A federal appeals court refused Thursday to throw out Hunter Biden’s federal gun indictment, teeing up a high-stakes criminal trial next month in Delaware.
The president’s son had asked the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the charges by overturning prior decisions from the trial judge that the case should move forward. But the appellate panel instead rejected Biden’s appeal, handing yet another victory to special counsel David Weiss, who brought the charges.
Weiss’ team successfully argued that the appellate court didn’t have jurisdiction to review the matter and therefore was required by law to dismiss Biden’s appeal.
“This appeal is dismissed because the defendant has not shown the District Court’s orders are appealable before final judgment,” the three-judge appellate panel wrote in a four-page ruling.
The trial is slated to begin in early June unless the parties reach a plea deal or some other agreement to resolve the case, which is always possible. There is still one additional motion to dismiss the case — it pertains to Biden’s rights under the Second Amendment — that the trial judge hasn’t decided yet.
“In reviewing the panel’s decision, we believe the issues involved are too important and further review of our request is appropriate,” Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement, suggesting that he may ask the full Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit to rehear the appeal.
Prosecutors claim Biden illegally purchased and possessed a revolver in 2018, which violated federal law because he was using illicit drugs at the time. He has pleaded not guilty to all three felony counts.
His attorneys have argued that the charges trample his Second Amendment rights and that“possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days was not a threat to public safety.”
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee who was confirmed with wide bipartisan support in the Senate, refused to dismiss the gun indictment last month. She also previously presided over Hunter Biden’s botched plea deal hearing last summer.
In rejecting his appeal Thursday, the 3rd Circuit panel said those types of deals with prosecutors “do not implicate a right not to be tried” and wouldn’t give Hunter Biden additional avenues to pursue appeals.
Biden is also facing a federal tax indictment, and that trial is slated to begin in late June in California. He has pleaded not guilty to all nine charges in that case, which revolves around millions of dollars he made in Ukraine, in China and through other overseas deals.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
