Hunter Biden’s attorney revealed Tuesday that the first son would fight his conviction after a jury found him guilty of three felony charges related to a 2018 gun purchase.
Abbe Lowell, who led Hunter Biden’s defense in the case, said his team was “disappointed by today’s verdict” and would “continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available.”
Can Hunter appeal his conviction?
Hunter Biden is entitled to appeal his conviction, which he would do at the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
His attorneys previously filed requests to dismiss the case on numerous grounds, including that the charges allegedly violated the Second Amendment, and Hunter Biden could now broach some of these arguments again on appeal.
Judge Maryellen Noreika, who presided over the case, rejected Hunter Biden’s motions in May but said he could refile them after the merits of his case were established at trial. A three-judge panel of appellate court judges affirmed Noreika’s decision later in May, again noting Biden would be better suited to raise his arguments on appeal.
“Constitutional defenses, like the defendant’s Second Amendment defense, can be effectively reviewed on appeal after final judgment,” the appellate panel wrote.
Will Hunter go to jail?
In the meantime, Hunter Biden’s next step in the trial process is for Noreika to sentence him. He is facing up to 25 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in possible fines. However, as a first-time offender, legal experts have raised doubts over whether the first son would see any prison time at all.
“I think short-term house arrest is a real possibility, but jail time [is] unlikely,” former United States Attorney John Fishwick told the Washington Examiner. “Hunter Biden has no criminal record and by not testifying he did not burn a bridge with the judge.”
Noreika did not set a sentencing date after the jury announced its verdict, but she said normally sentencing hearings take place about 120 days after conviction. Ahead of sentencing, Hunter Biden’s attorneys and government prosecutors will submit memoranda with proposals for what penalties they believe the first son should face.
Noreika, a former President Donald Trump appointee, has garnered a reputation for being a tough sentencer, according to Politico. In a gun case she oversaw that shared some similarities to Hunter Biden’s, the judge gave the defendant one year in prison rather than the recommendation by prosecutors of six months.
“When you see a judge who is willing to basically double the sentencing recommendation of the prosecution, then that’s a little bit concerning, obviously, for any defense attorney,” Peter Tilem, a Manhattan defense lawyer, told the outlet.
Hunter Biden was convicted of lying on a federal form about his drug use to purchase a gun on Oct. 12, 2018, submitting a false statement into federal record, and illegally retaining the gun as an unlawful drug user for 11 days.
Could an appeal set gun law precedents?
While Hunter Biden could put forth appeals for any number of reasons, Second Amendment advocates have conveyed that they are eager to see the case escalate to a higher court for constitutional purposes.
Amy Swearer, a Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow, told the Washington Examiner that the national attention President Joe Biden brings to his son’s case, coupled with the high-powered lawyers such as Lowell who are working on it, creates a unique opportunity.
“It is set up to be one of the high-profile Second Amendment cases of the next year or two,” Swearer told the Washington Examiner.
She said the case is a “really good vehicle,” particularly as the Supreme Court is poised to rule on a case with parallels this month. In U.S. v. Rahimi, the defendant was convicted of lying on a federal form to purchase a gun, but his false claim was related to domestic violence rather than drug use.
“[Hunter Biden] just sort of admits very publicly, ‘Oh, you know, I was using drugs that whole time,’ and so it creates this weirdly clean vehicle for challenging the statute in a way that is not always the case,” Swearer said.
Will Joe Biden pardon his son?
Hunter Biden’s case presents an awkward scenario for his father, a staunch advocate of stricter gun laws who once signed a bill to increase penalties for one of the charges his son was just convicted of.
Joe Biden, for his part, has unilateral authority to pardon his son, but he said in a recent ABC News interview that he would not do so.
The president reiterated that sentiment Tuesday after his son was found guilty, saying he “will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”
The verdict represented the first time in history that a president’s child was criminally convicted.
Hunter Biden is also facing nine tax charges in California, and he is set to stand trial there in September.
Special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the prosecutions against the younger Biden, said at a press conference Tuesday that he could not take questions because the cases are still open and the government is still investigating Hunter Biden.
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“As you know, we have additional trials and investigative work to be done, so I will not entertain questions at this time. Our work continues,” Weiss said.
Weiss indicated last summer that he was also weighing Foreign Agents Registration Act violations against Hunter Biden in relation to the first son’s past multimillion-dollar foreign business dealings.
