Special counsel David Weiss’s office on Monday appeared to push back on President Joe Biden‘s claim that its prosecutions of Hunter Biden were politically motivated, calling such allegations “baseless.”
In a court filing challenging Hunter Biden’s request to have the California indictment against him dismissed in light of his father’s Sunday night pardon, Weiss noted that a number of judges had already rejected the younger Biden’s claims of vindictive prosecution.
In a statement announcing the “full and unconditional” pardon, the president said “I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” referring to the cases brought by Weiss that led to 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 said.
In the court filing, Weiss’s office did not directly mention the president’s statement, but noted that Hunter Biden filed eight motions to dismiss the California indictment “making every conceivable argument for why it should be dismissed, all of which were determined to be meritless.”
“Of note, the defendant argued that the indictment was a product of vindictive and selective prosecution. The Court rejected that claim finding that ‘[a]s the Court stated at the hearing, Defendant filed his motion without any evidence.’ And there was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case,” the filing said.
It noted that Hunter Biden “made similar baseless accusations” in the Delaware case, which were rejected by that judge as well. Three appeals court panels also rejected Hunter Biden’s arguments, the filing said.
“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,” the filing said.
In filings Sunday night, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell argued the presidential pardon “requires an automatic dismissal of the Indictment” against his client.
Weiss argued in the California filing and a separate filing in Delaware that courts typically “do not dismiss indictments when pardons are granted.”
“The Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy. That does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away as if it never occurred,” the Delaware filing said.
“It also does not mean that his charges should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive or selective prosecution. No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law,” it added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lowell responded to Weiss’s filing late Monday and argued the judge has the right — and reason — to dismiss the underlying indictment.
“Mr. Biden has not been sentenced and no judgment has been entered in this case. Because no judgment has been or will be entered in this case, the appropriate resolution is to dismiss the Indictment while noting that is due to a pardon,” Lowell wrote.
Hunter Biden had been scheduled to be sentenced in both cases later this month.
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