Hunter Biden loses latest bid to delay trial even as lawyer pleads he isn’t ready

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hunter Biden lost one of his last attempts to delay the start of his criminal trial on gun charges Tuesday, with the judge overseeing the case unmoved by pleas that his legal team is not ready for the June 3 start date.

Appearing in federal district court, Hunter Biden’s lawyer pushed to postpone the trial to September, stressing that the defense team has struggled to find expert witnesses who would be willing to help the president’s son, particularly regarding issues related to drug addiction and drug forensics. The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the current situation is unlike anything he has found himself in before.

“We have not been delaying, we have not been tardy,” Lowell said in his opening remarks to Judge Maryellen Noreika. “We have been trying.”

Lowell told Noreika that his team had found three people who had “tentatively agreed” to serve as expert witnesses, but that they had not finalized retention agreements.

“People are reluctant to become involved in this case,” he added, citing “the noise” surrounding his high-profile client.

Hunter Biden faces three felony counts for allegedly owning a gun while using drugs and lying on a form when he purchased the gun in 2018. The case was brought by special counsel David Weiss.

Noreika, an appointee of Donald Trump, declined to delay the case, noting that the indictment came down eight months ago and that Hunter Biden’s lawyers knew the investigation was underway long before that. After she announced that the trial would proceed as scheduled, Lowell made one last attempt to get her to postpone it until the first week of July.

“I am pleading with your honor to give me the time to do this,” he said.

Again, Noreika didn’t bite. And throughout the hearing, she telegraphed irritation with the defense team, at one point telling Lowell acidly, “I do not need to be your scheduling secretary.”

In addition to the gun case in Delaware, the president’s son faces separate criminal charges in California on tax issues. Both cases resulted from a yearslong probe helmed by Weiss. Biden’s lawyers have filed motions to dismiss both indictments, and the judges overseeing the cases — Noreika and Judge Mark Scarsi in California — have rejected those entreaties, prompting Biden’s team to file longshot appeals. Embroiled in proceedings in two district courts and two appellate courts on two different coasts, Hunter Biden’s legal team hinted that they are running out of resources to handle all of it.

“They have the resources to be ready on both coasts,” Lowell said, referring to the prosecutors. “I wish we did. But it’s not for want of trying.”

Derek Hines, a prosecutor handling the gun case, suggested to the judge that Lowell and his firm should have ample resources to competently represent their client — and that the special counsel’s staff isn’t as formidable as Lowell implied.

“Your honor, you’re looking at the resources here,” he said, gesturing to himself and his co-counsel, Leo Wise.

Lowell retorted that the prosecutors also had access to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and other federal agents.

Lowell said he will ask an appellate court to issue an injunction ordering Noreika to pause the trial. But that too didn’t move Noreika. She indicated that she doesn’t expect that appeal to succeed and that she did “not find it credible” that Lowell won’t be ready to move forward.