Hunter Biden’s trial date on federal gun charges set

Hunter Biden is set to go on trial this summer on federal gun-related charges – in a case that will bring embarrassment to his father President Joe Biden at the height of his White House reelection campaign.

At a status conference in Delaware on Wednesday, US District Judge Maryellen Noreika set a tentative start date of 3 June for the trial.

The embattled son of the president was hit with three felony gun charges in Delaware in September over a gun purchase in October 2018 when he was in the grips of drug addiction.

Prosecutors allege that Hunter Biden unlawfully possessed a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver for 11 days, after he falsely claimed on a gun purchase form that he didn’t use drugs.

Under federal law, an unlawful drug user cannot legally possess a firearm.

Now, Hunter Biden is facing up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000 on the charges.

The charges came after he reached a plea deal with the Justice Department in June before the terms of the agreement fell apart before a judge.

Under the terms of the deal, Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanours for failing to pay his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. In exchange, prosecutors would not charge with him a gun possession violation.

But, in a dramatic moment in court, the judge refused to accept the scope of the plea deal, and the agreement – which was slammed as a “sweetheart deal” by Biden critics – fell apart.

Special counsel David Weiss brought the three gun-related charges in September.

Hunter Biden departs the Capitol following a closed deposition with members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee

Three months later, Mr Weiss then hit Hunter Biden with criminal charges in a separate case in California, relating to the