Hunter Biden’s attorneys moved Monday for a new trial following his conviction on felony gun charges.
A Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden earlier this month on three felony gun charges related to his purchase of a revolver while addicted to drugs. In the motion filed Monday, his attorneys argue the conviction “should be vacated” on procedural grounds because the district court began the trial before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals formally returned jurisdiction.
While the Third Circuit rejected Hunter Biden’s attempts to dismiss the case before trial, including one based on the Second Amendment, his legal team says the appeals court never issued the mandate that would allow the district court to move forward.
“A district court’s options when faced with an interlocutory appeal are to either wait for jurisdiction to be restored by the court of appeals’ mandate or to issue a certification of frivolousness,” his attorneys argue. “The Third Circuit also could have been asked to file its mandates sooner. The certification process would be meaningless if a district court could obtain the same result by ignoring the process, and it would create the added problem of uncertainty as to where jurisdiction exists.”
Hunter Biden’s other trial in California for his federal tax charges is slated to begin in September.
