On Monday, the office of special counsel David Weiss seemed to deny President Joe Biden’s assertion that its indictments of Hunter Biden were politically motivated, referring to the accusations as “baseless.”
Weiss pointed out that several judges had already rejected the younger Biden’s accusations of vindictive prosecution in a court brief contesting his plea to have the California case against him dismissed in light of his father’s pardon on Sunday night.
“I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” the president said in a statement announcing the “full and unconditional” pardon, alluding to Weiss’s cases that resulted in a guilty verdict on gun-related charges in Delaware and Hunter Biden’s guilty plea on tax and fraud charges in California.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” Biden stated.
While mentioning the president’s statement, Weiss’s office pointed out in the court filing that Hunter Biden had submitted eight requests to have the California indictment dismissed, “making every conceivable argument for why it should be dismissed, all of which were determined to be meritless.”
The defendant stated that the indictment was the result of selective and vindictive prosecution, which is noteworthy. “[a]s the Court stated at the hearing, Defendant filed his motion without any evidence,” the Court concluded, rejecting that allegation. Additionally, the brief stated that there was no evidence of selective or vindictive prosecution in this case and never has been.
It pointed out that in the Delaware case, Hunter Biden “made similar baseless accusations” that the judge also rejected. According to the brief, three panels of the appeals court likewise dismissed Hunter Biden’s claims.
“In total, eleven (11) different Article III judges appointed by six (6) different presidents, including his father, considered and rejected the defendant s claims, including his claims for selective and vindictive prosecution,” according to the filing.
InfiltrationsAbbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, contended on Sunday night that the indictment against his client must be automatically dismissed in order for the presidential pardon to take effect.
Weiss contended that courts often “do not dismiss indictments when pardons are granted” in both the California complaint and a different lawsuit in Delaware.
“That the defendant has received an act of kindness is not contested by the government. According to the Delaware petition, that does not imply that the grand jury’s decision to prosecute him—which was founded on a finding of reasonable cause—should be disregarded as though it never happened.
Furthermore, just because the defendant erroneously claimed that the accusations were the consequence of selective prosecution or an improper purpose does not mean that they should be dropped. It further stated that the defendant’s plea to have the indictment dismissed is unsupported by the law and that no court has agreed with him on these irrational allegations.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the White House.
In his late Monday response to Weiss’s filing, Lowell contended that the judge had the authority and justification to reject the underlying indictment.
“No verdict has been rendered in this case, and Mr. Biden has not been sentenced. The proper course of action in this case is to dismiss the indictment and state that it is due to a pardon because no judgment has been or will be entered,” Lowell wrote.
Later this month, Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced in both counts.
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