The prosecutor who led the long-running investigation into US President Joe Biden’s son defended his efforts in a report Monday, saying the criminal charges against Hunter Biden were the culmination of “thorough, impartial” work and “nonpartisan politics.”
The report by special counsel David Weiss also criticized the elder Biden for defaming the Justice Department when he pardoned his son in December. ua statementthe president said he believed his son was treated “differently” because of his last name.
“Other presidents have pardoned family members, but none have used the opportunity to vilify public officials at the Department of Justice based solely on trumped-up charges,” Weiss’ report said Monday.
“These baseless accusations have no foundation and their repetition threatens the integrity of the justice system as a whole,” continued the prosecutor.
“The president’s characterizations are inaccurate on the facts of this case and, on a more fundamental level, they are wrong.”
The document, as is common for reports prepared by Justice Department special counsels, provides an overview of the investigation’s findings. But he is best known for his staunch defense of the team’s work and for his outspoken criticism of the president over a written statement he made when pardoning Hunter Biden last month.
Biden has repeatedly promised not to pardon his son but changed course on December 1stsaying such action was justified by what he called a “miscarriage of justice” and selective prosecution. He said he believed his son had been treated “differently” because of his last name and that “raw politics” had infected the Justice Department’s decision-making.
“No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases can come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was singled out just because he’s my son — and that’s wrong,” Biden said.
‘The president’s characteristics are incorrect’
Weiss served as U.S. attorney for Delaware during the Trump administration, and was retained in that position by U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland before being named to the role of special prosecutor in 2023.
He took exception to Biden’s comments and noted that the judges rejected that assessment as well.
“The president’s characterizations are inaccurate on the facts of this case, and on a more fundamental level, they are wrong,” Weiss wrote. He also noted, “These prosecutions were the culmination of a thorough, impartial investigation, not partisan politics.”
US President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter, shielding him from prison on federal gun and tax charges, despite earlier promises to avoid using presidential powers for the benefit of the family.
The investigations, which Hunter Biden himself disclosed in 2020 when he revealed that prosecutors were probing his taxes, have taken a painful path toward resolution among Justice Department leaders of both political parties.
He was supposed to plead to a federal gun charge in 2023, but the deal collapsed in spectacular fashion after a last-minute disagreement between his lawyers and federal prosecutors.
He was on trial in Delaware last year and he was convicted of three federal felonies who accused him of lying on a mandatory gun purchase form saying he was not an illegal drug user or addict.
Describing the younger Biden as a “Yale-educated lawyer and businessman,” Weiss said he realized he lied in 2018 when he filled out a federal gun purchase form and indicated he was not an addict.
But he did it anyway because he wanted a gun, even though he was actively using crack cocaine, Weiss wrote.
Hunter Biden then suddenly pleaded guilty to federal tax charges last September, avoiding a trial that would have exposed potentially grim evidence on top of the salacious and unflattering details about his personal life released during his earlier trial in Delaware.
The president’s claims that the criminal justice system abused Hunter Biden in some ways echo arguments from the younger Biden’s legal team, which argued that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict Hunter after the collapse of what Trump and other Republicans called a “sweetheart” plea deal.
Not so, Weiss said.
“Far from being selective, these prosecutions epitomized 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,” Weiss said.
