The son of US President Joe Biden, Hunter, is summoned to appear in person on October 3 in Delaware (east) for his public arraignment for illegal possession of a weapon, according to a decision rendered Wednesday, September 20.
The judge denied Western California resident Hunter Biden’s request to appear by videoconference. After initially scheduling the hearing for September 26, he agreed to a defense request to postpone it for a week, to October 3.
“Mr. Biden will plead not guilty and there is no reason why he cannot say these two words via videoconference,” his lawyer, Abbe David Lowell, wrote in a letter to the judge on Tuesday. But Judge Christopher Burke motivates his decision by the fact that this first appearance “is one of the rare occasions in a criminal case during which a defendant physically appears in [their] court, in front of a judge”.
In addition, “most of the accusations against the defendant are new and were not mentioned during his previous appearance, in July 2023, so this will be the first time that they will be debated in court,” adds- he.
Hunter Biden is accused of lying when filling out forms to acquire a firearm in 2018 in which he denied drug addiction, which he later admitted to.
He reached a guilty plea agreement with prosecutor David Weiss in June covering both tax evasion and illegal firearm acquisition charges, which likely would have allowed him to avoid prison and a trial. embarrassing for his father and him. But this agreement was canceled following doubts expressed in July by a judge on the validity of the arrangement.
