Special prosecutor in Hunter Biden case denounces president's criticism of investigation: NPR

A Nov. 29, 2024 photo shows President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden walking out of a bookstore while shopping in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

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Mandel Yan/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday released special counsel David Weiss' final report from his investigation into criminal charges against President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

Biden signed a full and unconditional pardon for his son last month after previously pledging not to do so, saying “naked politics influenced the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

President Biden and his son Hunter Biden take a walk in downtown Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Friday.

In his report, Weiss called such accusations “unfounded and false.”

“Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have used it as an opportunity to slander Department of Justice civil servants based solely on false accusations,” he wrote.

Hunter Biden was convicted in June of federal firearms charges for lying about his cocaine addiction when purchasing firearms. Three months later, he pleaded guilty to tax crimes for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes. Sentencing in both cases is expected in December.

President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday after jurors began deliberating a felony firearm charge against him.

Both indictments were filed by Weiss. The cases stem from the fact that Hunter Biden was grappling with the death of his brother, Beau Biden, and his own cocaine addiction.

Weiss was a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor in Delaware who was retained during the Biden administration and began investigating Hunter Biden in 2019 and was appointed as a special prosecutor in August 2023.

Weiss said in the report that he made these charges unrelated to any politics and purely because Hunter Biden violated federal law.

“These prosecutions are the result of a thorough, impartial investigation, not partisan politics,” he wrote in the report. “Challenging these rulings and incorporating partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the foundation of a fair and impartial U.S. justice system. ”

He said the charges against Hunter Biden exemplified “the equal application of justice — no matter who you are or what your last name is, you are subject to the same laws as everyone else in America.”

Weiss' report is a necessary part of the special counsel's work, and the Department of Justice is making it public in accordance with the law and its policies.

This set of photos shows Special Counsel Jack Smith in Washington, D.C., in August 2023, and President-elect Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2022. Donald Trump on August 7 dismissed government lawyers' restrictions on how he could publicly share his historic indictment for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. "I should not be subject to a protective order as it would violate my right to free speech," the former president said in a post on his Truth social platform. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and Eva Marie UZCATEGUI/AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEBEVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images)

The department is waging a separate court battle to release special counsel Jack Smith's final report on the criminal investigation into Donald Trump. Trump has argued that the special counsel's appointment was illegal and that any public report would be legally invalid and would harm his transition to the White House.