Hunter Biden Seeks Sentencing Delay in Gun Case

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Del., on June 4, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Hunter Biden’s attorneys filed a motion on Sept. 17 requesting a delay to sentencing in his illegal gun possession case by a few weeks, citing overlap with his other cases in California.

Biden was found guilty in June of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, falsely claiming on his application that he was not a drug user at the time of purchase, and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days.

Biden’s lawyers asked a Delaware judge to postpone the scheduled Nov. 13 sentencing to either late November or early December.

The attorneys said that many of the pre-sentencing tasks for the case overlap with Biden’s tax sentencing in California on Dec. 16 and that a pre-trial conference for one of his civil cases is set for Nov. 12, making it difficult for his lead trial counsel to attend the Nov. 13 sentencing hearing.

“Such a postponement will accommodate both counsel and those working with counsel to prepare the necessary pre-sentencing materials and memoranda, and to allow lead counsel to participate at the hearing,” the motion stated.

According to the court filing, Biden’s attorneys notified both special counsel David Weiss and Delaware’s chief probation officer of the request before submitting the motion. Senior assistant special counsel Derek Hines later informed Biden’s lawyers that the special counsel opposed the delay.

His lawyers argued that the special counsel did not explain the reason for opposing the delay and suggested that Weiss may “complain that Mr. Biden should have brought this motion sooner.”

“The denial of the continuance request, at this point, would likely constitute ‘an unreasoning and arbitrary insistence upon expeditiousness in the face of a justifiable request for delay’ that would jeopardize Mr. Biden’s right to a fair sentencing hearing, the effective assistance of counsel, and the Court’s ability to render a decision based on a complete record,” the motion stated.

The charges against Biden carry a total maximum potential of 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, but first-time and non-violent offenders typically receive much less than the maximum sentence. President Joe Biden said in June that he would not pardon or commute his son’s sentence.

Hunter Biden was indicted on tax evasion and eight other counts in December 2023. Prosecutors alleged that he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes owed from 2016 through 2019 and neglected to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns on time. He pleaded guilty in his federal tax case on Sept. 5. His sentencing hearing for that case is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Jacob Burg contributed to this report.