President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, faces three federal felony charges related to his purchase of a .38-caliber handgun during the height of his drug addiction in 2018, a court filing released Thursday states.
The counts, brought by Special Counsel David Weiss, allege that Hunter lied about his history of illegal drug use on a background check form while trying to buy a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. Another count indicts Hunter for possessing the handgun while he was addicted to and using illicit substances.
Despite his extensive history with narcotics, Hunter marked “no” on the Firearms Transaction Record that asks potential gun buyers if they are an “unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.”
At the time of the problematic purchase, Hunter had already been discharged from the Navy Reserve for cocaine use and attended alcohol and drug rehab programs in 2003, 2010, and 2014. The infamous Apple laptop that he dropped off for repairs in 2019 showed the younger Biden deep in the world of sex and drugs, with graphic pictures and video of him allegedly smoking crack cocaine from a pipe while engaged in a sex act.
News about Hunter’s reported “false and fictitious” form became public knowledge in 2021 when Politico obtained a copy of his 4473 and transaction receipt. Government officials such as local police, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the ATF likely knew about Hunter’s lie earlier than that because the revolver soon became the center of a missing gun investigation.
Yet, it wasn’t until earlier this summer that the DOJ announced it would charge the president’s youngest son with two federal misdemeanor counts for failing to pay his taxes and one federal felony charge for possessing a gun while being an illegal drug user and addict. Weiss previously delayed bringing these charges against Hunter because he believed it would hurt Biden’s presidential chances.
Hunter’s lawyers used the sweetheart deal as an excuse to conclude that “the five-year investigation” into their client was finally “resolved,” a claim that corporate media were all too happy to amplify. Their carefully orchestrated plea deal with DOJ and Hunter meant the younger Biden would only face probation — not jail time — for the two misdemeanor tax charges he planned to plead guilty to. The government planned to drop the original felony gun charge as long as Hunter pledged to forsake his drug-plagued lifestyle for 24 months and never own a gun again.
Federal Judge Maryellen Noreika immediately called foul on the pretrial diversion agreement after she noted it could protect Hunter from other crimes in the same time span. The plea deal fell apart, and Attorney General Merrick Garland scrambled to name Weiss as special counsel to rework the charges while prosecutors worked on charging Hunter for tax crimes in California or Washington, D.C.
It’s unclear whether the pretrial diversion agreement supersedes the new indictment, as Hunter’s lawyers’ claimed. If found guilty on all new charges, Hunter could be fined and imprisoned for a maximum of 25 years.
