A federal judge wants to know why Hunter Biden thinks he does not have to show up in person on the three gun charges facing him.
The indictment against President Joe Bidenās son, which was unveiled last week, charges him with three crimes and says he knowingly lied when he indicated on a form to buy a gun that he was not using an illegal drug at the time.
Rather than appear in a Delaware courtroom for his initial hearing on the charges, Hunter Biden is seeking to appear by video, according to CNN.
āDefendant seeks to have the initial appearance on the Indictment in this matter held via video conference,ā U.S. District Judge Christopher Burke wrote in a docket entry Monday, according to the Washington Examiner.
āGovernment opposes that request,ā the entry said.
Burke said Hunter Bidenās attorneys had until Tuesday to make their case for why their client should be allowed to appear virtually.
Under the judgeās timetable, the prosecution would have until Wednesday to respond.
Constitutional attorney Andrew Lieb said because Hunter Biden lives in California, the request is not a total surprise.
āThe judge is saying, āWrite papers and Iāll make a decision.ā The judge may say they have to come in,ā Lieb told the Examiner.
Hunter Biden still has unresolved issues related to his taxes in 2017 and 2018. In July, he had been set to enter a plea in a deal that would have resolved those charges, but the deal fell apart when it was revealed that it would not preclude future charges.
On Monday, Hunter Bidenās attorneys sued the Internal Revenue Service over the congressional testimony of two whistleblowers, saying the IRS ātargeted and sought to embarrassā him, according to Fox News.
AgentsĀ Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified before the House Oversight Committee that their probe of Hunter Biden faced multiple roadblocks.
The lawsuit said even though the two men are whistleblowers, that status ācannot and does not shield them from their wrongful conduct in making unauthorized public disclosures that are not permitted by the whistleblower process.ā
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Bidenās lawyer, has called the charges against him politically motivated, according to NBC News.
āThe evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA Republicansā improper and partisan interference in this process,ā he said.
āHunter Biden possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days was not a threat to public safety, but a prosecutor, with all the power imaginable, bending to political pressure presents a grave threat to our system of justice,ā Lowell said.
āWe believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in Court,ā he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.