Lawyers for first son Hunter Biden has filed a motion in court arguing that the grand jury indictment against President Biden’s son should be dismissed in its entirety, even though the special counsel assigned to the case says the dismissal should be denied.
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter late Sunday night, sparing him from being convicted in a pair of separate trials in which he was found guilty of illegally purchasing a gun and failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes — convictions that the president claimed they were politically motivated and a “miscarriage of justice.”
On Monday, Special Counsel David Weiss of the U.S. Department of Justice filed a request with the judge presiding over the gun case, Judge Maryellen Noreika, seeking to deny the request to dismiss Hunter’s charges.
“The government does not dispute that the defendant was the recipient of an act of mercy,” Weiss said in the filing. “That does not mean that the grand jury’s decision to indict him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be swept aside because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of an improper motive or selective persecution.
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President Biden and son Hunter Biden step out of a bookstore while shopping in Nantucket, Massachusetts on November 29, 2024. Biden on Sunday officially pardoned his son Hunter, who was convicted of two criminal cases related to tax evasion and the purchase of a firearm. (MANDEL EN/AFP via Getty Images)
“No court agrees with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his motion to dismiss the indictment has no support in law,” the special counsel added before requesting that the indictment be dismissed.
In response to the request, Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell of the Washington DC-based law firm Winston & Strawn LLP, argued that the majority of the courts support a dismissal.
“The Special Counsel paradoxically claims that Mr. Biden’s notice is ‘without any legal support,’ by suggesting that his pardon means the Court should dismiss the indictment. At the same time, the special counsel acknowledges that ‘the majority of courts, when confronted 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 the courts’ certainly provides legal support to Mr. Biden’s claim that dismissal is warranted.”
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Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, follows his lawyer Abbe Lowell on Capitol Hill in Washington on January 10, 2024. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Hunter Biden was found guilty in June in the gun case, with a jury of his peers finding that he made a false statement in the purchase of a gun, made a false statement regarding information to be kept by an arms dealer with a federal license, and possession of a weapon by someone who is a 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, and how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a “crack dad” for drug dealers, and anecdotes about drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer, Hunter Biden, nicknamed “Bicycles.”
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In the tax case, Hunter again faced a lawsuit for three tax crimes and six tax crimes related to failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. While jury selection was about to start Los Angeles Federal Court in September, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
Emma Colton of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
