Special prosecutor David Weiss criticizes Hunter Biden pardon, opposes dismissal of charges

Special prosecutor David Weiss rejected President Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter Biden and asked the judges handling the tax fraud and gun cases not to dismiss the charges against the president's son.

On Sunday, contradicting his own word, President Biden gave his son a historic, sweeping presidential pardon on the grounds that the cases against him were politically motivated.

"There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case," Weiss wrote in a filing for a Los Angeles federal court.

The prosecutor referred to the allegations against him as "baseless."

In particular, Biden granted his son a "full and unconditional" pardon for any crimes Hunter Biden may have committed between January 2014 and December 2024, including potential crimes for which no charges have been filed. According to experts, this is one of the broadest pardons in history, compared in recent decades only to the pardon granted by President Gerald Ford to former President Richard Nixon in 1974.

In his presentation, prosecutor Weiss asserted that the courts should not dismiss the charges against Hunter Biden, but rather rule that the end of the cases was due to a merciful pardon.

Specifically, Weiss said Hunter Biden lost the cases in just law and used in his court filings the same argument his father chose to grant the pardon, but judges repeatedly rejected the arguments of the president's son's legal team.

"If media reports are accurate, the Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of 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.

"It also does not mean that his charges should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive,” he continued. “No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law or the practice of this district."

Weiss also sent a similar filing to U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who oversees the Hunter Biden gun case in Delaware.

However, despite rejecting the pardon, Weiss' request could only have an impact at the procedural level. As a practical matter, whatever the judges decide, the only possible outcome is that Hunter Biden will not go to prison on the gun and tax fraud charges for which he was found guilty.

Joe Biden's pardon comes just as Hunter Biden was to be sentenced in the two cases later this month.