The prosecutor who led prolonged investigations into U.S. President Joe Biden’s son defended his efforts in a report on Monday, saying the legal fees in opposition to Hunter Biden had been the fruits of “thorough, neutral” work and “not partisan politics.”
The report from particular counsel David Weiss additionally criticized the senior Biden for having maligned the Justice Division when he pardoned his son in December. In a assertion, the president mentioned he believed his son had been handled “in another way” on account of his final identify.
“Different presidents have pardoned relations, however in doing so, none have taken the event as a possibility to malign the general public servants on the Division of Justice primarily based solely on false accusations,” the report from Weiss learn Monday.
“These baseless accusations haven’t any advantage and repeating them threatens the integrity of the justice system as a complete,” the prosecutor continued.
“The president’s characterizations are incorrect primarily based on the info on this case and, on a extra elementary stage, they’re fallacious.”
The doc, as is customary for stories ready by Justice Division particular counsels, supplies a recap of the investigative findings. However it’s most notable for its steadfast defence of the staff’s work and for its open criticism of the president over the written assertion he issued when pardoning Hunter Biden final month.
Biden had repeatedly pledged that he wouldn’t pardon his son however reversed course on Dec. 1, saying that such an motion was warranted due to what he referred to as a “miscarriage of justice” and a selective prosecution. He mentioned he believed that his son had been handled “in another way” on account of his final identify and that “uncooked politics” had contaminated the decision-making of the Justice Division.
“No cheap one who seems on the info of Hunter’s circumstances can attain some other conclusion than Hunter was singled out solely as a result of he’s my son — and that’s fallacious,” Biden mentioned.
‘The president’s characterizations are incorrect’
Weiss served as U.S. lawyer for Delaware in the course of the Trump administration and was saved in his place by U.S. Lawyer Common Merrick Garland earlier than being named to the function of particular counsel in 2023.
He took exception to Biden’s feedback and famous that judges had rejected that evaluation as properly.
“The president’s characterizations are incorrect primarily based on the info on this case, and, on a extra elementary stage, they’re fallacious,” Weiss wrote. He additionally famous, “These prosecutions had been the fruits of thorough, neutral investigations, not partisan politics.”
U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, shielding him from jail over federal felony gun and tax convictions, regardless of earlier guarantees to keep away from utilizing presidential powers for household profit.
The investigations, which Hunter Biden himself revealed in 2020 when he disclosed that prosecutors had been inspecting his taxes, took a tortured path towards decision throughout Justice Division leaders of each political events.
He was to have entered a plea in 2023 to a federal gun cost, however the deal fell aside in spectacular style after a last-minute disagreement between his legal professionals and federal prosecutors.
He went to trial in Delaware final yr and was convicted of three federal felonies that accused him of getting lied on a compulsory gun-purchase type by saying he was not illegally utilizing or hooked on medication.
Describing the youthful Biden as a “Yale-educated lawyer and businessperson,” Weiss mentioned he understood that he was mendacity in 2018 when he stuffed out the federal type to purchase his gun and marked that he wasn’t a drug consumer.
“However he did it anyway, as a result of he needed to personal a gun, although he was actively utilizing crack cocaine,” Weiss wrote.
Hunter Biden subsequently entered a shock responsible plea final September to federal tax fees, averting a trial that will have showcased doubtlessly lurid proof on prime of the salacious and unflattering particulars about his private life aired throughout his earlier trial in Delaware.
The president’s claims that Hunter Biden was mistreated by the legal justice system echoed in some methods arguments from the youthful Biden’s authorized staff, who had asserted that prosecutors bowed to political stress to indict Hunter after the collapse of what Trump and different Republicans referred to as a “sweetheart” plea deal.
Not so, mentioned Weiss.
“Removed from selective, these prosecutions had been the embodiment of the equal software of justice — regardless of who you’re, or what your final identify is, you’re topic to the identical legal guidelines as everybody else in america,” Weiss mentioned.
