WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday on federal firearms charges, the latest and weightiest step yet in a long-running investigation into the president’s son.

Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Delaware.

President Joe Biden’s son has also been under investigation for his business dealings. The special counsel overseeing the case has indicated that charges of failure to pay taxes on time could be filed in Washington or in California, where he lives.

The indictment comes as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into the Democratic president, in large part over Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Republicans have obtained testimony about how Hunter Biden used the “Biden brand” to drum up work overseas, but they have not produced hard evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

A gun possession charge against Hunter Biden, 53, had previously been part of a plea deal that also included guilty pleas to misdemeanor tax charges, but the agreement imploded during a court hearing in July when a judge raised questions about its unusual provisions.

Defense attorneys have argued that a part of the deal sparing Hunter Biden prosecution on the gun count if he stays out of trouble remains in place. It includes immunity provisions against other potential charges. Attorneys indicated they would fight additional charges filed against him.

Prosecutors, though, maintain the agreement never took effect and is now invalid.

Republicans had denounced the plea agreement as a “sweetheart deal.” It would have allowed Hunter Biden to serve probation rather than jail time after pleading guilty to failing to pay taxes in both 2017 and 2018.

His personal income during those two years totaled roughly $4 million, including business and consulting fees from a company he formed with the CEO of a Chinese business conglomerate and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, prosecutors have said.

Congressional Republicans have continued their own investigations into the Justice Department’s handling of the case as well as nearly every aspect of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, seeking to connect his financial affairs directly to his father. They have failed to produce evidence that the president directly participated in his son’s work, though he sometimes had dinner with his son’s clients or said hello to them on calls.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s high court said it will not immediately consider a challenge to the state’s abortion ban that is based on the argument that the law violates some people’s religious freedoms, leaving that decision to an appeals court, at least for now.

The state Supreme Court issued an order Monday saying the state Court of Appeals will first consider the case, after a lower court judge in December sided with residents who claim the state’s abortion ban infringes on their religious beliefs. The state attorney general’s office appealed that decision, asking the high court to take up the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the lawsuit in September on behalf of those residents — who hold Muslim, Jewish and other faiths — after Republican state lawmakers enacted the ban last summer.

The ACLU and the state attorney general’s office did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Indiana’s ban, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, goes against those residents’ religious values regarding when they believe the treatment is acceptable, the lawsuit argues.

Earlier in January, the state Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators. The court has maintained a block on the abortion ban while it considers the case, after a county judge in September initially found the law likely violated privacy protections under the state constitution.

While Indiana’s ban is blocked, abortion will remain legal in the state up to 20 weeks post-fertilization.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, religious freedoms lawsuits against states’ abortion bans have sprouted across the country, where abortion-rights supporters are aiming to protect access to abortion and defend their beliefs.

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Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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