US President Joe Biden's son Hunter has been charged with deceiving a gun dealer into selling him a firearm, in the latest sign of how his legal woes may weigh on his father's re-election bid next year.
The indictment, filed in a US District Court in Delaware, charged Hunter Biden with three criminal counts related to lying about the fact he was using illegal drugs at that time, which would have banned him under the law from owning a firearm.
The charges ensure that courtroom drama will play an outsized role in the 2024 presidential campaign as Joe Biden, 80, seeks re-election in a likely rematch with his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, 77, who faces four upcoming criminal trials of his own.
The new charges against Mr Biden brought by recently elevated US Special Counsel David Weiss say nothing about any violations of US tax law.
A prior deal under which Hunter Biden, 53, would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enroll in a programme to avoid prosecution on the gun charge collapsed at a July hearing.
The tax investigation into Mr Biden remains ongoing, after Mr Weiss previously said that any possible charges would need to be brought in either the District of Columbia or the Los Angeles-based Central District of California.
Prosecutors accused Hunter Biden of lying about his use of narcotics when he purchased a Colt Cobra handgun in October 2018.
The move comes two days after Republicans in the House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden related to Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings.
The White House has denounced that step, made without a vote by the full House, as unsubstantiated and politically motivated.
"As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case," Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
"The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA [Make America Great Again] Republicans' improper and partisan interference in this process."
The White House and a spokesperson for Mr Weiss both declined to comment.
Some legal experts have said that any firearms-related charges against Mr Biden could be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge, after the US Supreme Court in a landmark ruling last year expanded gun rights under the Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.
Mr Lowell referred to that dispute in his statement, noting "the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional."
"The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA [Make America Great Again] Republicans' improper and partisan interference in this process."
The White House and a spokesperson for Mr Weiss both declined to comment.
Some legal experts have said that any firearms-related charges against Mr Biden could be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge, after the US Supreme Court in a landmark ruling last year expanded gun rights under the Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.
Mr Lowell referred to that dispute in his statement, noting "the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional."
Mr Weiss was elevated to special counsel status last month after investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings for years as the US attorney in the Democratic president's home state of Delaware.
Mr Weiss was originally nominated by Mr Trump.
Hunter Biden has been the focus for years of unrelenting attacks by Mr Trump and his Republican allies who have accused him of wrongdoing relating to Ukraine and China, among other matters.
Mr Biden has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, investment banker and artist, and has publicly detailed his struggles with substance abuse.
While Republican lawmakers have collected testimony that President Biden at times joined calls with his son's business associates, they have yet to produce evidence that he personally benefited.
"Today's charges against Hunter Biden are a very small start, but unless US Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in the fraud schemes and influence peddling, it will be clear President Biden's DOJ [Department of Justice] is protecting Hunter Biden and the big guy," said Republican Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, one of the three committees leading the impeachment inquiry kicked off this week.
Hunter Biden disclosed in December 2020 that Mr Weiss's office was investigating his tax affairs. He has denied wrongdoing.
While most US attorneys appointed by Mr Trump were asked to step down when Mr Biden took office in January 2021 - as is routine - the Justice Department asked Mr Weiss to stay on.
Hunter Biden never held a position in the White House or on his father's campaign.
The president has said he has not discussed foreign business dealings with his son and the Justice Department would have independence in any investigation of a member of his family.
Mr Trump and other Republicans have alleged what they called conflicts of interest from Mr Biden's position on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma at the time his father was vice president to Democratic President Barack Obama.
Mr Trump in a July 2019 phone call with Ukraine's president asked him to have his government open an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden in the lead-up to the US presidential election.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives later voted to impeach Mr Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from these efforts, though the Senate ultimately voted to keep him in office.
Hunter Biden described in a 2021 memoir dealing with substance abuse issues in his life including crack cocaine use and alcoholism.
He was discharged from the US Navy reserve in 2014 after, sources said at the time, testing positive for cocaine.
The president has two surviving children, Hunter and daughter Ashley Biden.
His son Beau Biden died in 2015 of cancer and his daughter Naomi Biden died as an infant after a car accident that also killed President Biden's first wife.
Hunter Biden appears to be the first child of a sitting president to be indicted, according to Aaron Crawford, who specialises in presidential history at the University of Tennessee.
