Hunter Biden indicted on gun charges

President Joe Biden’s son is under indictment.

On Thursday, a Delaware grand jury indicted Hunter Biden on three gun-related charges, including illegally owning a firearm as a drug user and lying on a form when he allegedly bought the gun.

Thursday’s move is a major escalation in the Justice Department’s probe of Hunter Biden, heightening both his legal jeopardy and his father’s political peril. The courtroom fight will play out in tandem with a Republican impeachment inquiry into the president that is scrutinizing his son’s business dealings.

The indictment notes that when buying guns, people must fill out a form saying –– among other things –– that they do not use illegal drugs. In October of 2018, the indictment continues, Biden bought a gun despite being a drug user. It says he owned a Colt Cobra revolver for about 11 days –– from “on or about” Oct. 12, 2018, until “on or about” Oct. 23, 2018.

If convicted, Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. However, sentences are often issued below the maximum length allowed, and some defendants don’t face jail time at all.

A White House spokesperson referred POLITICO to the Justice Department and the first son’s lawyers for comment.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for the president’s son, said in a statement that the charges are a result of political pressure from pro-Trump Republicans.

“As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case,” he said. “The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA Republicans’ improper and partisan interference in this process. Hunter Biden possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days was not a threat to public safety, but a prosecutor, with all the power imaginable, bending to political pressure presents a grave threat to our system of justice. We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court.”

Hunter Biden wrote in his memoir that he frequently used crack cocaine during the window of time referenced in the indictment. He has openly discussed his struggles with drug abuse, which were particularly intense after the death of his older brother.

The charges could tee up a fight over the Second Amendment. His lawyers previously told prosecutors that if he faced the charges leveled today, they would argue that the law banning drug users from possessing guns is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts’ conservative Supreme Court majority has dramatically expanded Second Amendment rights in recent years, which Biden’s legal team cited in communications with the Justice Department that POLITICO reviewed.

Numerous other criminal defendants facing similar charges have made the same argument, with mixed results. The Supreme Court announced this year that it will hear a case on a similar legal issue: whether or not people under domestic violence restraining orders can be prohibited from possessing guns.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on one of the Republican-led committees investigating the president and his son, addressed the constitutionality of the charges in brief comments to reporters.

“I know that there are some right-wing, pro-Second Amendment zealots who would say that he shouldn’t be charged with these gun crimes because there should be no gun laws at all,” he said. “But my party certainly disagrees with that.”

The NRA, meanwhile, released a brief statement on the charges.

“Laws should be applied equally against all criminals,” NRA spokesperson Billy McLaughlin said in response to a request for comment.