PHILADELPHIA (CN) — A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hunter Biden should stand trial on multiple firearms charges, thwarting the president’s son’s attempts for dismissal and setting the stage for a trial in June.
Biden, whose trial is set to begin June 3 in Delaware, faces one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and two additional false statement charges arising from his purchase of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in 2018 while he was using drugs. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Biden’s counsel, Abbe Lowell of the firm Winston & Strawn, requested in April that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals throw out the charges. He argued the circuit court should overturn decisions by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee who rejected three separate motions to dismiss.
But the three-judge panel rejected that appeal on procedural grounds Thursday, writing in a short ruling that they could not legally consider Biden’s appeals until a final judgment is reached at trial. The ruling marks the latest of several failed attempts by Biden’s counsel to avoid a federal trial.
Shortly after he was charged in June 2023 with unlawful possession of a firearm, Biden and the Justice Department began discussing a plea deal that would have allowed Biden an opportunity to avoid criminal prosecution.
Those talks stalled in July after Noreika, a Trump appointee, raised several questions over the deal’s logistics, revealing fundamental disagreements between prosecutors and defense attorneys over a proposed immunity provision. The disagreements were never fully resolved, and Biden was formally indicted by Special Counsel David Weiss on Sept. 14.
In December, Biden’s counsel submitted three motions to throw out the indictment. Noreika rejected each of them later in April.
One motion argued that by indicting Biden, Weiss had violated an agreement made during the failed plea deal hearings in July. Noreika disagreed, writing in her ruling that because Delaware’s chief U.S. probation officer never signed off on the agreement, it never formally took effect.
“As evidenced by the document itself, probation did not approve,” she wrote.
In his second motion, Biden argued that Weiss’ appointment to special counsel by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was not done legally, suggesting that the appointment had to come from outside the Justice Department. Biden also argued that the special counsel had improperly funded their investigation.
Noreika again denied Biden’s motion to dismiss, citing extensive precedent for both Weiss’ appointment and the special counsel’s funding sources.
Finally, Biden argued in a third motion that both the breakdown in plea deal hearings and Weiss’ indictment against him were politically motivated. He suggested there was a targeted attack against him by Donald Trump, his supporters and “other opponents of the Bidens.”
Noreika once again disagreed, ruling in her dismissal that because Biden was charged after Trump left office and during Joe Biden’s presidency, any accusations of a politically-charged attack would be nonsensical.
“The problem with this argument is that the charging decision at issue was made during this administration by Special Counsel Weiss — at a time when the head of the executive branch prosecuting defendant is defendant’s father,” she wrote.
Following the Third Circuit’s decision allowing Noreika’s rulings to stand, Biden’s trial is all set to begin in June in Wilmington, Delaware. A pretrial conference is scheduled for May 24, and the trial is anticipated to last three to six days, according to court documents.
In addition to the firearms-related charges, Biden also faces nine federal tax-related charges, including for tax evasion. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts and is scheduled to face trial in that matter on June 20.
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