was filed in US District Court in Delaware.
The allegations assure that legal drama will take centre stage in the 2024 presidential campaign in the United States when Joe Biden, 80, runs for re-election against his probable Republican opponent Donald Trump, 77.
David Weiss, the freshly promoted US Special Counsel, has filed additional accusations against Hunter Biden, although they contain no mention of any transgressions of American tax law. In a shocking turn of events in a July hearing, an earlier agreement under which Hunter Biden, 53, would have admitted guilt to two misdemeanour tax counts and enrolled in a programme to avoid prosecution on the weapons charge crumbled.
Weiss previously stated that any potential charges would have to be presented in either the District of Columbia or the Central District of California, which is situated in Los Angeles, but the tax investigation into Biden is still underway.
Hunter Biden was charged with lying about his drug usage when he bought a Colt Cobra pistol in October 2018.
Abbe Lowell attorney to Hunter Biden in a statement said, “As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case. The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA Republicans’ improper and partisan interference in this process.”
The action was taken two days after House Republicans launched an impeachment investigation on Joe Biden because of Hunter Biden’s international business dealings. The White House has criticised that action as being politically driven and unsupported as it was taken without the support of the whole House.
After the US Supreme Court enlarged gun rights under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the right to bear weapons, last year in a historic decision, some legal experts have suggested that any firearms-related charges against Biden may be subject to a constitutional challenge.
In his speech, Lowell made reference to the controversy and noted “the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional.”
Trump and his Republican supporters have relentlessly attacked the younger Biden for years, accusing him of misconduct in relation to China and the Ukraine among other things. Hunter Biden has had positions as a lobbyist, attorney, investment banker, and artist. He has also openly discussed his battles with addiction.
Hunter Biden never worked for his father’s presidential campaign or the White House. The president has stated that he has not spoken with his son about his international business operations and that his Justice Department will act independently in any investigations involving members of his family.
In December 2020, Hunter Biden said that Weiss’s office was looking into his tax troubles. He has defended himself saying he has been innocent.
When Biden took office in January 2021, the Justice Department urged most of the US attorneys Trump nominated to resign, but Weiss was given an exception.
