WASHINGTON — The Justice Department released a final report Monday from the special counsel who charged Hunter Biden with gun and tax crimes before his father, President Joe Biden, pardoned him.
Special counsel David Weiss said in the report that the president could not “rewrite history,” suggesting that Biden’s criticism of the case against his last surviving son when he announced his pardon decision had maligned “the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.”
Biden described the prosecution of his son as a “miscarriage of justice” in the official White House statement announcing the pardon, which prosecutors working for Weiss disputed in a later court filing.
“Politicians who attack the decisions of career prosecutors as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of a case undermine the public’s confidence in our criminal justice system,” Weiss wrote. “The President’s statements unfairly impugn the integrity not only of Department of Justice personnel, but all of the public servants making these difficult decisions in good faith.”
Biden pardoned his son early last month, not long before Hunter Biden was expected to be sentenced in connection with his conviction for violating a statute rarely used by federal prosecutors, which makes it unlawful for drug users to possess weapons. Biden had repeatedly said during the 2024 campaign, including after he dropped out of the race over the summer, that he would not pardon his son.
In a statement provided to NBC News, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said that Weiss’ report “conveniently omits his proposal to resolve this investigation in 2023 with a pair of misdemeanors and a diverted gun charge recommended by career prosecutors.”
Lowell also said Weiss had not explained why prosecutors “pursued wild — and debunked — conspiracies” that extended the investigation.
“What is clear from this report is that the investigation into Hunter Biden is a cautionary tale of the abuse of prosecutorial power,” Lowell added.
Weiss, who had bipartisan support when he was named U.S. attorney in Delaware during President Donald Trump’s first term, stayed on at the Justice Department at the beginning of the Biden administration. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him as a special counsel in 2023.
The Justice Department is also expected to issue a report on Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation into Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Zoë Richards contributed.
