James Lynch writes for National Review Online about interesting recent legal claims from the president’s wayward son.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys are arguing a special counsel appointed by President Biden’s Justice Department is doing the bidding of Russian intelligence officials.
The defense attorneys, led by Abbe D. Lowell, suggested in a court filing on Monday that special counsel David Weiss’s criminal prosecution of Hunter Biden is carrying out the mission of Russian intelligence officials.
Biden’s attorneys are attempting to connect Weiss’s prosecution of Hunter Biden on federal tax and gun charges to the indictment of disgraced ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who Weiss is prosecuting for false statements to the FBI alleging Hunter and Joe Biden received bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch.
“This case illustrates the very continuing harm identified by the Special Counsel. The Special Counsel tells us Russian intelligence sought to influence the U.S. presidential election by using allegations against Hunter Biden to hurt President Biden’s reelection,” the filing reads. The supplemental filing is part of Hunter Biden’s argument for selective prosecution by Weiss.
Weiss and his team of prosecutors revealed Smirnov’s apparent ties to Russian intelligence in a memo last month argued for keeping him detained while awaiting trial. Biden’s attorneys referenced the information disclosed by the special counsel to cast doubt on the special counsel’s prosecution.
“In these actions, the Special Counsel has done exactly what the Russian intelligence operation desired by initiating prosecutions against Mr. Biden,” the document adds.
Smirnov’s discredited allegations were memorialized by the FBI in June 2020 and publicized by Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) in July. The former informant claimed Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings gave Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each and alleged Zlochevsky possessed evidence showing he was coerced to make the bribes.
