Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss has been named special counsel investigating criminal charges against President Biden’s surviving son, Hunter Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday. Weiss requested to be special counsel to Garland on Tuesday this week.
Weiss, who was appointed by Trump as the retained US attorney during the Biden administration, has been investigating Hunter Biden since 2019. He reached a tentative plea deal with Hunter Biden, but it collapsed amid scrutiny by a Delaware federal judge.
The appointment order to serve as special counsel authorizes Weiss to “conduct the ongoing investigation described above and any matters that have arisen or may arise from that investigation.”
The order gives Weiss the authority to “prosecute federal crimes in any federal judicial district arising from the investigation of these matters.”
Attorney General Garland said Weiss requested special counsel status earlier this week, saying, “In his judgment, his investigation has reached a point at which he should continue as special counsel and that he be appointed as such.”
Weiss will prepare a report with special counsel terms at the end of his investigation. Garland said he would release the report as consistent with law and judicial policy.
Weeks after the judge in the Hunter Biden case said he was not ready to entertain a plea deal between the president’s son and the Justice Department, he asked both sides to return to court to submit additional briefs and discuss the future. Date.
He demanded that the deal make clear that lawyers from both sides did not give Biden broad immunity from prosecution over his business dealings. As a result, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts related to filing federal income taxes. If a new plea deal is approved by Noriega, he will change the plea.
Earlier this year, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts related to filing his federal income taxes. Federal authorities charged him with a felony firearms offense for which he agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement that would allow him to avoid prosecution.
According to David Weiss, a Delaware U.S. attorney appointed by Trump, Biden did not pay federal income taxes for 2017 or 2018, although he owed $100,000 in taxes each year. In addition, Biden possessed a firearm in October 2018, knowing he was an illegal user and a controlled substance addict, Weiss’ office said.
Biden faced a maximum of 12 months in prison on each tax charge and a maximum of 10 years on the gun charge, but Weiss’ office noted that the actual sentences set by judges are typically less than the maximum. A source familiar with the deal said the Justice Department agreed to recommend a probe into the tax charges, but a judge would make the final decision.
Republicans have said the plea deal is an example of how Biden was treated unfairly after former President Donald Trump was indicted on separate and unrelated federal charges related to his handling of classified documents. Trump was charged separately for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots
