US President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, appears today in federal court in Delaware (eastern USA) where he is going to plead not guilty to charges of illegal possession of a weapon.

Hunter Biden, 53, is a favorite target of his father’s Republican opponents, starting with his predecessor, Donald Trump, who see him as his father’s Achilles’ heel.

He is accused of lying on gun application forms in 2018, denying his drug addiction, which he later admitted.

His attorney, Ab David Lowell, announced that his client will plead not guilty when the charges are brought against him in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, the state where the Biden family is from.

He had requested that his client, who is a resident of California (western USA), be able to appear in court via video conference.

But Judge Christopher Burr rejected that request, saying this first appearance by the defendant “is one of the rare occasions in a criminal case in which the defendant appears in person before our court, before a judge.”

In addition, “most of the charges against the accused are new and had not been mentioned during his previous appearance before the court in July 2023, so this will be the first time they will be discussed in court”, he underlined.

If convicted, Hunter Biden could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, but in practice such prosecutions rarely result in a non-parole sentence on their own.