Hunter Biden has been indicted by federal prosecutors on three felony gun charges, according to new court documents, the latest development in a yearslong probe into the son of President Joe Biden.

What You Need To Know

  • Hunter Biden has been indicted by federal prosecutors on three felony gun charges, according to new court documents

  • According to the court filing, Hunter Biden was charged with two counts of making false statements on a federal firearms form and a third of posessing a firearm as a drug user

  • When added together, he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted

  • The indictment comes after a plea agreement with federal prosecutors fell apart in recent months

  • It also comes just days after House Republicans, who have been probing Hunter Biden's finances and business dealings for several months, launched an impeachment probe into his father

According to the court filing, Hunter Biden was charged with two counts of making false statements on a federal firearms form and a third of posessing a firearm as a drug user.

The indictment accuses Hunter Biden of claiming he was not on drugs while purchasing a firearm in 2018, a period where he has admitted to struggling with crack cocaine addiction. It says that he lied on a form required for every gun purchase when he bought a Colt Cobra Special at a Wilmington, Delaware, gun shop in October 2018. He’s accused of checking a box falsely saying he was not a user of or addicted to drugs and of illegally possessing the gun as a drug user.

When added together, Hunter Biden faces a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted.

The charges were brought by David Weiss, a prosecutor appointed by then-President Donald Trump who initially led the probe into Hunter Biden and was recently elevated to special counsel status.

The indictment comes after a plea agreement with federal prosecutors fell apart in recent months. It also comes just days after House Republicans, who have been probing Hunter Biden's finances and business dealings for several months, launched an impeachment probe into his father, the president.

The plea deal, which would have seen Hunter Biden plead guilty to two separate misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes and entering into a deferred prosecution agreement on a gun charge, fell apart in July when a judge raised questions about the agreement's provisions. Hunter Biden ended up pleading not guilty to the tax charges.

The agreement would have spared him formal prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble for two years. Defense attorneys have argued that part of the deal remains in place, including its immunity provisions against other potential charges. But prosecutors say the deal never went into effect.

Republicans had slammed the agreement as a "sweetheart deal" and vowed to ramp up investigations into Hunter Biden and his business dealings. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee who is leading the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, called the charges against Hunter Biden "a very small start" but said that the Justice Department needs to continue investigate their claims of "fraud schemes and influence peddling."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.