Hunter Biden prosecutor says president’s criticisms undermine rule of law

WASHINGTON: The US special counsel who prosecuted Democratic president Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden called the president’s criticisms of the cases “gratuitous and wrong” in a final report on his probe published on Monday.

Special counsel David Weiss brought cases against Hunter Biden for lying about his drug use when he purchased a gun in 2018 and for evading paying US$1.4 million in taxes.

Joe Biden pardoned his son in December for those offenses and other conduct over an 11-year period after previously pledging he would not. In issuing the pardon, Biden said the cases had been improperly influenced by “raw politics.”

“This statement is gratuitous and wrong,” Weiss wrote in his final report.

The criticism “undermines the very foundation of what makes America’s justice system fair and equitable,” Weiss wrote. “It erodes public confidence in an institution that is essential to preserving the rule of law.”

Justice department regulations require special counsels, who are appointed to give sensitive investigations a degree of independence from department leadership, to submit a final report at the end of their probe.

Weiss, who has wrapped up his probe, used the report to issue a pointed defence of the Hunter Biden cases and hit back at Joe Biden’s criticisms.

Hunter Biden was found guilty in June after a trial in Delaware federal court on the gun charges and later pleaded guilty to tax charges in Los Angeles.

Weiss secured indictments in both cases after a plea deal that would have likely allowed Hunter Biden to avoid prison time unraveled in 2023 under a questioning from a federal judge.

Hunter Biden, who has spoken publicly as his struggles with drug addiction, faced years of scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, particularly over his foreign business dealings.

Hunter Biden and his legal team have repeatedly alleged that political pressure pushed Weiss to abandon plea negotiations and instead pursue indictments that carried far greater legal jeopardy.

They argued that the tax and gun cases were ones that federal prosecutors ordinarily would not have pursued.

Weiss investigated Hunter Biden for years, first as US attorney in Delaware appointed by president-elect Donald Trump in his first term and later as special counsel during Joe Biden’s administration.

“I prosecuted the two cases against Mr Biden because he broke the law,” Weiss wrote in the report.