Despite Joe Biden issuing a complete pardon for the crimes committed by his son Hunter, the special counsel assigned to the case by Biden’s own Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the indictment should not be dismissed.
As reported by Fox News, Hunter’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case completely, following the presidential pardon that was announced on Sunday. The pardon would see Hunter avoid any sentence for the firearms charges for which he was convicted earlier this year, as well as the impending tax charges he was going to face trial for imminently.
The motion was filed to Judge Maryellen Noreika, while Special Counsel David Weiss filed his own response arguing that the indictment should not be erased completely, not even as the result of a presidential pardon.
“The Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy,” said Weiss in the filing. “That does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive or selective prosecution.
In response, Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell, of the Washington D.C.-based firm Winston & Strawn LLP, argued that the case should be dismissed anyway.
“The Special Counsel paradoxically claims that Mr. Biden’s notice is ‘without any legal support’ in suggesting that his pardon means that the Court should dismiss the indictment, at the same time, the Special Counsel acknowledges that ‘the majority of courts, when faced with such a decision, have chosen to dismiss an indictment,’” the defense team wrote in their filing. “The Special Counsel’s admission that this is the practice of the ‘majority of courts’ certainly provides legal support to Mr. Biden’s claim that dismissal is warranted.”
Hunter was convicted in June on the gun charges, which included making a false statement during the purchase of a gun, making a false statement in the information that was required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and illegal possession of a firearm by someone who is addicted to a controlled substance.
The tax charges saw Hunter face three additional felony charges and six misdemeanor charges following his failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Following his June conviction, Hunter shockingly changed his plea to guilty just before jury selection was set to begin in September.
Joe Biden had previously vowed that he would not pardon his son, thus leading to widespread condemnation from even members of his own party after his sudden reversal on Sunday night. Biden’s term in office will end on January 20th, when President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance are sworn in.