The judge in Hunter Biden's felony gun case rejected a last-ditch effort by the president's son to delay the trial.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said the case will proceed on June 3 in Delaware.
Noreika is the same judge who oversaw a dramatic hearing last year where Biden's generous plea deal unraveled, setting the stage for him to be prosecuted.
Hunter Biden is accused of lying about his drug abuse on a gun form in 2018. He has challenged the prosecution, and another prosecution for tax charges, as politically motivated. He claims he was only indicted because of pressure from Republicans on the Justice Department.
The charges were brought after Republicans - and a pair of IRS whistleblowers - accused the DOJ of going easy on the president's son.
Biden is also fighting charges in California for dodging taxes on his foreign income while leading an extravagant lifestyle. His efforts to delay both trials have failed.
The upcoming prosecutions, both set for June, are weighing on the president's mind as he battles for re-election.
“He worries about Hunter every single day, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep,” an adviser told Politico. "That will only pick up during a trial.”
In his latest delay effort, Hunter's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued the defense is having trouble finding drug addiction experts who are willing to be part of the highly publicized gun case.
Prosecutors balked at that claim, noting that Hunter has fed the media frenzy by discussing his drug addiction in his own memoir. And the judge said “everyone can get done what needs to get done” before the trial begins.
The judge had previously shot down Biden's claims of political motive.
“The pressure campaign from Congressional Republicans may have occurred around the time that Special Counsel decided to move forward with indictment instead of pretrial diversion, but the Court has been given nothing credible to suggest that the conduct of those lawmakers (or anyone else) had any impact on Special Counsel,” the judge wrote. “It is all speculation.”
Hunter's lawyers have continued to claim that a sweeping immunity agreement tied to his defunct plea deal is in effect - a claim Noreika also dismissed.
Separately, Republicans have pursued a stalled impeachment inquiry into Hunter Biden's business deals in China and Ukraine and his father's role in them.
