Biden’s son asks judge to dismiss gun charge

Hunter Biden’s legal team on Monday asked a Delaware judge to dismiss the federal gun charges filed against him, arguing that prosecutors violated key promises they made as part of a previous agreement that would have allowed Biden to avoid felony charges.

Biden’s team insisted in a filing Monday that the agreement is in effect. The government disagrees.

The dismissal request is the latest chapter in the long-running investigation into the president’s son, which has resulted in high-profile court hearings, massive political interest among Republican politicians, and two federal indictments against the younger Biden.

The indictments, on gun charges in Delaware and tax charges in California, set up the extraordinary possibility that Biden could go on trial twice next year while his father runs for reelection.

Republicans in Congress have latched onto the Hunter Biden investigation, trying to link the younger Biden’s financial and legal woes to alleged corruption by the president.

Hunter Biden was charged in September with making false statements in filling out the paperwork to purchase a gun on Oct. 12, 2018. He claimed to not be addicted to or using illegal drugs, the September indictment says, ‘‘when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.’’

Months before the indictment, Biden struck a deal with federal prosecutors in which he would plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations and admit to the facts of the gun case, without actually being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, which is a felony.

But the deal fell apart in July when a judge questioned the constitutionality of it.

The filings says that Biden’s team believe that the diversion agreement should remain intact, even if the plea deal on the tax charges does not.