Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to gun, false statement charges

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to three felony charges in a federal courthouse here Tuesday, the next step in a long-running investigation that has been a focal point for Republicans and could result in a criminal trial overlapping with President Biden’s 2024 campaign for a second term.

Federal prosecutors accused the younger Biden in a four-page indictment of making two false statements in 2018 when he completed paperwork to purchase a gun. Biden asserted on the form that he was not addicted to or using illegal drugs, the indictment says, “when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.” He is also charged with unlawfully possessing the gun.

Biden spoke little at the half-hour hearing before a magistrate judge, Christopher J. Burke, where Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell formally entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Lowell said he plans to ask a court to throw out the charges, citing a deal Biden reached with prosecutors this summer in which he would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and admitted the facts of the gun case without being formally charged.

That deal collapsed amid a disagreement over whether it protected Biden from facing potential additional charges. Lowell has maintained the previous agreement should still stand.

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