Hunter Biden’s defense team filed and immediately dropped a plea for a new trial on Monday, nearly a week after the first son was found guilty of all charges stemming from his handgun purchase in 2018.
Biden’s defense team, led by attorney Abbe Lowell, filed a move in Delaware federal court on Monday morning seeking a new trial, alleging that the court lacked jurisdiction because two appeals in the case were still pending.
“The Third Circuit [appeals court], however, did not then and has not yet issued its mandate as to the orders dismissing either appeal,” Lowell stated in the court filing. “Thus, when this Court empaneled the jury on June 3, 2024 and proceeded to trial, it was without jurisdiction to do so.”
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According to Reuters, the motion was promptly withdrawn from a court document website.
“The Motion for a New Trial (formerly DI 233) has been deleted at the request of counsel,” according to a notice filed on a docket website, which is referred to as a “correcting entry,” the source stated.
Last Tuesday, Biden was found guilty of making a false statement during the purchase of a gun, making a false statement regarding information required to be preserved by a federally registered gun dealer, and possessing a gun by a person who is an illegal user or addicted to a controlled substance. Prosecutors attempted to prove that Biden lied on a federal firearms form, known as ATF Form 4473, in October 2018, when he checked the “No” box when asked if he was an illegal drug user or addicted to controlled narcotics. Biden bought the rifle from a store in Wilmington.
Biden has pled not guilty in the matter.
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Biden has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which is most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which walks readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a “crack daddy” to drug dealers, and anecdotes about drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Biden nicknamed “Bicycles.”
Throughout the trial, Lowell did not challenge Biden’s extensive history of substance misuse, which included an alcohol addiction. The defense instead claimed that on the day Biden purchased the Cobra Colt.38, he did not consider himself an active drug user, given the first son’s stay in rehab prior to the October 2018 purchase.
Prosecutors, however, said Biden was addicted to crack cocaine before, during, and after purchasing the firearm. Just one day after the gun purchase, prosecutors showed the court that Biden texted Hallie Biden, his sister-in-law turned girlfriend, saying he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie.” A day later, he texted that he was “sleeping in a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney” in Wilmington.
A jury of his peers deliberated for nearly three hours over two days before convicting Biden on all charges.
He will be sentenced later this year, but no date has yet been set.
Biden faces up to 25 years in prison for all three offenses. Each offense carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years’ supervised release. Biden, on the other hand, is a first-time offender, thus he is unlikely to suffer the maximum penalty when convicted.
Fox News Digital reached out to Lowell’s office for comment on the withdrawn motion but did not receive an immediate response.
Source: foxnews.com
