A federal court rejected first son Hunter Biden’s appeal of three gun charges Thursday, clearing the way for him to stand trial in his home state of Delaware beginning June 3.
The Philadelphia-based US Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Hunter’s bid to consider having the case thrown out, citing a lack of jurisdiction in a four-page order.
“This appeal is DISMISSED because the defendant has not shown the District Court’s orders are appealable before final judgment,” stated Judges Patty Shwartz, Cindy Chung and D. Brooks Smith.
Delaware US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is presiding over the case, filed a scheduling order following the appellate court’s ruling for a three- to six-day jury trial on the three gun felonies.
Hunter, 54, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which include two counts of making false statements and one count of firearm possession by an unlawful substance abuser.
If convicted, the felonies carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Biden’s legal team, led by the high-profile criminal attorney Abbe Lowell, had appealed three pretrial orders by Noreika on April 12 that denied Hunter’s motions to dismiss the underlying indictment.
One of those motions concerned a diversion agreement that Hunter’s legal team accused special counsel David Weiss of reneging on, following the implosion of his probation-only plea deal last July.
“Non-prosecution agreements do not implicate a right not to be tried or any other right that can be collaterally appealed,” the appellate court affirmed on Thursday.
Another motion argued that the first son has been “vindictively and selectively prosecuted” in violation of “separation-of-powers principles because it was improperly motivated by the Legislative Branch and political pressure.”
But the court ruled that “[c]riminal defendants raising those challenges cannot appeal before final judgment,” without discussing the merits.
The third motion claimed Weiss’ appointment as special counsel over the case last year violated federal regulations that stipulate such prosecutors must be chosen from outside the government.
The Third Circuit judges noted, though, that Noreika’s order denying the motion did not explicitly rule on the matter of the special counsel’s appointment.
“[T]he defendant has not shown the order has a ‘serious, perhaps irreparable, consequence’ and can be ‘effect[ually] challenged only by immediate appeal,’” they wrote, citing case precedents.
Hunter’s “sweetheart” plea deal, as Republican critics in Congress called it, would have granted the first son broad immunity from future prosecution if he copped to two misdemeanors for evading at least $100,000 in tax payments in 2017 and 2018.
Under its terms, Hunter Biden would have served just two years on probation, while submitting to drug tests and other measures for the felony of lying about his crack cocaine abuse when purchasing a firearm in 2018.
But Special Assistant US Attorney Leo Wise told Noreika in federal court on July 26 that the plea agreement did not preclude prosecutors from investigating further charges — including potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Neither Noreika nor Delaware Chief US Probation Officer Margaret Bray signed onto the deal, making it non-binding, Weiss’ prosecutorial team argued in August.
The following month, Weiss indicted Hunter on three gun felonies for making false statements about his drug use when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver, a period he recounted vividly in his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things.”
House Republicans initiated an impeachment inquiry last year that focused on the millions of dollars Hunter and first brother James Biden raked in from foreign benefactors during and shortly after Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
That inquiry has relied on evidence obtained from bank records, dozens of interviews with witnesses and testimony from IRS whistleblowers about Justice Department interference in the five-year probe of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
Hunter Biden sued the IRS last September and accused the whistleblowers — supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and special agent Joseph Ziegler — of violating his right to privacy by disclosing his tax information.
In addition to Noreika, Los Angeles US District Judge Mark Scarsi rejected eight motions in April to dismiss three felony and six misdemeanor tax charges brought by Hunter’s legal team in Southern California.
Federal prosecutors in Weiss’ office ripped Hunter on Wednesday for appealing Scarsi’s decision to the Ninth Circuit, calling it “a stunt to delay his trial” on June 20.