Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 8 months ago • 172 commentsBy: Dareh Gregorian, Daniel Barnes and Tom Winter (NBC News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Dareh Gregorian, Daniel Barnes and Tom Winter
Federal prosecutors have indicted Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, on gun charges, court documents show.
Biden was indicted Thursday in Delaware federal court on three counts tied to the possession of a gun while using narcotics.
Two counts are tied to Biden allegedly completing a form indicating he was not using illegal drugs when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. The third count alleges that he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic. The indictment says Biden certified on a federally mandated form "that he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious."
Follow along for live updates.
Two of the counts carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, while the third has a maximum of five years.
The historic indictment against the son of a sitting president comes after a plea deal that might have ended a years-long probe into Hunter Biden fell apart and just as House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry in an effort to seek bank records and other documents from the president and his son.
The case is being overseen by special counsel David Weiss, who also headed the investigation. Weiss is a Trump appointee who was kept on as U.S. attorney for Delaware because of the sensitive and unique nature of the investigation into a president's son by the Justice Department, a part of the executive branch headed by the president. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland named Weiss special counsel in August, as negotiations over the tax and gun charges collapsed.
Weiss declined to comment on the investigation when approached by NBC News on Thursday before the indictment was unsealed.
Weiss's investigation was opened in 2018, the year before Joe Biden announced his candidacy for president, according to a source familiar with the inquiry, and focused on the younger Biden's finances.
The two sides reached a plea agreement in July that called for Hunter Biden to plead guilty in Delaware federal court to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes in return for prosecutors recommending a sentence of probation. A separate felony gun charge for illegally owning the Colt Cobra .38 Special handgun would have been dropped in two years if Biden honored the terms of what's known as a diversion agreement.
The plea agreement started to fall apart at the court appearance where it was expected to be finalized after the judge presiding over the case raised questions about some details. "The agreements are not straightforward and they contain some atypical provisions," U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika noted, including one that could theoretically protect Biden from other tax-related crimes in the same time period.
Prosecutors said the provision in the diversion agreement would not protect him from different charges, while attorneys for Hunter Biden said it would. Noreika, a Trump-appointed judge, asked both sides for more information, and the agreement — which Republicans were already blasting as a "sweetheart deal" — subsequently fell apart.
In subsequent court filings, Weiss's office noted that without the plea agreement in place, there were venue issues and the case would most likely have to go to trial in California or Washington, D.C. Prosecutors also suggested that they might bring different charges in the new case.
Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell, meanwhile, argued the diversion agreement is still in effect because it had already been signed by his client and prosecutors and said it "prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr. Biden."
"We expect a fair resolution of the sprawling, 5-year investigation into Mr. Biden that was based on the evidence and the law, not outside political pressure, and we'll do what is necessary on behalf of Mr. Biden to achieve that," he said last week.
Prosecutors dispute that the agreement is in effect, arguing it lacks a necessary signature from the probation department.
Attachments to the plea agreement and the diversion agreement that were filed in court blamed Biden's conduct in the tax and gun cases on his drug and alcohol addiction. The documents say that he got sober in May 2019, and with the help of a third-party paid off about $2 million in back taxes and penalties by October of 2021.
A "statement of facts" document included in the original gun case said that Biden was using crack cocaine during the period when he bought a revolver from a federally licensed firearms dealer in Delaware in October of 2018. Filling out a federally mandated form asking if he used illegal narcotics, "Biden answered 'no,' even though he was a user of and addicted to crack cocaine at the time," the court filing said.
He wound up possessing the gun for 11 days, and during that time "he purchased and used crack cocaine regularly," the filing continued. The gun was later found in his car along with drug paraphernalia, and was "subsequently discarded in a trashcan outside a supermarket in Greenville, Delaware."
The White House has been largely silent on the investigation, but the president defended his son in an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle on May 5.
"First of all, my son has done nothing wrong," the president said. "I trust him. I have faith in him."
Asked by Ruhle how charges against his son would affect his presidency, Biden said, "It impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him."
Hunter Biden told CBS News in a 2021 interview that he was "cooperating completely" with the federal probe. "And I'm absolutely certain, 100 percent certain," he said, "that at the end of the investigation, I will be cleared of any wrongdoing."
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Will Joe pardon him?
Will there be more charges?
bfd. I didn't vote for him, but it's nice to know the length of time allowed to go after the kids of an ex-POTUS that have committed criminal acts and how harsh the sentences should be for future reference...
I hope joe does pardon him, if he loses in '24, if only to expose even more hilarious hypocrisy among the GOP...
And don't forget to say "Where's the evidence."
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"Well son-of-a-bitch, they fired the prosecutor!"
when talking to republicans, I know better...
Joe could never stoop so low as the republiCONS and the CONServatives but it would serve the bastards right.
Interesting article about the timing of things.
I would say for everybody to read the timeline but I'm confident there are many who will just reject and deflect. It appears that thru much of 2015 the Obama administration was praising Shokin and Ukraine for their efforts to clean up corruption. But in December 2015 Hunter "called D.C." in a private meeting with Zlochevsky, Burisma's founder, and Vadim Pozharsky, Burisma’s corporate secretary, in Dubai following Pozharsky’s request.
Biden traveled to Ukraine days three days later, where he threatened to withhold the loan unless Shokin was fired.
But as the deniers will be swift to say, nothing to see here...
Like zombies, they keep repeating:
Where is the evidence
my favorite was :
Hunter is using his father's name to fool these people
Now there is something never uttered by Donnie's fans and assorted half naked proselytizers.
lol
Shokin was appointed Prosecutor General of Ukraine on February 10, 2015. Blinken’s speech was less than a month later, hardly time for Shokin to do much. Shokin was supposed to clean up corruption.
From Shokin’s Wikipedia entry: Representatives of the EU and the United States pressed [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko for his removal, as did the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
At least you got that right.
From the article:
Stefanic is tainted by acts to further foist the Trump condition upon America. She can't speak without distorting the truth or flat-out lying.
The following excerpt is from Devon Archer’s testimony, he is answering the questions. Read the transcript, there is NO indication that Joe did anything to help Hunter's clients. It was a total loss for Republicans.
Q Are you aware of Hunter Biden ever asking his dad to change foreign policy?
A No.
Q Are you ever -- were you ever privy to any conversations between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden in which they discussed how --
A No.
Q -- Joe Biden would --
A No.
Q -- take official actions on behalf of Hunter Biden?
A No.
Q So is it fair to say that Hunter Biden was selling the illusion of access to his father?
A Yes.
Of the thousands of phone calls between Joe & Hunter during that period, there were clients of Hunter in the room on about 20 occasions. There is no evidence supporting the conservative position that Joe was taking action as VPotUS to help his son.
No, he only talked about grandkids and vacations / S
Now we need bank records.
Nope. What you need is evidence that Joe did something as VPoTUS to benefit his son's clients, which would be a crime itself. Then you have a reason to ask for bank records, to see if additional charges are warranted. That's why no articles of impeachment have been filed by Republicans; no evidence. By 'impeachment inquiry', Republicans mean 'fishing expedition'.
A son giving a parent money is not a crime, otherwise I'm a massively guilty criminal.
the investigations are ongoing. be patient!
No shit; Republicans Я Us for all your useless investigation needs. If the last 60 years are an indication of their success rate in finding malfeasance in presidential administrations there's little likelihood of success here. There were two convictions and two prison sentences in Democratic Administrations and 85+ convictions with 40+ prison sentences in Republican Administrations.
The Gop isn't the only institution doing investigations.
You must be orgasmic. Too bad it's not about the laptop though, eh?
There may be more torpedoes in the water. It isn't over yet Tess. There are all the other crimes that Hunter committed, the ones that Joe is involved in.
LOL, you really don't have anything on President Biden whatsoever regardless of what Hunter may have done, President Biden is not complicit, no matter how much you wish it was so, it ain't so.
Lord, we can only hope!
O jeez a tiny little revolver that he never loaded or shot ?
The far right is grasping at nonexistent straws.
[Deleted]
My "ilk" carry Glocks and M4s [Deleted]
Perfecting an AR is one of my most favorite pastimes.
[Deleted]
Why does it always seem like many on the left always want more gun laws but rarely seem to give a good damn about actually enforcing them?
Crap like this is why so many people who support the Constitution tune a deaf ear when leftists call for "more laws, tougher laws" because laws are useless without enforcement.
There is Hunter's FARA violation. You know, the one that Paul Manafort was so aggressively prosecuted for.
... and then pardoned by trump along with a slew of other criminals.
Most people do not get charged for FARA violations and I doubt anyone ever got the sentence Manafort got.
That our leftist Fascists in action again.
pardoned a bunch of fascist scumlappingshitbags
It's Joe's turn now.
His press secretary said there would not be a pardon for Hunter!
President Biden's turn for what?
Remember, we didn't vote for Hunter, millions upon millions upon millions voted for JOE!
And he's her puppet ... @!@
Which, of course, has nothing at all to do with Hunter Biden's screw-ups.
There is no such thing as a "leftist fascist"
Fascism is wholly owned by the far right.
Most intelligent folk consult dictionaries.
If they weren't criminals, why would anyone ever need a pardon?
What Trump did was pardon people convicted of crimes.
Just like Biden.
Office of the Pardon Attorney | Pardons Granted by President Joseph Biden (2021-Present) (justice.gov)
At least try to argue that Biden and Trump are different or you have no sensible argument.
If that is the case, Fascism died in 1945. Thus, the word is defunct and should never be used again.
fascist is the pet word of the year for liberals.
Woke fascism is the nearest pet term.
r Biden attorney Abbe Lowell, meanwhile, argued the diversion agreement is still in effect because it had already been signed by his client and prosecutors and said it "prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr. Biden."
He might not be wrong. The plea agreement was an incredibly generous gift that only the son of a President would ever get.
That may be true but it is going to look real bad now.
Even worse would-be Joe pardoning Hunter.
Joe should be on the air at 2:45 today.
Was busted with a gun once. Talked my way out of it. My father wasn't VP.
An unloaded six shooter, never fired, owned for a few days is no big deal.
Except for far-right wing fascists who scream about 2nd amendment rights?
Does anybody else see blatant hypocrisy here?
Sure do--leftists are whining about Hunter possibly being prosecuted for a crime involving a gun, and all the while calling for more gun laws for law-abiding people to jump through when the left doesn't give a damn about enforcement.
You have managed to bamboozle your blind followers.
We will be hearing from Dumb Ass later today. (maybe 30 minutes) He has a scheduled press conference on his wonderful economy.
I wonder if he even knows?
Only if Obama, Jarrett, Rice, and Jill tell him.
And they work right around the corner from the White House.
Do you think they may be calling the shots?
Of course they are. Some of them continue to work in the Biden WH.
Correct.
You get the A today.
Thank you, sir!
Perfect meme.
ED! How are you?
Taking just one day at a time lady. How you been up there in the great Northwest? Have missed you here on NT.
One day at a time is the only way to live life .. otherwise, you set yourself up for disappointment. We cannot have that happening : )
Life in the Norse land is going well .. I too have been taking life just one day at a time.... I feel blessed to be able to step outside, take a deep breath and get real high! [smirk]
So innuendo memes and lies are all you have?
Sad that far right wing [deleted can't speak to topics.]
[deleted]
subsequently discarded in a trashcan outside a supermarket in Greenville, Delaware."
and he and his girlfriend/sister in law blamed it's subsequent disappearance on illegal alien Mexicans.
The dems do seem to use them for everything, don't they?
It only took 5 years and an honest judge to finally prosecute Hunter Biden for one of his many crimes.
Sean ... the far left prefers to call Biden's >7 million known illegal aliens from over 150 countries immigrants, refugees, and migrants even though US Code identifies them as illegal aliens.
"when you control the language you control the masses"
Liberal ---> progressive ---> socialist ---> marxist ---> communist
Good article!
how do you get from sense to nonsense with that marxist communist bullshit? do you even know what that means?
I read Vic's link. Did you? Also, I learned much of what the article stated when I took mandatory US History 2 in high school.
Here's a hint from the article:
Trump learned something from Saul? I'm guessing Steve Bannon passed on that titbit.
all nonsense that marxist communist bullshit
More coming....
O goodie, is FOX going to report on the latest lawsuit filed against it?
their share holders are even coming after them...
Don't they have Fox up there?
Don't forget: Joe Biden did nothing wrong
"H ouse Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said he has “leads” on tracing the $10 million bribe that President Joe Biden allegedly received.
The payment is documented on an FBI-generated FD-1023 form , which was released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in July. In the document, a confidential FBI informant told the bureau that Mykola Zlochevsky — the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden sat on the board — had allegedly claimed he had funneled $5 million to Joe Biden when he was vice president and $5 million to Hunter Biden in an alleged exchange for pressuring the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin, the country's lead prosecutor who was believed to be investigating Burisma."
Comer says he has leads on tracing $10 million bribe Biden allegedly accepted | Washington Examiner
You have to pay extra for FOX, but hey if they need the funds to file for bankruptcy, I'll consider a by-the-hour subscription.
Is that the decision? Pay more or be ignorant. I'd be subscribing to it if I was a Canadian.
Wow! Sounds like a 5 season whodunit on Pulp-Fiction-TV.
The decision is yours.
Replace 'or' with 'and' ... feel at home now?
both comer and jordan couldn't find their asses with both hands...
I'm disappointed. A man with your education can do much better.
It would be impolite to do so with a man of your education.
You are already over the line. Go ahead.
There's a simple solution to avoiding blowback, Vic, don't throw shit at the fan.
LOL
so where are these 'leads' on this alleged bribe???????
we keep hearing about whistleblowers and 'leads' but never hear the evidence
so you have to pay more to be ignorant?
wow faux 'news' knows their audience
one born every minute
ouch
I bet that hurt
That is correct, Joe Biden did nothing wrong.
People who feel the need to tell others how much smarter they are, usually aren’t
That is so true. It's like a little guy syndrome.
You had your chance.
It's very simple. Don't make it personal and you won't have your nose rubbed in doo-doo.
The punishment was absolutely brutal ... feathers should be outlawed ...
Ran into more than a few know it all butter bar Navy Ensign's and USMC 2/Lt's right out of OCS in my 20 years. Seems no one ever taught them in OCS that the people you do not mess with are the people taking care of your medical records, the people who deliver your mail, and the mess cooks. Any one of the three or a combination thereof could make their lives Hell.
Where would you be without the Heartland Institute and the Heritage foundation crafting your every thought?
So glad that I am not owned by far right wing propaganda mills.
Is that where traditional values came from?
faux news? it must be true! /s
I want to see their faces over on MSNBC...Lol
I just cannot fucking believe that anyone can use them as a 'source' and claim any credibility whatsoever
You still can't believe it?
Just wait
Just exactly what is it that I should be waiting for?
Just be ready for the silence from the liberal left followed by their self righteous anger and denial blaming the right that scumbag Hunter's criminal escapades he has up to now been able to avoid thanks to the "Big Guy". Hopefully this is just the beginning of further indictments.
Common sense.
The vast majority of rational folk on the planet say that the far right fascists "investigating" Biden are political fools.
Biden is the most squeaky clean president this country has ever had.
Far right-wing lying fascists should go to hell yesterday!
Both of them?
Why not find one of their websites and voice your displeasure with them THERE instead of infecting this place with such crap?
"A bombshell ruling by the 5th circuit court today, finding the Biden White House, the FBI and the CDC violated the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans. "
He's on a roll right now......The guy who was at ground zero on 9/11
And guess what?
All the usual yahoos screeching senselessly about fascism are strangely ignoring this.
They thought they were going to throw the kitchen sink against one guy and waltz this corrupt crack head through a plea deal.
As used on this site, Fascism is saying mean things on twitter or expanding voting access in Georgia.
The government working with mega corporations to censor speech is protecting civil rights.
And was raised by Puerto Ricans, and survived oil cancer, and whose son died in Iraq, and who finished at the top of his class. and got arrested visiting Mandella, Caught the dollar that George Washington threw across the Delaware, Put the Beatles together, Flew Airforce one after terrorists attacked it.
I'd love to hear him say he was at McMurdo Station, Antarctica in the mid to late 80's when I was there. That would really be funny.
I'm sure if you ask him he delivered all the materials to build McMurdo station when he was a truck driver.
And he would also say he was on the 1st C-5 Galaxy ever to land on the ice runway at McMurdo. I stood on a point of land and watched that land.
McMurdo? HA! that is not a location that Biden could tell a story about - I would question whether Biden even knows there is a US base in Antartica let alone its name : )
Individuals need to stop picking on Biden's story telling .. I think he is working on writing a series of children's books, and he is testing the tales out on citizens of the world .... Perhaps?
U2?
The far-right wing fascists are really on a roll tonight.
They do this whenever they are proved wrong.
Be specific as to when that has happened....
Using credible sources
ie....no left wing sources.
it is hard to carry on a conversation with someone convinced that there are fascists everywhere.
Maybe they are a carny who live in the house of mirrors?
I wonder how some sleep at night thinking there are fascists under every inch of their beds,
Liberal screaming it's unfair that Biden is getting prosecuted for this gun crime......5 minutes later........... We need stricter gun control laws. Hypocrisy at it's finest.
Tonight, we'll hear it from Hannity:
Great! Hannity doesn't even believe the shit he reports ... should be one for the ages.
he's next on the block after FOX writes the next big defamation lawsuit check...
Pretty sure that Hannity gets paid to never tell the truth.
Often, liberals are sure of lots of things that are just wrong.
Who's saying it's unfair? Innocent until proven guilty, right?
Too great.
Joe appears as clueless and delusional as his sycophants are.
I just read that. WTF?
Joe....your kid was smoking crack.
Now, I expect you to love him anyway and I expect you to still be proud of the good things he's done in his life... but not using crack.
Joe Biden seems clueless
Hitting on his widowed sister-in-law wouldn’t be on my list either, nor denying paternity of his child.
Don't forget the Navy kicked Hunter's butt out for positive drug test results. He was doing coke as a Naval officer.
The US Navy remains a class act.
Yep, I think so but I may be a tad bit partial.
As a son of a swabbie, so am I.
[Deleted]
Coming from you, that is a great compliment!
Anyone who believes this place is infected with far right wing fascists necessarily has to have their 'opinions' examined closely.
Here's our leader
late again 3:19 EST
“Chickenshit is so called - instead of horse- or bull- or elephant shit - because it is small-minded and ignoble and takes the trivial seriously.”
Stephen E. Ambrose - The Band of Brothers.
Stephen E. Ambrose was also a known plagiarist.
gives him something in common with Biden.
... or with Melania.
Biden has been caught more than once plagiarizing, multiple times embellishing, multiple times lying.
And?
Like Biden, you can't trust what he said.
Every writer is a plagiarist. There is nothing new under the sun.
[deleted]
I guess I’m the only person on planet Earth who doesn’t give a shit about Hunter Biden and his problems with drugs, taxes, etc.
No, you're not. I don't give a shit either.
So Putin's crew fucked with his laptop. That's what they do.
That has already been thoroughly debunked, of course.
Seems like all those former intelligence operatives lied to further the political career of one Joe Biden.
I'm sure you already know all of this.
Another unfounded claim without a shred of credibility to it.
And the hypocrisy of comments continues, 20+ comments supporting a governor who put forth a questionable gun control order because we need to control crime, and now someone is charged with violating gun laws, designed to keep guns out of criminal's hands, and suddenly we don't care? I'm sure has nothing to do with the alleged criminals last name or party affiliation. I guess since Biden's sister in law dumped this weapon in a trashcan by a school, and when she went back to get it, it was gone is okay too. Because we don't care, unless it is a democrat Governor then we are all in.
You need to go back and read those comments because you clearly misunderstood them. That’s pretty embarrassing for you because in those comments, I explicitly said I wasn’t weighing in on whether or not I thought it was good policy. I analyzed how it could possibly be effective - nothing more.
Are all laws the same to you? Is it the death penalty for everything? We’re talking about someone with zero history of violent crime. In fact, he has no criminal conviction record at all that I know of. His drug issues are self-reported. He even wrote a book about it. The only reason anyone knows about it is because he admitted it and put himself in rehab.
Equating Hunter Biden with America’s gun violence problem is moronic in the extreme.
Wrong. I don’t have that kind of tribal response to news stories. I don’t care because first, his case is victimless and boring. Even if all the charges currently against him are true, no one else would ever receive one-millionth the level of news coverage that he has. He is not a threat to public safety.
His issues are clerical, but you want to equate his behavior with the murder of an 11 year-old boy. It’s hard to imagine a dumber take on this story.
Second, he is only the president’s son. The fact that he is related to the president is potentially interesting if turns out to have had some impact on national security. So far, such a connection is not obvious. Beyond that, his case is not interesting. He is neither an elected nor an appointed official. He does not serve the public and does not answer to me. So I have no reason to give a shit about his problems.
Anyone who was around here during either Trump impeachment knows that I defended him both times, so accusing me of being blindly and obediently pro-Biden can only be rooted in ignorance.
I don't care about him.
I will care if it becomes apparent that the problems extend beyond him to influence peddling or corruption or something that matters on a national scale.
Totally agree if it involves the president. If it’s just Hunter trying to cash in on being the president’s kid . . . well, that’s sadly how the world works. As goofy as Uncle Joe can be though, he’s a slimy politician to his core. I have a feeling he’s been careful to keep Hunter at a distance.
I'm curious how long it will be before we see some sort of new indictments against Trump.
Obviously the democratic response when something damaging about a Biden comes out.
“…new indictments against Trump…”
How many does it take before you accept the fact he is a fake, a fraud, and a false prophet?
Doesn't matter how many you or I think it is acceptable.
The fact is that whenever something negative came out about ANY Biden, within 24 hour a new indictment came out from some far left wing prosecutor against Trump.
I was simply following precedent about my post,,,,and surprisingly.....;I was wrong.
Again I ask, when are they going to investigate Jared and Ivanka?
Anything stopping them?
they did last year.
On what charges? Having established businesses in China BEFORE daddy got involved in politics? Unlike Hunter who only established businesses - with daddy's help - while daddy was the VP and Pres of the U.S.???
Apples and oranges - or in the case of many on NT - "but Trump".
For what?
There are probably no DOJ members here and if there were, they won't tell you if or when.
Now it's going to get real interesting:
A conservative appeals court just ruled against the federal gun law used to charge Hunter Biden
Now it's going to get real interesting:
The decision happened a month ago, before the indictment. Nothing has changed. Just another example of clickbait at work. "Just ruled" lol.
Except of course, Democrats will now favor invalidating "sensible" gun restrictions to protect the family.
I cannot find any headlines in the msm other than that Business Insider article you posted.
AP, Fox, Reuters, and CNN all carried the story, and here is the decision by the 5th District Court of Appeals.