Hunter Biden indicted by special counsel on felony gun charges

President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden has been indicted by special counsel David Weiss on felony gun charges.

The charges bring renewed legal pressure on the younger Biden after a plea agreement he struck with prosecutors imploded in recent months.

The younger Biden has been charged with two counts related to false statements in purchasing the firearm and a third count on illegally obtaining a firearm while addicted to drugs. The three charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 years, when added together.

Prosecutors have spent years scrutinizing Hunter Biden's business endeavors and personal life -- a probe that appeared to culminate in a plea agreement the two sides struck in June, which would have allowed him to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax offenses and enter into a pretrial diversion program to avoid prosecution on a felony gun charge.

But that deal fell apart during a court hearing in July after U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika expressed concern over the structure of the agreement and questioned the breadth of an immunity deal, exposing fissures between the two parties.

Weeks later, on Aug. 11, Attorney General Merrick Garland elevated Weiss, who was originally appointed by then-President Donald Trump, to special counsel, granting him broader authority to press charges against Hunter Biden in any district in the country.

Prosecutors subsequently informed the court that a new round of negotiations had reached "an impasse," and attorneys for Hunter Biden accused Weiss' office of "reneging" on their agreement.

Thursday's charge is unlikely to be the last. Weiss also withdrew the two misdemeanor tax charges in Delaware with the intention of bringing them in California and Washington, D.C. -- the venues where the alleged misconduct occurred. Prosecutors have not offered a timeline for those charges.

Hunter Biden's legal team maintains that the pretrial diversion agreement, which was signed by prosecutors, remains in effect. Weiss' team said the probation officer never signed it, rendering it null and void.

The conduct described in Weiss' indictment dates back to October of 2018, when Hunter Biden procured a gun despite later acknowledging in his memoir, "Beautiful Things," that he was addicted to drugs around that time.

According to prosecutors, Biden obtained a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver and lied on a federal form about his drug use. In documents filed by prosecutors as part of that ill-fated plea deal, prosecutors wrote that Hunter Biden abused crack cocaine on a near-daily basis.

While Hunter Biden's future remains uncertain, one immediate implication of Weiss' charge is clear: the elder Biden will head into the 2024 election season once again dogged by his son's legal tribulations.

The president's political foes have latched onto Hunter's overseas business dealings to level allegations depicting the entire Biden family as corrupt, despite uncovering no clear evidence to date indicating that Joe Biden profited from or meaningfully endorsed his son's work.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday said he would initiate an impeachment inquiry against President Biden over his alleged role in his son's influence-peddling. The White House has called the move "extreme politics at its worst," adding that "the president hasn't done anything wrong."