Special counsel David Weiss, who investigated Hunter Biden over tax and gun-related charges, said President Joe Biden’s criticism of his son’s prosecution “undermines the very foundation” of the American justice system.
The outgoing president pardoned Hunter last month from his alleged crimes and also from possible crimes that weren’t charged over an eleven-year period. The move was sharply criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike, who took issue with Biden after he repeatedly claimed he wouldn’t pardon his son.
In signing the sweeping pardon on December 1, Biden said the prosecution of his son was politically motivated, “selective,” and “unfair.” Weiss called this characterization “gratuitous and wrong.”
While past presidents have pardoned their family members, the special counsel said, “none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.”
Weiss, who investigated the president’s son as a U.S. attorney since 2018, was granted additional authority after U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland appointed him as special counsel in August 2023.
“These prosecutions were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics. Eight judges across numerous courts have rejected claims that they were the result of selective or vindictive motives,” Weiss wrote in his final report on Hunter Biden’s federal cases.
The report was submitted to Garland on Friday and transmitted to Congress on Monday.
“Calling those rulings into question and injecting partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the very foundation of what makes America’s justice system fair and equitable. It erodes public confidence in an institution that is essential to preserving the rule of law.”
At the beginning of the report, Weiss said he could not make any decisions about additional charges against Hunter, adding it would be “inappropriate” to discuss following the pardon. Still, he took Biden to task for throwing the Justice Department under the bus.
“Politicians who attack the decisions of career prosecutors as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of a case undermine the public’s confidence in our criminal justice system,” Weiss wrote. “The President’s statements unfairly impugn the integrity not only of Department of Justice personnel, but all of the public servants making these difficult decisions in good faith.”
“The President’s characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and, on a more fundamental level, they are wrong.”
The presidential pardon came days before Hunter Biden was set to be sentenced in the two cases involving tax misconduct and the illegal purchase of a firearm while under the influence of drugs. As a result, the federal charges were dismissed.
The judge presiding over the tax case took issue with Biden’s argument that his son was singled out for political reasons, saying courts already rejected that argument.
“The President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges,” U.S. District judge Mark C. Scarsi in California wrote. “In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people.”
While he tossed the tax case, the Trump-appointed judge blasted Biden’s rationale that his son’s tax offenses were caused by his drug addiction.
“The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States,” Scarsi wrote, “but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”