Hunter Biden Is Expected to Appeal Conviction on Gun Charges

WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden is expected to appeal his felony conviction for falsifying a federal firearms application, likely arguing that the judge in the case violated his constitutional rights in her instructions to the jury, according to people in his orbit and legal experts.

Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell has also signaled that any appeal would be based on the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in 2022 that vastly expanded gun rights, a ruling that spawned legal challenges to the part of the federal firearms form at the center of the Biden case. In Biden’s case, it included a question asking buyers about their drug use.

Any appeal would be an uphill climb, and the lawyers representing President Joe Biden’s son cannot officially file one until he is sentenced at the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, within 120 days, or about a month after he is scheduled to go on trial on federal tax charges in Los Angeles.

There is still a possibility that David C. Weiss, the special counsel in the case, will seek a plea agreement before the tax trial begins, and would have leverage in negotiations now that Hunter Biden is already a convicted felon, according to former prosecutors. Biden might have greater incentive to reach a deal to avoid another public airing of his personal ordeal beyond what was presented in Wilmington.

On Tuesday, after deliberating for a little more than three hours, a jury convicted Biden of three felony counts related to lying on a federal firearms application and illegally possessing a weapon.

That Hunter Biden, 54, would base an appeal on a Supreme Court decision that his father has described as an affront to “common sense and the Constitution” is perhaps the crowning paradox in a case replete with complexities.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen paved the way for potential challenges to other gun laws, including those that deny firearms to people addicted to drugs.

Lowell is also likely to base an appeal on the actions of the judge in the gun trial, Maryellen Noreika, who he believes created a viable path for a challenge by issuing what he sees as overly narrow instructions to the jury.

Biden faces up to 25 years in prison on the gun charges, although federal sentencing guidelines call for a fraction of that penalty.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .