By Devlin Barrett and Glenn Thrush
David C. Weiss, the special counsel who devoted years to examining Hunter Biden, rebuked President Joe Biden for his “unfounded accusations” concerning the inquiry, which he claimed posed a threat to “the overall integrity of the justice system.” This came to light in a report released publicly on Monday.
“The president’s depictions are inaccurate based on the facts surrounding this case, and on a more fundamental level, they are erroneous,” Weiss stated.
The inquiry had been a topic of intense debate until the president granted a sweeping pardon that concluded the case against his son, asserting that the prosecution stemmed from “political maneuvering.”
In June, a jury in Wilmington, Delaware, convicted Hunter Biden on three felony counts for dishonesty in a federal firearms application. Additionally, he admitted guilt to nine federal tax offenses in Los Angeles in September for falsifying documents and neglecting to file returns. His tax misconduct spanned a time frame during which he battled crack cocaine addiction and followed his recovery.
In the report, Weiss countered criticisms, mainly from Democrats, asserting that the case against Biden was unjustified or influenced by political interests.
The report served as a sharp rebuttal to the president. Weiss referenced judicial decisions affirming that the case was appropriately pursued, utilizing his concluding remarks on the lengthy investigation to defend his efforts and contest the president’s assertions.
“Politicians who challenge the choices of career prosecutors as politically driven when they disagree with a case’s outcome erode public trust in our criminal justice system,” Weiss’ report stated. “The president’s remarks unjustly undermine the integrity not only of the Department of Justice personnel but also of all public servants making these challenging decisions in good faith.”
Previous special counsels have produced lengthy reports spanning hundreds of pages. Technically, Weiss’ final document exceeds 200 pages, yet most of it consists of appendices that include previously released court documents. The core findings of Weiss’ report are succinctly captured in just 27 pages.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment. A lawyer for Hunter Biden criticized the special counsel’s investigation.
“As with all his court submissions, David Weiss’ 27-page report continues to overlook significant enigmas of his seven-year inquiry,” stated the lawyer, Abbe Lowell, asserting that “this report illustrates that the investigation into Hunter Biden serves as a cautionary example of the misuse of prosecutorial authority.”
The release occurs amid a much more heated eleventh-hour legal battle concerning the publication of a report by Jack Smith, the special counsel who initiated two indictments against Donald Trump, both of which fell through partly due to Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.
Weiss began his tenure as special counsel after previously investigating Hunter Biden for several years regarding tax, finance, and foreign lobbying matters. The two sides briefly negotiated a plea agreement, but the peculiar nature of the deal — along with the government’s reluctance to ensure the investigation would conclude with the agreement — caused it to collapse in July 2023.
The failed plea deal prompted Weiss to seek and obtain an appointment as special counsel, which enabled him to bring charges against the president’s son in two jurisdictions — concerning dishonesty on a gun purchase form in Delaware and tax misconduct in Los Angeles.
Biden issued a pardon to his son in December while he was waiting for sentencing in both cases. The president erased not only the convictions but also granted him an extensive pardon for any potential offenses over a span of more than a decade.
In taking this action, the president claimed that his son’s situation had been marred by political influences, a statement that displeased Weiss and the Justice Department, especially considering the president’s longstanding assertion that the case had been handled impartially.
Because the presidential pardon effectively eliminated any such analysis, the report noted, Weiss refrained from drawing conclusions regarding the possibility that Hunter Biden committed additional offenses.
Hunter Biden’s legal team argued for a long time that criminal charges were unjustifiable, partly due to the fact that during some of the relevant time, he was grappling with drug addiction. They also contended that similar actions by others typically did not result in federal charges and that Hunter Biden became a target for Republicans, who pressured the Justice Department into pursuing criminal actions.
Weiss maintained that his prosecutions were justified based on the legal framework and the facts at hand.
“I took into account his battles with addiction and his decision to submit false returns after achieving sobriety,” the special counsel explained. “And while Mr. Biden may have entered into a loan arrangement with a personal acquaintance who covered his tax obligations, there was no evidence demonstrating that Mr. Biden repaid any of those amounts.”
Weiss also indicted and secured a guilty plea from another individual, Alexander Smirnov, for providing false statements to the FBI during the election cycle of 2020 by falsely asserting knowledge of corrupt payments to the Biden family. Smirnov, an established FBI informant, had alleged that executives from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma had paid both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each circa 2015 — an allegation promoted by congressional Republicans.
