Attorneys for Hunter Biden on Monday filed a long-shot request for a new criminal trial on federal gun charges, arguing the judge who oversaw the trial earlier this month did not have jurisdiction.
A jury of 12 Delaware residents convicted Biden earlier this month on three felonies stemming from his purchase of a gun in October 2018 while addicted to crack cocaine. Federal law prohibits drug users from owning and possessing firearms. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.
In Monday’s appeal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, attorneys for the first son argued his “convictions should be vacated” because the trial started before a federal circuit formally denied his appeal.
It is a very technical argument that raises procedural claims but does not dispute the substantive merits of the prosecutors’ case.
“Here, no mandate was issued during the trial or even now,” Biden’s legal team wrote. “Consequently, the conviction must be vacated.”
Judge Maryellen Noreika, who oversaw the trial, has denied multiple motions to toss the gun charges against Biden, including arguments that the case should be dismissed because it violated the defendant’s Second Amendment rights.
Biden’s legal team appealed her ruling to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has so far upheld all of Judge Noreika’s rulings.
However, they have not yet ruled on Biden’s request to have the full 3rd Circuit hear the Second Amendment appeal.
Since that question remains unsolved, defense attorneys say Judge Noreika didn’t have the authority to seat a jury.
“The Third Circuit, however, did not then and has not yet issued its mandate as to the orders dismissing either appeal,“ defense attorney Abbe Lowell wrote. “Thus when this Court empaneled the jury on June 3, 2024, and proceeded to trial, it was without jurisdiction to do so.”
Mr. Lowell filed a similar appeal last week but rescinded it minutes later with no explanation.
Biden was found guilty on two counts of making false statements for lying on a federal form that he was not addicted to drugs when he purchased at Colt Cobra revolver at a Delaware gun store in 2018. He was also found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm while addicted to drugs.
