CBS News
Hunter Biden’s bid to toss gun charges rejected by U.S. appeals court
![](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/04/12/6fcb41eb-38fe-41b6-8a25-4536c2342033/thumbnail/1200x630g2/c957ec7aa7b8f36c2691242c2d0cd7fc/gettyimages-2123616546.jpg?v=3a71db5e6dd1c027f95668a1c7b6fcaf)
Washington — A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a bid by Hunter Biden to dismiss federal gun charges brought against him by special counsel David Weiss last year.
The three-judge panel said in an unsigned opinion that Hunter Biden failed to show that lower court orders denying his requests to toss out the indictment are appealable before final judgment. The ruling allows for a trial against Hunter Biden to move forward but also leaves open the possibility for another appeal if he’s convicted.
The decision from Judges Patty Shwartz, Cindy Chung and D. Brooks Smith was unanimous and on procedural grounds.
The president’s son had argued that the charges brought against him are “unprecedented” and “unconstitutional” and violated a diversion agreement reached with federal prosecutors that collapsed in July after a judge refused to sign off on it. Hunter Biden was indicted in September and faces three felony counts stemming from his purchase of a Colt Cobra 388PL revolver in 2018, while he was a drug user.
Prosecutors alleged that he unlawfully possessed the firearm for 11 days and made false statements on a form used for gun purchases claiming he was not an unlawful drug user. President Biden’s son has pleaded not guilty to the gun charges, which were filed in Delaware. He was also indicted in California in December on nine federal tax charges. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to those charges and is pursuing a similar effort to dismiss the indictment there.
In court filings seeking to dismiss the gun charges, Hunter Biden’s lawyers claimed the diversion agreement, which required him to refrain from using drugs and alcohol and barred the purchase and possession of firearms, as well as other conditions, remains legally binding and valid. They also pushed the idea that politics were at play in the charging decisions and said he was “vindictively and selectively prosecuted” by Weiss.
Federal prosecutors, though, disagreed with those contentions in court filings, writing in part, “The charges in this case are not trumped up or because of former President Trump — they are instead a result of the defendant’s own choices and were brought in spite of, not because of, any outside noise made by politicians.”
Weiss also serves as Delaware’s U.S. attorney, a post to which he was appointed by former President Donald Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland opted to keep Weiss in that position and later appointed him special counsel to carry out the Hunter Biden probe.
A trial in the Delaware case is set to start in June.
CBS News
What to expect from 30th annual Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans
![](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/07/05/ec5e3c7d-6eae-472a-b493-6e4da3ced1ac/thumbnail/1200x630/59d8cfffe06517e55f46a7b3c845b33e/cbsn-fusion-essence-festival-of-culture-underway-in-new-orleans-with-vp-kamala-harris-expected-to-appear-thumbnail.jpg?v=57e8061b2038d609da26e467de5ddfb8)
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
GOP, Democratic strategists on Biden’s next steps with calls for him to drop out growing
![](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/07/05/b2f23e3f-880a-4c0f-835e-7ceb87fca176/thumbnail/1200x630/95ecdc5689216a39e3b9e1ee4237cf80/cbsn-fusion-gop-democratic-strategists-on-if-biden-will-drop-out-of-2024-race-thumbnail.jpg?v=57e8061b2038d609da26e467de5ddfb8)
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
U.S. troops leaving Niger bases this weekend and in August after coup, officials say
![](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/07/05/6cfc4739-4fdf-4c12-9be2-04f750d50f66/thumbnail/1200x630/545f4cea7a64039578064d00d1d3fa25/ap24187543850946.jpg?v=57e8061b2038d609da26e467de5ddfb8)
The U.S. will remove all its forces and equipment from a small base in Niger this weekend and fewer than 500 remaining troops will leave a critical drone base in the West African country in August, ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline set in an agreement with the new ruling junta, the American commander there said Friday.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman said in an interview that a number of small teams of 10-20 U.S. troops, including special operations forces, have moved to other countries in West Africa. But the bulk of the forces will go, at least initially, to Europe.
Tech. Sgt. Christopher Dyer / AP
Niger’s ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for the U.S. because it is forcing troops to abandon the critical drone base that was used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel.
Ekman and other U.S. military leaders have said other West African nations want to work with the U.S. and may be open to an expanded American presence. He did not detail the locations, but other U.S. officials have pointed to the Ivory Coast and Ghana as examples.
Ekman, who serves as the director for strategy at U.S. Africa Command, is leading the U.S. military withdrawal from the small base at the airport in Niger’s capital of Niamey and from the larger counterterrorism base in the city of Agadez. He said there will be a ceremony Sunday marking the completed pullout from the airport base, then those final 100 troops and the last C-17 transport aircraft will depart.
Speaking to reporters from The Associated Press and Reuters from the U.S. embassy in Niamey, Ekman said that while portable buildings and vehicles that are no longer useful will be left behind, a lot of larger equipment will be pulled out. For example, he said 18 4,000-pound (1,800-kilograms) generators worth more than $1 million each will be taken out of Agadez.
Unlike the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said the U.S. is not destroying equipment or facilities as it leaves.
“Our goal in the execution is, leave things in as good a state as possible,” he said. “If we went out and left it a wreck or we went out spitefully, or if we destroyed things as we went, we’d be foreclosing options” for future security relations.
AFP via Getty
Niger’s ruling junta ordered U.S. forces out of the country in the wake of last July’s ouster of the country’s democratically elected president by mutinous soldiers. French forces had also been asked to leave as the junta turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for security assistance.
Washington officially designated the military takeover as a coup in October, triggering U.S. laws restricting the military support and aid.