Special Counsel strongly opposes Hunter Biden’s Trump request, deeming it ‘baseless
Special Counsel Rejects Hunter Biden’s Request for Trump Documents, Calling It ‘Meritless’
Special counsel David Weiss is calling for a judge to reject Hunter Biden’s request for a trove of documents related to former President Donald Trump to bolster a defense that the current charges against him are due to selective prosecution.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers requested the ability to subpoena documents from Trump, former Attorney General William Barr, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, according to NBC.
The lawyers argue that Hunter Biden’s defense is that the charges stem from “possibly a vindictive or selective prosecution arising from an unrelenting pressure campaign beginning in the last administration,” according to CNN.
Hunter Biden faces three federal felony gun charges. In August, a plea deal to settle all charges against him collapsed, leading to new charges filed against Hunter Biden and the appointment of Weiss as special counsel. Weiss, who served as U.S. Attorney for Delaware in the Trump administration, oversaw the initial investigation into Hunter Biden.
A filing from Weiss’s office strongly opposes Hunter Biden’s proposal.
“His motion is meritless and should be denied,” the document filed by Weiss’s office said, calling it an “unsupported, improper attempt to circumvent the rules applicable to criminal subpoenas.”
“Defendant’s attempts to manufacture discriminatory treatment or intent on behalf of the U.S. Attorney fall apart under the most minimal scrutiny,” the filing said, stating that the request for the documents was “notably deficient.”
The filing points out that Hunter Biden’s claims of being charged because of Trump’s personal vendetta ignore the timing of the charges.
“[N]ot only does defendant’s motion fail to identify any actual evidence of bias, vindictiveness, or discriminatory intent on the Special Counsel’s part, his arguments ignore an inconvenient truth: No charges were brought against defendant during the prior administration when the subpoena recipients actually held office in the Executive Branch,” the filing said.
“Defendant has not shown, nor can he, how external statements by political opponents of President Biden improperly pressured him, his Attorney General, or the Special Counsel to pursue charges against the President’s son,” the filing added.
“In addition to offering no evidence that the now-Special Counsel had any animus or improper motivation against defendant, he offers no evidence that the current Attorney General acted out of any improper motive in empowering the Special Counsel to continue pursuing prosecution,” the filing concluded.
The filing also highlights that Hunter Biden has publicly admitted to the conduct that led to the charges against him.
“Defendant himself acknowledged committing criminal conduct relevant to this case when he authored a book admitting that he was addicted to crack cocaine in 2018, the year in which he illegally purchased a gun,” the filing stated.
Weiss, who led the initial investigation into Hunter Biden, has faced criticism from Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who claimed that the investigation was politically motivated, according to Fox News.
Shapley stated that decisions made during the investigation “had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.”
Ziegler argued that Hunter Biden should have faced more serious charges and that communications reviewed during the probe contradict President Biden’s claims of not being involved in his son’s overseas business dealings.
Shapley and Ziegler are scheduled to testify during a closed-door session of the House Ways and Means Committee as part of its investigation into the Biden family’s finances.
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