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‘Not partisan politics’: Special counsel’s report on Hunter Biden released

Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden report FILE PHOTO: Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen, leave court after his guilty plea in his trial on tax evasion in Los Angeles, California, on September 5, 2024. Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to all nine tax charges he faced, without reaching a deal with prosecutors. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images) (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

The special counsel’s report into the investigation of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter said that the charges brought against the younger Biden “were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigators, not partisan politics.”

Hunter Biden was convicted on gun and tax charges but the president pardoned his son on Jan. 1, The Associated Press reported.

Joe Biden wrote in the announcement of his son’s pardon, “I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”

He also wrote, “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”

Hunter Biden was planning to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges but there was a last-minute disagreement between the defense and prosecution that caused the deal to fall apart. He eventually entered a guilty plea to the tax charges to avoid a trial and a repeat of what the AP called “potentially lurid evidence” that would have been in addition to the personal details brought out during a separate trial. He was also charged with three federal felonies for lying on a gun-purchase form claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. He was found guilty of the gun charges.

Hunter Biden was not sentenced in either case because of the pardon his father issued, CNN reported.

But the prosecutor fired back in the report released on Monday against Biden’s statements.

“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,” David Weiss said, according to the AP.

“The president’s characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and, on a more fundamental level, they are wrong,” Weiss also wrote noting that the elder Biden’s comments undermined the public’s confidence in the justice system.

Hunter Biden’s attorney said the report did not explain why Weiss’ team “pursued wild — and debunked — conspiracies” that made the investigation go on longer than it should have.

Reports such as the one generated by Weiss are normal as a summary of a Department of Justice special counsel’s investigations.

The investigation into Hunter Biden started in 2018 and lasted six years, CNN reported.

In addition to the charges that the president’s son faced, another man, Alexander Smirnov, was also charged. Smirnov was an FBI informant who falsely accused the father and son of taking $10 million in bribes from Ukraine. Smirnov was sentenced to six weeks in prison last week, CNN reported.

Read the complete special counsel’s report from NBC News:


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