Hunter Biden is due back in a Delaware courtroom Tuesday, where he’s expected to plead not guilty to federal firearms charges that emerged after his earlier deal collapsed.
According to the AFP, the president’s son is facing charges that he lied about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days.
He’s acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period, but his lawyers have said he didn’t break the law.
Gun charges like these are rare, and an appeals court has found the ban on drug users having guns violates the Second Amendment under new Supreme Court standards.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has informed the court that the president’s son plans to plead not guilty at Tuesday’s 10:00 am (1400 GMT) arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens.
Lowell had also asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.
“The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter,” Burke wrote in his ruling.
In July, a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss — which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison — fell apart.
That led to Weiss filing the three felony gun possession charges against Biden.
If convicted, Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time
