Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three federal firearms charges that emerged after his previous deal imploded, setting the case toward a possible trial in 2024 as his father campaigns for re-election.

President

Joe

Biden’s son has been accused of lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to purchase a gun that he kept for about 11 days. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.

When Judge Christopher Burke asked him if he understood the charges against him, Biden said: Yes, Your Honor.

His attorney Abbe Lowell said in court that he plans to file a motion to dismiss the charges and challenge their constitutionality.

Mr. Biden has pleaded not guilty to the three charges against him, Lowell told the judge.

Hunter Biden has acknowledged that he was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he did not break the law. Such gun charges are rare, and an appeals court has ruled that the ban on gun ownership for drug users is against the law

Second 2nd

Amendment under new Supreme Court standards.

On Tuesday, the judge noted that Hunter Biden had been repeatedly tested for drugs

with negative results and is negative

.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers suggest prosecutors bowed to pressure from Republicans, who insisted the Democratic president’s son get a sweetheart, and that the charges were the result of political pressure.

Earlier this summer, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to felony tax charges and also would have avoided prosecution on gun charges if he had stayed out of trouble for two years. It was the culmination of a yearslong investigation by federal prosecutors into the president’s son’s business dealings, and the deal would have ended criminal charges and spared the Bidens weeks of headlines as the election loomed.

The deal fell apart after the judge, who was supposed to sign the agreement, asked a series of questions instead

the agreement

It.

Now a special counsel has been appointed to handle the case, and there appears to be no easy end in sight. Hunter Biden was indicted on the three gun charges, and no new tax charges have been filed yet, but the special counsel has indicated those charges could come in Washington or California, where

Hunter

Biden is alive.

Defense attorneys have argued that he remains protected by an immunity provision that was part of the scuttled plea deal, but prosecutors overseen by special counsel David Weiss disagree. Weiss also serves as U.S. attorney for Delaware and was originally appointed by Trump.

Lowell said Tuesday he planned to file a number of motions, including an effort to dismiss the case based on an immunity deal in the now-scuttled plea deal and the constitutionality of the law against drug users who have guns.

Lowell also said the defense plans to request an evidentiary hearing.

In Congress, Republicans in the House of Representatives are trying to link Hunter Biden’s actions to those of his father through an impeachment investigation. Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, since his father was Barack Obama’s vice president. While questions have been raised about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international affairs, no evidence has emerged yet to prove that Joe Biden, in his current or previous office, abused his role or accepted bribes.

The legal wrangling is likely to continue into 2024, with Republicans eager to divert attention from the many criminal charges facing Republican front-runner Donald Trump, whose trials could be happening at the same time.

After years of keeping quiet, Hunter Biden has taken a more aggressive legal stance in recent weeks, filing a series of lawsuits over the dissemination of personal information, allegedly from his laptop, and his tax records by IRS whistleblowers, who are responsible for Congress tested as part of the GOP sample.

Hunter Biden had asked for Tuesday’s hearing to be conducted remotely via video, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke sided with prosecutors and said there would be no special treatment.