Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to federal gun charges at Delaware court hearing

Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three federal firearms charges.

His lawyer Abbe Lowell said in court he plans to file a motion to dismiss the case, challenging their constitutionality.

Biden Jr faces charges alleging 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.

READ MORE: Hunter 'received $250k wires from Beijing addressed to Joe's home'

Hunter Biden’s attorneys are suggesting prosecutors bowed to pressure by Republicans who have insisted the Democratic president’s son got a sweetheart deal, and that the charges were the result of political pressure.

He was indicted after the implosion this summer of his plea agreement with federal prosecutors on tax and gun charges. 

The deal devolved after the judge who was supposed to sign off instead raised a series of questions. 

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Defence lawyer Abbe Lowell has hinted that he will challenge some of the indictment based on this ruling last year.

She said in a statement: “We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court.”

Hunter has become a widely talked about figure in the US.

Republicans have tried to use Hunter as a route to impeaching President Biden, but have failed to provide incriminating evidence. They have been investigating him for years, since his father was vice president.

The president’s son, who has not held public office, is charged with two counts of making false statements and one count of illegal gun possession, punishable by up to 25 years in prison upon conviction. Under the failed deal, he would have pleaded guilty and served probation rather than jail time on misdemeanor tax charges and avoided prosecution on a gun count if he stayed out of trouble for two years.

Defense attorneys have argued that he remains protected by an immunity provision that was part of the scuttled plea agreement, but prosecutors overseen by special counsel David Weiss disagree. Weiss also serves as U.S. attorney for Delaware and was originally appointed by Trump.

Hunter Biden had asked for Tuesday’s hearing to be conducted remotely over video feed, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke sided with prosecutors, saying there would be no “special treatment”.