Special counsel indicts Hunter Biden

Federal prosecutors charged Hunter Biden with three crimes — two counts for alleged false statements he made while purchasing the gun and a third count for possessing the gun while addicted to drugs.

Hunter Biden’s gun-related legal troubles relate to a firearm he purchased in October 2018. While buying a Colt Cobra revolver at Delaware gun shop, he lied on a federal form when he swore that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs – even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase.

It’s a federal crime to lie on that ATF form or to possess a firearm as a drug user. Hunter Biden possessed the gun for about 11 days in 2018. Prosecutors have previously said the statute of limitations for some of these offenses is set to expire in October.

Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell previously said that the earlier deal with prosecutors in the gun case “prevents any additional charges from being filed” and that his client “has been abiding by the conditions of release under that agreement.” 

Prosecutors say that deal never went into force.

Special counsel David Weiss has been leading the Hunter Biden investigation since late 2018. Over the years, his team investigated potential felony tax evasion, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering and other matters, largely tied to Hunter Biden’s overseas business deals.

In addition to the gun case, Weiss is still weighing whether to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes. He said in a court filing last month that “a trial is now in order” on the tax offenses ad that he “may bring tax charges” possibly in California or Washington, DC.

Special counsel David Weiss is back in the limelight after announcing Thursday that he is indicting Hunter Biden on gun charges.

The Donald Trump-appointed US attorney was named special counsel last month in the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, and he has decades of experience as a federal prosecutor.

The appointment marked another dramatic development in the long-running probe into Hunter Biden, which began in 2018 and, at one time, concerned multiple financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Joe Biden was vice president.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the move stemmed from Weiss’ request to be elevated to special counsel – which now gives him more powers than a typical US attorney – and due to the “extraordinary circumstances” of this case and “public interest.”

In 2018, the Senate confirmed Weiss to serve as US attorney for the District of Delaware. At the time of his nomination, he was serving as the acting US attorney for the district and was one of nine candidates whom Trump said shared his “vision for ‘Making America Safe Again.’”

The Philadelphia native is a member of the Delaware and Pennsylvania bars.

A Washington University in St. Louis and Widener University School of Law graduate, Weiss began his career in law in 1984 as a clerk to Justice Andrew D. Christie of the Delaware Supreme Court, according to his Justice Department biography.

Following his clerkship, Weiss prosecuted violent crimes and white-collar offenses as an assistant US attorney before joining the firm Duane Morris, where he was a commercial litigation associate and eventually became a partner. He later served as chief operating officer and senior vice president at The Siegfried Group, a financial services firm, according to his biography.

He served as the first assistant US attorney starting in 2007.

Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden continued into the Biden administration, prompting Garland to stress during a March Senate committee hearing that he would not interfere with the investigation. Weiss, he reiterated at the time, had “full authority” to carry out the investigation and to bring in another jurisdiction if necessary.

Read more about the special counsel.

Justice Department prosecutors may have some challenges in court if the gun case against Hunter Biden does go to trial, according to Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst.

“I certainly, if I were making history, would not want to make it with this set of facts and these laws,” she said referring to the first time the Department of Justice has charged the son of a sitting president.

Hunter Biden’s defense team has several good arguments, she said, and additionally, gun laws could be on shaky constitutional grounds.

Federal prosecutors charged the president’s son with three crimes — two counts for alleged false statements he made while purchasing the gun and a third count for possessing the gun while addicted to drugs.

Most recently, an appeals court covering three southern states ruled in August that one of the gun possession laws Hunter Biden is charged with is unconstitutional and violates the Second Amendment.

Rodgers said the section that covers an addict being in possession of a weapon is rarely charged because many similar gun statutes are “not indisputable.”

Additionally, oftentimes prosecutors will use discretion and not bring these kinds of charges if the person no longer has a gun or is using drugs, Rodgers said. All of these various factors, plus the likelihood that Hunter Biden won't want to "roll the dice either" on going to trial, means that there is “always a possibility that a deal could be struck,” she said.

“If you had someone who's clearly not dangerous, assuming he stays clean and doesn't possess a gun, that's what we should all want,” Rodgers said. “Hopefully they can work out some sort of deal here that will stop short of actually going to trial on this.”

When the DOJ appointed David Weiss as special counsel over the summer, many leading Republicans criticized his appointment, saying he couldn’t trusted to handle the Hunter Biden investigation.

Their concerns were largely based on claims that his probe was politicized and was giving special treatment to Hunter Biden because of political considerations – which Weiss denies.

Many of these same Republicans have called on Hunter Biden to be indicted, which is exactly what Weiss did today.

Here’s what some top Republicans said when Weiss was appointed in August:

The gun possession law Hunter Biden is accused of breaking is already on shaky legal ground after an August ruling by an appeals court covering three southern states that declared the statute unconstitutional. 

Last month, a New Orleans-based federal appeals court struck down the decades-old law, saying it violated the Second Amendment in a case concerning a man who was convicted under it in 2022. 

The ruling by the Fifth Circuit, which oversees Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, means that other defendants convicted under the law in those states could seek to bring new challenges to their convictions, but it has no legal bearing in Biden’s case, which was brought in Delaware. The Fifth Circuit's ruling relied on the Supreme Court's landmark decision last year that expanded Second Amendment protections.

The Justice Department is still considering whether to appeal the ruling. It has the option of going to the Supreme Court or asking the entire appeals court to review the ruling, which was handed down by a panel of three judges. 

If convicted on all counts, Hunter Biden could theoretically face as much as 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000, according to court filings. However, defendants very rarely get the maximum penalty, especially in cases like these, involving non-violent crimes and an alleged first-time offender.

The three-count indictment was handed up Thursday by a federal grand jury in Delaware, according to court filings. 

Court filings show that a summons was issued Thursday for Hunter Biden to appear in court for an initial appearance on the special counsel charges, though it is unclear when and where the initial appearance would take place. 

Hunter Biden is currently in California, a source familiar told CNN, adding that any plan for a self-surrender or initial appearance, including the date and location, still needs be worked out.

The White House was asked Wednesday for comment on the news that special counsel David Weiss has indicted Hunter Biden on gun charges.

A spokesperson referred questions to the Justice Department and Hunter Biden’s personal representatives, “given this is an independent investigation.”

Hunter Biden’s gun-related legal troubles relate to a firearm he purchased in October 2018.

While buying a revolver at Delaware gun shop, he lied on a federal form when he swore that he was not using, and was not addicted to, any illegal drugs – even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase.

It’s a federal crime to lie on that ATF form or to possess a firearm as a drug user. (Hunter Biden possessed the gun for about 11 days in 2018.) Prosecutors have previously said the statute of limitations for some of these offenses is set to expire in October.

Special counsel David Weiss has been leading the Hunter Biden investigation since late 2018. Over the years, his team investigated potential felony tax evasion, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering and other matters, largely tied to Hunter Biden’s overseas business deals.