Jan. 17 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to reject Hunter Biden’s request to have gun charges brought against him dismissed, arguing that evidence of his crimes is overwhelming.
Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was charged in the fall with three offenses for unlawful possession of a firearm while being a drug addict. Last month, he asked the court to dismiss the case on several grounds, including that it is politically motivated.
Special counsel David Weiss rejected the allegations in a filing Tuesday that said the charges are not politically motivated, revealing that there was cocaine residue discovered on the brown leather holder in which Hunter Biden stored the weapon.
“The charges in this case are not trumped up or because of former President [Donald] Trump — they are instead a result of the defendant’s own choices and were brought in spite of, not because of, any outside noise made by politicians,” Weiss said in the document, which included a picture of the firearm.
Federal prosecutors included a picture of a gun Hunter Biden is accused of illegally owning in 2018 in court documents filed Tuesday, January 16, 2024. Photo courtesy of Justice Department/UPI
In the summer, the younger Biden was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and receive a pretrial diversion agreement on a firearms charge, but the deal dramatically fell apart at the last minute.
Weiss then filed two indictments against Hunter Biden — one in September for three gun-related offenses and another in December for nine tax-related offenses.
Last month, Hunter Biden filed a series of motions to have the gun-related charges dismissed, accusing Weiss of vindictive prosecution and of violating terms of the now-abandoned plea deal due to political pressure from from Trump and his Republican supporters, among others.
In the Tuesday court document, Weiss rejects the notion that politics influenced his decision to indict Hunter Biden, calling it “absurd.”
“Stripped of its bluster, the defendant’s theory of vindictiveness is simply not credible,” he said.
“Contrary to his assertion, he has not established that the special counsel, appointed by and serving at the pleasure of President Biden and his attorney general, is punishing the defendant ‘for the perceived sins of his father’ in order to capitulate to a former president because of his tweets,” he continued.
“This theory is a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”
Hunter Biden is being prosecuted while being the target of a House Republican impeachment inquiry brought against his father. Though no evidence has been found, the Republican investigators are probing to see if there are connections between Hunter Biden’s overseas business deals and the president.
