DOJ special counsel says Hunter Biden’s indictment should not be dismissed
Attorneys for first son Hunter Biden filed a motion with the court arguing that the grand jury indictment against President Biden’s son be dismissed completely, though the special counsel assigned to the case says the dismissal should be denied.
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter late Sunday evening, sparing him from being sentenced in a pair of separate court cases in which he was found guilty of illegally purchasing a gun and failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes — convictions the president claimed were politically motivated and a "miscarriage of justice."
On Monday, Special Counsel David Weiss of the U.S. Department of Justice filed a request to the judge who presided over the gun case, Judge Maryellen Noreika, seeking to deny the motion to dismiss Hunter’s indictment.
"The Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy," Weiss said in the filing. "That does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive or selective prosecution.
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"No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law," the special counsel added before requesting the dismissal of the indictment be denied.
In response to the request, Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Winston & Strawn LLP, argued that the majority of courts support a dismissal.
"The Special Counsel paradoxically claims that Mr. Biden’s notice is ‘without any legal support’ in suggesting that his pardon means that the Court should dismiss the indictment, at the same time, the Special Counsel acknowledges that ‘the majority of courts, when faced with such a decision, have chosen to dismiss an indictment,’" the defense team wrote. "The Special Counsel’s admission that this is the practice of the ‘majority of courts’ certainly provides legal support to Mr. Biden’s claim that dismissal is warranted."
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Hunter Biden was found guilty in the gun case in June, with a jury of his peers determining he made a false statement in the purchase of a gun, made a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
He has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a "crack daddy" to drug dealers, and anecdotes revolving around drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Hunter Biden nicknamed "Bicycles."
In the tax case, Hunter faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court in September, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.