Hunter Biden loses bid to avoid impending federal gun trial

A federal appeals court Thursday rejected Hunter Biden’s effort to throw out gun charges against him and ordered the president’s son to go on trial early next month.

Citing procedural grounds, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Hunter Biden’s appeal to have his felony gun case in Delaware tossed before a trial that is set to start on June 3.

“The defendant has not shown the District Court’s orders are appealable before final judgment,” the three-judge appellate panel wrote in a terse four-page ruling.

The judges stressed that they were not ruling on the merits of the challenge and said Hunter Biden is free to make the same arguments after trial if he is convicted.

The decision means President Biden’s only surviving son will likely face a high-stakes criminal trial just as former President Donald Trump faces the judgment of a Manhattan jury in his criminal trial on charges tied to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers hinted they may appeal the decision to the full Third Circuit before the expected trial.

The case is being overseen by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee who was confirmed with wide bipartisan support in the Senate.

Noreika Thursday also rejected an unrelated appeal that claimed the charges violate Hunter Biden’s rights under the Second Amendment.

Hunter Biden is charged with illegally buying and possessing a handgun in 2018, during a time that he admits using illegal drugs.

He has pleaded not guilty to all three felony counts, claiming that he only possessed the weapon for 11 days and posed no threat to anyone.

Defense lawyers say gun-buyers like Hunter Biden are almost never prosecuted unless they use the weapon in some other crime.

Hunter Biden was hit with the gun charge after a plea deal with prosecutors, which was expected to cover both the gun charges and unrelated tax-evasion counts, collapsed in spectacular fashion last year.

The plea deal blew up after special counsel David Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration whom President Biden appointed to stay in his post, said the deal did not preclude prosecutors from bringing more charges against Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden is expected to face trial in late June on nine tax charges stemming from millions of dollars he made in overseas business deals in Ukraine, China and elsewhere.

Republicans have spent years accusing Joe Biden of being involved in Hunter Biden’s international dealmaking. But they have presented no hard evidence of any wrongdoing, and an impeachment effort in the House of Representatives has mostly fizzled out.