The judge in Delaware has officially ended the case against Hunter Biden just two days after President Joe Biden gave his son a blanket pardon.
“In the absence of binding precedent” for a case that had yet to reach sentencing, “all proceedings in this case are hereby terminated,” U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika wrote in a brief docket entry Tuesday.
President Biden granted his son a “full and unconditional pardon” on Sunday evening after he and members of his administration claimed for months that he would not pardon his son’s convictions for federal gun and tax crimes.
In announcing the pardon, President Biden claimed that “raw politics … infected” his son’s case.
“There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case,” Weiss wrote in court filings.
“In a court filing Monday, prosecutors had urged Noreika to terminate the case instead of dismissing the indictment, in order to allow the record of the case to continue to exist. Prosecutors in special counsel David Weiss’ office, who brought both the gun case and separate tax-related charges against Hunter Biden, on Monday made a similar filing to the federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case in California,” ABC News reported.
Weiss’s comments follow Hunter Biden’s announcement of his pardon to a California federal court. The younger Biden is requesting the dismissal of his tax case there. Hunter Biden, convicted of federal firearms crimes during the summer, made a similar plea offer in Delaware.
In the filing, the special counsel said that instead of dropping the charges right away, the court should accept a pardon as the final decision, which would end all proceedings and end the case. The distinction seems to be mostly procedural.
Weiss argued, however, that the pardon does not clear Hunter Biden of his culpability or indicate any flaw in his indictment, supporting the government’s position. He further stated that the administration has not yet received the official pardon.
“If media reports are accurate, the Government does not challenge that the defendant has received an act of mercy. But that does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away as if it never occurred,” Weiss wrote.
He went on, “The defendant’s false allegation that the charges were motivated by an improper motive does not justify the dismissal of his charges.” “Neither the law nor the district’s practice support the defendant’s request to have the indictment dismissed, and no court has agreed with him on these irrational claims.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who is overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case in California, has not yet made the dismissal decision.
The federal judge in Delaware handling Hunter Biden’s gun case, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, stated that she plans to drop the case against him after the pardon is docketed, but she requested Weiss to let her know if his office also objects to dismissal in that case.
Shortly thereafter, Weiss filed an identical document in the Delaware case, arguing against the indictment’s dismissal.
Later this month, the two trials will sentence Hunter Biden.
Following President Biden’s pardon of his son, which both Biden and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre have repeatedly stated would not occur, KJP confronted the media for the first time on Monday.
A reporter asked Jeane-Pierre if the American people “could be seen as lies” by those earlier remarks that denied a pardon.
“You have said repeatedly, yourself, since the election, and the president has said for months, no pardon was coming. I just — you know, I wanted to ask you, could those statements not be seen as lies from the American people? Is there really a credibility issue you’re giving now this announcement?” a reporter asked.
“No, no. First of all, one of the things that the president always believes is to be truthful to the American people,” Jean-Pierre began, immediately getting defensive.
“That is something that he always truly believes. And if you see the end of his — I — I assume that you’ve read his statement and you look at the end of that statement, and he actually says that in the first line in the last paragraph, and — and respects the thinking and how the American people will actually see this and his decision-making, and I would encourage everyone to read it full, the president’s statement. I think he lays out his thought process,” Jean-Pierre added.
She continued, “He lays out how he came to this decision. He came to this decision this weekend. So let’s be very clear about that. He says it himself. It’s in his voice. He said he came to this decision this weekend. And he said he wrestled with this and — because he believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the war politics infected the process and led to a — a — a miscarriage of justice.”
