Hunter Biden loses effort to delay trial

Hunter Biden lost his bid to delay his federal gun trial, a district judge ruled Tuesday, setting the case up to go to trial in June.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected defense attorneys’ effort to delay the trial until September, which Biden’s legal team argued was necessary in order to have enough time to line up witnesses and review the prosecution’s evidence, The Associated Press reported.

The judge’s decision comes a week after the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the president’s son’s appeal to toss the federal gun charges, ruling it did not have jurisdiction in the matter. Biden had asked the court to overturn Noreika’s previous decision that the case should move forward to trial.

Noreika, in her decision last month, rejected the president’s son’s appeal, which argued, in part, he was being wrongfully targeted for political purposes. Noreika said Biden’s attorneys had not provided concrete evidence substantiating their claims that outside influences tainted the special counsel’s decision to pursue the case.

Special counsel David Weiss brought three gun-related charges against the president’s son last September — two counts for lying about drug use on a form to buy a gun and another for unlawful possessing of a firearm for about 11 days while knowing he was a drug user.

Biden pleaded not guilty to all charges after a deal with the government fell apart. Biden has acknowledged he had a drug addiction during that time in 2018, but his attorneys say he did not break the law.

The Associated Press contributed.