An appellate court on Thursday denied Hunter Biden‘s requests that his gun charges be dropped, clearing the way for a trial to begin in less than one month.
A three-judge panel in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals did not entertain the merits of Biden’s appeals but instead said none of the challenges the first son raised were appealable before the trial, according to a court order.
Biden will head to court on June 3 for a one-week trial, during which a jury will decide if Biden is guilty of three felonies stemming from a 2018 gun purchase.
Special counsel David Weiss alleged in an indictment last year that Biden lied on a gun form about his drug addiction so that he could purchase a revolver.
Weiss said in court filings that federal investigators obtained warrants for Biden’s computer data several years ago and that the data contained messages of Biden admitting to being a hard drug user around the time he purchased the firearm in October 2018.
Weiss also revealed that after Biden was indicted, investigators tested a substance on the revolver, which had been stored in the government’s possession as evidence, and that a test showed the substance was cocaine.
Biden’s attorneys raised numerous challenges to Weiss’s methods to obtaining the evidence, and those fights are still playing out in court.
Biden’s appeals that were just denied centered on his argument that his charges should be dismissed on three separate grounds: that Weiss was not a lawfully appointed special counsel, that a defunct plea deal gave Biden immunity from prosecution, and that the DOJ violated the separation of powers by caving to congressional pressure to prosecute Biden.
Judge Maryellen Noreika denied all three motions, and while the appellate court’s decision allows those denials to stand for now, Biden could still raise new challenges to them after the trial.
Shortly after the appellate court issued its order, Noreika, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, issued an order on a fourth request from Biden to dismiss his charges based on the claim that they are unconstitutional.
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Biden’s attorneys had argued that the statute prohibiting a drug addict from possessing a firearm was a violation of the Second Amendment, but Noreika said in her order Thursday that no appellate court has agreed with that position and that regulations on gun ownership are constitutional.
Noreika did, however, note that Biden has the option to renew his argument after his trial, leaving open the possibility that the constitutionality questions surrounding his charges will resurface later.
