Hunter Biden prosecutor punishes president for defamation of justice system | Crime news
Special prosecutor David Weiss says the president’s claims that his son was selectively prosecuted undermine the rule of law.
The special prosecutor who brought the indictment of United States President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, accused the outgoing president of undermining the justice system, arguing that the prosecution was selective and unfair.
In his final report on the case released Monday, special prosecutor David Weiss said the president’s claim that his son was singled out for prosecution was “gratuitous and wrong.”
“Other presidents have pardoned family members, but none have used that opportunity as an opportunity to vilify public officials at the Justice Department based solely on false allegations,” Weiss said in the 280-page report.
Weiss, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the younger Biden, said the decisions to prosecute the president’s son were the result of impartial investigations and that questioning them undermined “the very foundations of what makes the American justice system fair and just.”
“It erodes public confidence in an institution that is critical to upholding the rule of law,” Weiss said.
Weiss said the prosecutions, far from being selective, were “the embodiment of the equal application of justice — no matter who you are or what your last name is, you are subject to the same laws as everyone else in the United States.”
According to Justice Department regulations, special prosecutors submit a final report at the end of their investigation.
The elder Biden issued a pardon for his son on firearms and tax convictions last month after previously promising not to use his presidential powers to intervene.
The president said that any reasonable person looking at the facts of the cases would conclude that his son was “selectively and unfairly” prosecuted because of his last name.
“There were efforts to break Hunter — who had been sober for five and a half years, even in the face of relentless attacks and selective prosecution,” Biden said at the time.
Hunter Biden was found guilty in June of gun charges related to lying about his drug use on a background check form. In September, Biden pleaded guilty to tax evasion of $1.4 million in another case.
He was awaiting a verdict in two cases when his father announced a pardon.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer criticized Weiss’s report, saying the special counsel failed to explain why prosecutors “pursued wild — and exposed — conspiracies” about the president’s son.
“What is clear from this report is that the Hunter Biden investigation is a cautionary tale of prosecutorial abuse,” Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
