Appeals court won’t stop Hunter Biden’s gun trial

A federal appeals court refused Thursday to throw out Hunter Biden’s federal gun indictment, teeing up a high-stakes criminal trial this summer in Delaware.

A federal appeals court refused Thursday to throw out Hunter Biden’s federal gun indictment, teeing up a high-stakes criminal trial next month in Delaware. The president’s son had asked the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the charges by overturning prior decisions from the trial judge that the case should move forward. But the appellate panel instead rejected Biden’s appeal, handing yet another victory to special counsel David Weiss, who brought the charges. Weiss’ team successfully argued that the appellate court didn’t have jurisdiction to review the matter and therefore was required by law to dismiss Biden’s appeal. “This appeal is dismissed because the defendant has not shown the District Court’s orders are appealable before final judgment,” the three-judge appellate panel wrote in a four-page ruling. The trial is slated to begin in early June unless the parties reach a plea deal or some other agreement to resolve the case, which is always possible. There is still one additional motion to dismiss the case — it pertains to Biden’s rights under the Second Amendment — that the trial judge hasn’t decided yet. “In reviewing the panel’s decision, we believe the issues involved are too important and further review of our request is appropriate,” Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement, suggesting that he may ask the full Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit to rehear the appeal.