Special counsel denounces president in final report on Hunter Biden
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Hunter Biden at the White House on Sept. 30, 2024. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Special counsel David Weiss released a final report Monday on the investigation into Hunter Biden after the case ended when President Biden issued an unconditional pardon for his son last month.
The big picture: Hunter Biden was the first child of a sitting president to face criminal charges. He was convicted on felony gun charges in Delaware in June, and pleaded guilty on felony tax charges in California in September.
Driving the news: Weiss criticized President Biden in the report for claiming his son was unfairly prosecuted in the six-year investigation, calling those "baseless accusations" with "no merit."
- Weiss said: "The president's characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and on a more fundamental level, they are wrong."
- He wrote that "other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations."
- Representatives for the White House and Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.
Context: Weiss has been overseeing the Hunter Biden case since the first Trump administration as U.S. Attorney for Delaware.
- When Biden took office, he kept Weiss on finish his work.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland named Weiss as special counsel in 2023.
Zoom in: Defending his reasoning for the charges, Weiss that he concluded Hunter Biden "had committed each and every one of the elements of a criminal offense" and that "a faithful jury would be more likely to convict than acquit him."
- At "no time did my decisions take into account personal opinions-mine or anyone else's-about Mr. Biden's moral character, his popularity or unpopularity among the general public or a certain subgroup like a political party, the ethical propriety of his conduct, or other value judgments," he wrote.
- Weiss said Hunter Biden, "as a well-educated lawyer and businessman ... consciously and willfully" broke the law by failing to pay taxes "despite having access to funds to pay some or all" of them.
Zoom out: Weiss charged both Hunter Biden and former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov during his investigation.
- In the report, Weiss said his team determined that Smirnov's allegations about Hunter Biden were fabricated.
- Smirnov pleaded guilty last month to lying about a phone bribery scheme involving Hunter Biden and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
