Hunter Biden team tells Delaware court they're 'not ready' for gun trial date

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Judge rejects Hunter Biden's motions to dismiss tax charges, teeing up possible trial

Fox News' Jonathan Hunt provides details on the judge's ruling and the response from Hunter Biden's lawyers, who expressed their intent to 'vigorously pursue' challenges to the case.

Hunter Biden's legal team appeared to seek a delay for his impending June 3 trial date in Delaware, which was set by a federal judge two months ago.

The first son was not in attendance Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Delaware's largest city, Wilmington, but attorney Abbe Lowell as well as Special Counsel David Weiss were. Weiss sat in court taking notes during the proceedings.

Special counsel attorney Derek Hines told the court the Biden matter is a "simple case," and that he was prepared to go forward with U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika's June 3 trial date.

But Tuesday afternoon, Noreika rejected Hunter Biden’s request to delay the trial. His case will go to trial next month, according to the Associated Press. 

Hines predicted the trial would take less than a week.

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Lowell told Noreika, "We are not ready," for that start date, which appeared to frustrate the judge. Noreika asked Lowell for an explanation, pushing back that the case is not complicated.

Lowell said he is working on both Biden's Delaware and California cases simultaneously, and instead proposed a September trial date in Wilmington.

He indicated he plans to file an appeal by Wednesday with the Third Circuit seeking an injunction to block the trial from commencing before merit-based motions are worked through.

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Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O'Neill House Office Building. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A 56-page indictment against Biden was handed down in Los Angeles in December, which included felony charges and laid out his salacious spending habits and lifestyle while cataloging alleged related tax violations.

In Delaware, other issues scheduled to be presented in court Tuesday pertained to admissibility of evidence. Both the defense and prosecution were reported to be preparing "in limine" motions to exclude certain information from the jury as part of a typical timeline in normal litigation.

One argument from the special counsel's office obtained by Fox News questioned why the jury should not hear the reasons Delaware state law enforcement did not charge Biden with a 2018 count relating to the first son's application for and possession of a firearm while using controlled substances.

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Hunter and Joe Biden (Getty Images)

Another court document reflected evidence from the 2018 police report in which Beau Biden's widow Hallie, who was in a relationship with Hunter at the time, purportedly tossed the gun in a trash receptacle near the A.I. duPont High School in Greenville, Del.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court decided against tossing the gun charges after Biden asked the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit to dismiss them.