WorthyNews:US President Joe Biden’s Son Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ On Gun Charges (Worthy News-Focus)

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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – The son of U.S. President Joe Biden has pleaded “not guilty” on charges linked to his purchase of a firearm while being a drug user, the latest in a series of legal and personal challenges he faces over his troubled past.

With campaigning underway for next year’s presidential election, Hunter Biden’s trial comes at a difficult moment for the president.

Biden, 53, entered the federal court in his family hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, without speaking to waiting reporters to face the charges.

Inside the courtroom, he entered a “not guilty” plea to three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in 2018. He has admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and barely in control of his life then.

Prosecutors alleged that, in 2018, the president’s son knowingly lied to a licensed gun dealer and made false statements on a firearm application to obtain the handgun.

He apparently possessed the illegally obtained firearm for 11 days between October 12 and October 23 of that year before he got rid of it, according to the indictment.

But his lawyers argued that he didn’t violate the law, prompting him to plead “not guilty” to the three federal gun charges at his arraignment at the court on Tuesday.

FALSE STATEMENTS

Hunter Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.

He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun.

His multiple legal troubles and controversies extend to facing accusations from Republican politicians and others that he engaged in corrupt business practices in China and Ukraine.

Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. Congress on what they claim is a Biden family “criminal conspiracy.” Critics say they have provided no evidence that the president did anything wrong.

However, those making the conspiracy allegations point out that Joe Biden, when vice-president, oversaw foreign policy in Ukraine, while his son Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, the largest gas company in the fledgling democracy.

By his own video-recorded admission, Joe Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to persuade Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in March 2016.

But his supporters say it wasn’t because Shokin was investigating Burisma but because the prosecutor wasn’t pursuing corruption among the country’s politicians.

ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORT

Burisma Holdings was not under scrutiny at the time Joe Biden called for Shokin to be removed, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, which worked closely with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

In 2014, Shokin investigated Burisma for money laundering and tax irregularities in the 2010-2012 period. However, Hunter Biden — who joined the board in 2014 and served on it until early 2019 — was not the subject of the investigation.

Republicans are also investigating revelations that Hunter Biden demanded $10 million from a Chinese business associate to “further the interest” of his joint venture-venture with a Chinese energy firm. In leaked online communications, he said the “Bidens are the best I know at doing exactly” what the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party-linked firm wanted.

Last month, news emerged that Hunter Biden received received wires that originated in Beijing totaling $260,000 from Chinese business partners during the summer of 2019. The wires listed the Delaware home of Joe Biden as the beneficiary address for the funds.

The wires for the funds were linked to BHR Partners, a joint venture between Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.

Hunter Biden reportedly sat on the board of directors of BHR Partners.

The wires were sent several months after then-Vice President Joe Biden announced his 2020 presidential campaign. Joe Biden, in August 2019, said he “never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period.”

However, investigators say President Biden has interacted with BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li.

COFFEE MEETING

Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, as part of the U.S. House Oversight Committee’s investigation, testified that Joe Biden “sat down for coffee” in Beijing with the CEO of BHR.

Archer also claimed Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s daughter to Georgetown. He said Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for at least one call with Li in addition to meeting for coffee.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in published remarks that “Bank records don’t lie, but President Joe Biden does.”

Comer told broadcaster Fox News that in “2020, Joe Biden told Americans that his family never received money from China. We’ve already proved that to be a lie earlier this year, and now we know that two wires originating from Beijing listed Joe Biden’s Wilmington home as the beneficiary address when he was running for president of the United States.”

Comer added, “When Joe Biden was vice president, he spoke on the phone and had coffee with Jonathan Li in Beijing and later wrote a college letter of recommendation for his children.”

He said, “Joe Biden’s abuse of public office for his family’s financial gain threatens our national security. What did the Bidens do with this money from Beijing?”

He stressed that “Americans demand and deserve accountability for President Biden and the first family’s corruption.” The “Oversight Committee, along with the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, will continue to follow the evidence and money to provide transparency and accountability.”

While Joe Biden previously denied wrongdoing, and his supporters say there is no evidence he directly profited from his son’s dealings, Hunter Biden’s legal challenges are expected to complicate his re-election campaign.

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