Dec. 11 (UPI) — Lawyers for Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, on Monday sought to have gun charges dismissed, accusing the special prosecutor in the case of caving in to Republican political pressure.
Hunter Biden is facing three federal weapons charges for allegedly lying on federal forms that he was not on drugs when he purchased a .38-caliber handgun in 2018 after being indicted by a grand jury in September.
He pleaded not guilty and is now seeking to have the charges thrown out on a series of grounds, including allegations the charges by Special Counsel David Weiss are politically motivated and, thus, unconstitutional.
In a series of motions filed with the U.S. District Court in Delaware on Monday, Biden accused Weiss of bringing a vindictive prosecution and of violating still-applicable terms of a now-abandoned plea deal due to political pressure from former President Donald Trump and his backers in Congress.
Weiss struck the plea deal with Biden’s lawyers in June, in which the gun counts would be dismissed, removing the possibility of imprisonment through a “diversion agreement” if the president’s son pleaded guilty to separate tax crimes.
The deal later fell apart and the weapons charges were reinstated. Weiss last week increased the pressure in Biden by filling nine additional tax-related charges against him in California.
The return of the gun charges and the new tax charges are politically motived and prompted by Republican Party outrage over the terms of the proposed plea deal as well as a desire to divert attention away from Trump’s own legal troubles, Biden attorney Abbe Lowell argued.
“The announcement that this case would be resolved through a diversion agreement and a plea agreement drew a sharp rebuke from former President Trump (who appointed Mr. Weiss), extremist House Republicans, and the far-right media,” the motion states.
“They made it clear that they wanted Mr. Weiss to keep this litigation alive through the [2024] presidential election (regardless of merit) and for him to bring more serious charges as a foil for the investigations and prosecutions of former President Trump.”
Lowell cited statements by congressional Republicans, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, who posted on social media, “Announcement of a special counsel only happened because congressional GOP exposed the two-tiered judicial system by shining light onto the investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged financial crimes & the political interference that shielded both him & POTUS from scrutiny.”
“These charges are unprecedented, unconstitutional and violate the agreement the U.S. Attorney made with Mr. Biden and DOJ’s own regulations,” Lowell said in a statement issued to ABC News. “This is not how an independent investigation is supposed to work, and these charges should be dismissed.”
