David Zimmermann writes for National Review Online about fresh criticism of the outgoing president.
Special counsel David Weiss, who investigated Hunter Biden over tax and gun-related charges, said President Joe Biden’s criticism of his son’s prosecution “undermines the very foundation” of the American justice system.
The outgoing president pardoned Hunter last month from his alleged crimes and also from possible crimes that weren’t charged over an eleven-year period. The move was sharply criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike, who took issue with Biden after he repeatedly claimed he wouldn’t pardon his son.
In signing the sweeping pardon on December 1, Biden said the prosecution of his son was politically motivated, “selective,” and “unfair.” Weiss called this characterization “gratuitous and wrong.
”While past presidents have pardoned their family members, the special counsel said, “none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.”
Weiss, who investigated the president’s son as a U.S. attorney since 2018, was granted additional authority after U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland appointed him as special counsel in August 2023.
“These prosecutions were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics. Eight judges across numerous courts have rejected claims that they were the result of selective or vindictive motives,” Weiss wrote in his final report on Hunter Biden’s federal cases.
The report was submitted to Garland on Friday and transmitted to Congress on Monday.
“Calling those rulings into question and injecting partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the very foundation of what makes America’s justice system fair and equitable. It erodes public confidence in an institution that is essential to preserving the rule of law.”
At the beginning of the report, Weiss said he could not make any decisions about additional charges against Hunter, adding it would be “inappropriate” to discuss following the pardon. Still, he took Biden to task for throwing the Justice Department under the bus.
