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Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was indicted on three felony gun charges by Special Counsel David Weiss. He has been charged with one count of false statement in the purchase of a firearm, one count of false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer, and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
The charges come after a plea deal involving gun charges and tax evasion charges fell apart in court. As part of the original deal, Biden would have pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor tax charges, and the prosecution would recommend probation. In addition, he would also enter into a pretrial diversion program to settle a felony gun charge.
Several weeks after the plea deal fell apart, Weiss was appointed as a special counsel to handle to case against the younger Biden.
"As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case," said Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, in a statement. "We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court."