It might be the end of summer, but September is heating right back up as yet more news about Hunter Biden breaks, with the new information this time coming from the Special Counsel in his case, David C. Weiss. According to a court filing from Mr. Weiss’ office, Hunter Biden will be indicted by the end of September.
That filing had to do with Hunter’s gun case and the Speedy Trial Act, which requires that “Any information or indictment charging an individual with the commission of an offense shall be filed within thirty days from the date on which such individual was arrested or served with a summons in connection with such charges.”
“The Speedy Trial Act requires that the Government obtain the return of an indictment by a grand jury by Friday, September 29, 2023, at the earliest. The Government intends to seek the return of an indictment in this case before that date,” the special counsel’s office said in the court filing.
As background, Hunter is in potentially deep legal trouble not just for not paying his taxes, but also for lying on a gun purchase form: he was using crack at the same time in his life (October 2018) that he bought a handgun, yet claimed on the form that he was not using illegal narcotics.
Because the purpose of the form is to keep firearms out of the hands of various anti-social elements, hard drug users included, that is a serious crime. In fact, lying on the firearm purchase form is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
Despite that, Weiss was originally going to let Hunter off with what many characterized as a slap on the wrist. Hunter would have, under the deal, been allowed to avoid prosecution if he met certain conditions over a 24 month period. But then that plea deal blew up when it was thrown out by the presiding judge and the parties had to go back to the drawing board.
That situation then devolved into Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing Weiss the Special Counsel for the case, which many took to mean that the Department of Justice was attempting another whitewashed end to the situation after the soft-on-Hunter plea deal didn’t work out. But, however, it now appears that Hunter will at least be indicted.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell spoke about the situation in a statement and claimed that the previous deal “prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr. Biden, who has been abiding by the conditions of release under that agreement for the last several weeks, including regular visits by the probation office.” Continuing, Lowell then added, “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.”
It remains to be seen if Hunter will face an indictment over the two tax issues, or if the prosecution will instead focus solely on the gun form issue.
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