Special Counsel David C. Weiss, who spent years investigating Hunter Biden, said in his final report released Monday that President Biden has questioned the “health of the entire judicial system” regarding his investigation. He criticized the government for making “baseless accusations” that threatened the government.
“The president's characterization is wrong based on the facts of this case and wrong on a more fundamental level,” Weiss wrote.
His investigation had been the subject of intense debate until the president granted a broad pardon ending the case against his son, saying the charges were the result of “raw politics.”
Last June, a jury in Wilmington, Delaware, convicted Hunter Biden of three felonies for lying on a federal firearms application. He also pleaded guilty in September to nine federal tax charges filed in Los Angeles for falsifying records and failing to file returns. His period of tax crimes included both his time as a crack cocaine addict and his post-sobriety years.
In his report, Weiss pushed back against criticism, primarily from Democrats, that the case against Biden is unfair or tainted by political motivations.
The report served as a sharp rebuttal to the president. Weiss defended his work and criticized the president's characterization in his final words on the long-running investigation, citing a judicial ruling that said the case was fairly filed.
“Politicians who attack the decisions of career prosecutors with whom they disagree with the outcome of a case as politically motivated undermine public confidence in our criminal justice system,” Weiss' report said. “The president's comments unfairly impugn the integrity of not only Justice Department employees, but all public servants who make difficult decisions in good faith.”
Previous special counsels have released thick reports spanning hundreds of pages. To be exact, Mr. Weiss's final document is over 200 pages long, mostly in appendices containing previously released court documents. The actual findings of Mr. Weiss' report are contained in a short 27 pages.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Hunter Biden's lawyer criticized the special counsel's investigation.
“Like all court filings, David Weiss's 27-page report continues to ignore some of the key mysteries of his seven-year investigation,” attorney Abby Lowell said. “This report makes it clear that Hunter Biden is sounding the alarm on abuses of prosecutorial power.''
The release comes amid an even more contentious 11-hour legal battle over the publication of a report by special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two indictments against Donald J. Trump. However, both collapsed due to the impact of Trump's presidential election in 2024. victory.
Weiss' time as special counsel began after several years investigating Hunter Biden for tax, financial and foreign lobbying matters. The two countries briefly struck a plea deal, but the agreement collapsed in July 2023 due to the unusual nature of the deal, as well as the government's promise to end the investigation with the deal.
When that plea failed, Weiss sought and was appointed as special prosecutor, charging the president's son with two counts of false statements on Delaware gun purchase forms and Los Angeles tax matters. Prosecutions can now be brought in one jurisdiction.
Biden pardoned his son in December as he awaited sentencing in both cases. The president not only exonerated him of his conviction, but also granted him a sweeping pardon for possible crimes spanning more than a decade.
At the time, the president said his son's case was infected by politics, a claim that infuriated Weiss and the Justice Department, especially since the president had long maintained that the case had been handled independently.
The report said Weiss could not reach a conclusion about whether Hunter Biden may have committed other crimes because the presidential pardon effectively precluded such an analysis.
Lawyers for the younger Biden have long argued that the criminal charges are unwarranted, including because Biden was addicted to drugs during some of the years in question. They also argued that similar conduct by others has not generally resulted in federal charges, making Hunter Biden a target of opportunity for Republicans who have pushed the Justice Department to pursue criminal cases.
Weiss said the charges are warranted based on the facts and law.
“I considered his struggle with addiction and his choice to file a false tax return after getting sober,” the special counsel wrote. “And while Mr. Biden may have entered into loan agreements with personal friends who paid taxes, there was no evidence that Mr. Biden repaid those funds.”
Weiss also prosecuted and won a guilty plea from another man, Alexander Smirnov, for lying to the FBI about knowing about corrupt payments to father and son during the 2020 campaign. Smirnov, a longtime FBI informant, has alleged that executives at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015. The accusation was touted by Republicans in Congress.
