Special Counsel David Weiss Responds To President Biden's Attacks on Hunter Biden Prosecution

"These baseless accusations have no merit and repeating them threatens the integrity of the justice system as a whole."

Jack Smith isn't the only game in town. Attorney General Garland also released a 278-page report from Special Counsel David Weiss concerning Hunter Biden. Because President Biden gave his son a full, complete, and preemptive pardon, Weiss did not discuss any other potential uncharged conduct. But Weiss spent several pages responding to President Biden's comments concerning the prosecution.

In making my decisions, I remained impervious to political influence at all times. However, Mr. Biden and his counsel have continuously accused me of vindictively and selectively prosecuting him. 137 And in the press release accompanying his son's pardon, President Biden echoed these claims, stating that he believed Mr. Biden was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."138 These baseless accusations have no merit and repeating them threatens the integrity of the justice system as a whole.

Weiss quotes from several judges who ruled against Hunter, and found no evidence of political bias.

Weiss notes that Biden's own spokesperson has stressed that this prosecution was independent, until Biden flipped the script:

Moreover, throughout this prosecution, President Biden and his spokesperson have repeatedly and emphatically asserted that the prosecution "has been done in an independent way by the Department of Justice," 146 that the President would "abide by the jury's decision," 147 and that he would not pardon his son. 148 These remarks stand in stark contrast to the President's recent assertion that the jury's verdict and Mr. Biden's admission of guilt amounted to a "miscarriage of justice."149 Only after Mr. Biden's guilt had been fully and fairly adjudicated did the President claim that this prosecution was the result of "raw politics" and that "[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son." 150

Weiss concludes:

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. 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.

I think Biden's pardon of his son, attack on the special counsel, and vetoing of the JUDGES Act will go a long way to defining how Biden will be remembered: not as uniting candidate who put his country before any party, but as just another self-serving politician who puts his own interest first when push comes to shove. There are plenty of those politicians in D.C., and Biden is no different.

Comments

[Cheshire]

A bunch of typos, Josh: Eiden instead of Biden in multiple places.

[Mr. Bumble]

Haste makes waste.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

"Eiden" was only in the quoted sections. I was insufficiently tempted to download the report and see what the original has. I'd think copy paste from a PDF should copy exactly, but them my mind wandered elsewhere.

Biden
Eiden
Eden
Even
Odd

Yes, it's very odd.

[Bob from Ohio]

"I'd think copy paste from a PDF should copy exactly"

Depends on the Adobe version you are using. Its text recognition is not always 100% accurate.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Some PDFs are pure text. I've seen PDFs with hex dumps and always assumed it was embedded fonts or pictures or password protection. If some actually do convert all text to pictures, that's pretty stupid.

[Noscitur a sociis]

This one, however, looks to be scanned from a printed copy, and “Eiden” seems like an obvious OCR error for “Biden”.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Thanks, hadn't considered that, in this modern digital paperless age.

[Ska]

Sounds like a text to PDF conversion issue, but yeah, pretty silly.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I clicked and the report spells "Biden" correctly and there is no bold.

[DavidOS]

I found the first quoted passage. Copying from the PDF and pasting it reproduces the Eiden typo, despite Biden being shown when viewing the document.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Your diligence is appreciated. Perhaps JB could have used a bit more to do avoid silly editing problems.

[Bob from Ohio]

Being from Delaware, Weiss should have known what a mean, vicious backbiting liar Ole Joe is.

Don't accept office from such a man, don't be the frog who lets the scorpion get on your back.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Don't accept office from such a man

He didn’t!

[Bob from Ohio]

Yes he did. He did not resign as USA for Delaware when Trump left and he further accepted the Special Counsel duties.

[Purple Martin]

"duties" ≠ "office"

[Bob from Ohio]

Picky, but if he isn't an "officer" are you saying Judge Cannon is right?

He still stayed on as USA.

[Noscitur a sociis]

No, if a special counsel isn’t an officer, then the appointment clause doesn’t apply and Cannon would be even more wrong.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Not choosing to resign an office when a new boss takes over doesn’t, in my ideolect, constitute accepting an office from that boss. And of course special counsels aren’t even notionally selected by the president. Not to mention that if everyone took your advice on that, Hunter couldn’t have been prosecuted at all!

[Bob from Ohio]

"aren’t even notionally selected by the president"

Depends, the one appointed to investigate the errant son certainly was, no matter who signed the paperwork.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Oh, I didn’t realize you were certain about it. Sorry!

[Sarcastr0]

Certainly!

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Not choosing to resign an office when a new boss takes over doesn’t, in my ideolect, constitute accepting an office from that boss."

Not sure what the point is here. If that boss is an asshole, you're still working for an asshole.

[myself]

not as uniting candidate who put his country before any party, but as just another self-serving politician who puts his own interest first when push comes to shove. There are plenty of those politicians in D.C., and Biden is no different.

Joe Biden will be remembered as a human being who wasn't willing to sacrifice his son to a GOP witchhunt.

If Hunter was a normal defendant it would have been a slap on the wrist... oh I forgot he shouldn't have even been prosecuted because the special council suddenly became unconstitutional (but only for very special defendants).

[Stupid Government Tricks]

If Hunter was a normal defendant who didn't ride his famous father's coattails and hide under his famous father's skirts, he wouldn't have had so many taxes to not pay and wouldn't have been offered such sweetheart deals. Live by the coattails, die by the coattails.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Joe Biden will be remembered" not all all.

Are Benjamin Harrison or Millard Fillmore remembered?

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Sure. You just reminded us.

[Frank Drackman]

I think Harrison was POTUS in the series “Wild Wild West” (the Robert Conrad TV version, not the Suck-a-Riffic Will Smith Movie)

Frank

[grb]

As always, Frank, it's difficult to determine when you're wrong by trolling vs wrong by imbecility. It's like picking-out two currents inside a single river. Yes, they're distinct - but just barely. And it's still one one big rolling flow of STUPID.

Grant, not Harrison.
Both in the TV series and gawdawful flick.

[Frank Drackman]

OK since I haven’t watched it since the 1970’s (KTLA, Los Angeles, Duh) I mixed up my forgettable 19th Century POTUS’s (In Georgia we’ve been trying to forget Grant since 1865) am I right that after each “Act” the cartoon for each episode would be changed?
Now “F-Troop” I’m the master!

Frank

[Krayt]

Of course it was a witch hunt. Just like innumerable initiatives to get Trump.

Neither would have happened sans an inappropriate and unconstitutional desire to turn the investigative power of the government against a political opponent.

"But...!" But I hear there's a mile high cliff at the grand canyon. Go test it, abuser of power for political purposes. Wheeeee!

A mile high. Go test. Wheeeeee!

Power mongers who facetiously abuse power, then stand there going "What? What?".

Wheeeeeeee!

[Noscitur a sociis]

Joe Biden will be remembered as a human being who wasn't willing to sacrifice his son to a GOP witchhunt.

Do you have any evidence whatsoever to point to that would suggest this prosecution was undertaken for anything resembling an unfair or inappropriate consideration?

If Hunter was a normal defendant it would have been a slap on the wrist

Hunter, despite being clearly factually guilty of multiple felonies, had the opportunity for a slap on the wrist, but rejected it because he didn’t think the scope of future immunity was expansive enough (a problem that is now solved).

We don’t, of course, have any idea what his sentence would have been after trial, so it seems a little premature to complain about.

... oh I forgot he shouldn't have even been prosecuted because the special council suddenly became unconstitutional (but only for very special defendants).

Weiss was the presidentially-appointed U.S. Attorney when he was made special counsel: even under the (incorrect) interpretation adopted by Judge Cannon, there’s no issue with his appointment.

[Joe_dallas]

Carrying the same high standard of willful ignorance with the same type denial as those claiming Joe Biden was not mentally impaired.

Sorry - too many other candidates for the same oscar nomination.

[myself]

Do you have any evidence whatsoever to point to that would suggest this prosecution was undertaken for anything resembling an unfair or inappropriate consideration?

Yes, the gun charge is a joke that would never have been brought for an ordinary defendant.

Hunter, despite being clearly factually guilty of multiple felonies, had the opportunity for a slap on the wrist, but rejected it because he didn’t think the scope of future immunity was expansive enough (a problem that is now solved).

So what would you do if there was a strong potential of an incoming President with little respect for norms who had spent the last few years targeting you? Are you really confident that that President wouldn't order his DOJ to go digging through your past to find additional conduct and throw the book at you?

Weiss was the presidentially-appointed U.S. Attorney when he was made special counsel: even under the (incorrect) interpretation adopted by Judge Cannon, there’s no issue with his appointment.

Of course not, but it's worth pointing out Blackman's terrible self-serving legal analysis.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Yes, the only reason Hunter was prosecuted on the gun charges was due to his family. The evidence clearly shows that virtually no one in his situation is ever charged.

The tax charges were much more likely to have been reasonable, and they could hardly have been ignored. I'm glad he was charged for those crimes.

[Swede425]

Leave that crackhead alone!

[M L]

Seems like it went more like this.

The DOJ ignored all the more serious crimes presented by the evidence on his laptop, allowed statutes of limitations to lapse . . . then, they brought of the few relatively minor charges to help make the whole thing look less like a complete banana republic sham. Then they tried plea deal so sweetheart a judge shot it down.

The opposite of a witch hunt- a cover up.

A cover up for the son of the President, specifically the senile empty suit establishment pick for President whose cognitive decline was also being covered up along with any other negative things.

[grb]

M L : "The DOJ ignored all the more serious crimes presented by the evidence on his laptop..."

1. What serious crimes?
2. What evidence?

Go ahead & take a shot, ML. You'll make a fool of yourself, but we're all used to that spectacle by now.

[David Nieporent]

The DOJ ignored all the more serious crimes presented by the evidence on his laptop

Are you another Child Porn Truther like our friend Voltage Guy?

[not guilty]

I haven't read the report, but this post reminds me of a Southern aphorism: the hit dog hollers!

[TwelveInchPianist]

Outside of the south this is called a Kafka trap.

[Noscitur a sociis]

This is just a nauseatingly folksy version of the tiresome “don’t get defensive” dodge, and likewise is the typical resort of those without anything of substance to add.

[John F. Carr]

The pardon will barely rate a mention in the Biden pages of an American History course. He did things that had consequences. And he let one garden variety criminal go free.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Biden pages"

More than one page? You are optimistic.

[John F. Carr]

His administration spent an unprecedented amount of money. Got involved in foreign shooting wars and domestic culture wars.

[Bob from Ohio]

"unprecedented " so far!

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Unless it's a Mobius strip, yes, there will be two pages.

[Joe_dallas]

Pages of biden american history course? Of Course not when you organizations such as Axios which their 2024 poll that rates Biden as the 14th best president, or Siena that ranks biden as the 19th best.

[Purple Martin]

A high actuarial likelihood of serving an effective two-term presidency being a necessary-but-not-sufficient checklist item for my presidential nominee under-consideration list, neither Joe Biden nor Bernie Sanders nor Donald Trump qualified in either 2020 or 2024 (I did vote Joe for president twice, not as the lesser of two evils, but the not evil of only two choices).

Biden's legacy is at least tarnished by the hubris that led him to run in 2024. But that differed little from the hubris, by nominating a man who would certainty turn 82 and likely 86 in office, of Democrats firmly setting their 2024 path in 2020.

Still, tarnished or not, it seems likely history will judge Biden in the top 1/3rd of presidents, and likely as the most consequential one-term President in American history. Consider the 46th president's record:

• Getting more votes than anyone else in American history, defeated the President and Commander in Chief most lacking in temperament, knowledge, judgement, and integrity that any of us have ever known.
• Fixed the vaccine rollout and got us to a post-pandemic COVID-aware normalcy.
• Is generally regarded has having handled geopolitical crises as well as any president in the modern era.
• Staved off a universally predicted recession and, keeping unemployment around 4% while increasing median household wealth by 37%, achieved a nearly-unprecedented economic soft landing.
• Passed the bipartisan American Rescue Plan and American Recovery Act, first steps of a nearly $3.5 trillion agenda addressing the pandemic and its economic fallout, highways, bridges, broadband, rail, manufacturing, science, prescription drug prices, health insurance, climate change, deficit reduction and tax equity.
• Passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• Passed the bipartisan CHIPS Act to boost domestic semiconductor production, which is important both for economics and national security.
• Passed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun reform legislation in decades.
• Appointed a superbly qualified, overwhelmingly popular, and historically important Supreme Court Justice.
• Passed the Respect for Marriage Act, federally codifying same-sex marriage to take it out of the hands of Clarence Thomas and various bad-faith states.

I think all that moves Biden's single term ahead of the underrated James K. Polk, a dark-horse compromise choice of a brokered Democratic convention, probably clinching with his pledge to serve only one term (which he kept).

(Condemn Polk’s pragmatic morality (there's plenty not to be proud of) but his was a remarkably successful presidency:

• Through tariff reduction and creation of an independent treasury, he enabled the late 1840's economic boom.
• By negotiation with England over the British Columbia/American Oregon Territories and successful war with Mexico (enabling annexation of Mexican territories and incorporation of the Republic of Texas), Polk pretty much personally established the western boundaries of today’s continental United States.)

It's important to remember that in times of difficulties less real than imagined, motivated reasoning and confirmation bias led a bare plurality of GOP voters to reject an experienced, knowledgeable woman of even temperament, good judgement...Black/Indian heritage; in favor of a would-be Caudillo doing his best to break American democracy. The GOP citizens of MAGAnistan have agency and it is they—not Joe Biden—who restored Donald Trump to the Presidency.

Assuming the Republic the founders gave us—a constitutional federated representative democracy—survives the Trump Interregnum, get back to me in 40 years on a Biden vs. Trump American legacy.

[Mr. Bumble]

Substitute Comment for television set:

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter.[3] We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.

[Purple Martin]

I like to show my work, a personal failing I've never observed you to be guilty of.

[Joe_dallas]

Yes you showed your work, yet much of your work is simply delusions.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Yet Joe_highschooler doesn't identify a single one.

Shocking!

[Joe_dallas]

Identifying the Delusions
• Appointed a superbly qualified, overwhelmingly popular, and historically important Supreme Court Justice.
• Fixed the vaccine rollout and got us to a post-pandemic COVID-aware normalcy.
• Is generally regarded has having handled geopolitical crises as well as any president in the modern era.
• Staved off a universally predicted recession and, keeping unemployment around 4%

identifying the grift and bad economic policy
left off the inflation reduction act

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Everything you wrote is a delusion.

Look like I've proven you wrong yet again!

[Joe_dallas]

You should share those drugs with others -

reality is for those that cant handle drugs

[Jason Cavanaugh]

I made exactly the same quality argument as you did, dipshit.

I’m not surprised that you were too ignorant to notice.

[Mr. Bumble]

...and the "transitory" inflation. Back up at last report.
Also see bankruptcies, store closings and layoffs (will take a little work since they are not widely reported).

[Bob from Ohio]

"most consequential one-term President in American history"

Its not nice to hoard all the good drugs.

[Purple Martin]

Who's your nomination? Why?

[David Nieporent]

Who's your nomination? Why?

Polk's an obvious choice; he greatly expanded the United States.

[Bob from Ohio]

Yes Polk, not only the best 1 term-er but a top 10 overall IMHO. Added the SW to the US and settled the Oregon boundary without war. Plus, actually kept promise to serve only one term.

Van Buren created the Democratic Party and hence the modern party system.

[Purple Martin]

Polk is a good choice.

Biden could have clinched if, sometime in his third year, he'd followed through on the most logical implications of his "bridge to the future" statements and announced he would not run for reelection. Though that never was a pledge like Polk's.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Biden was nominated in 2020 as a safe and reassuring choice given the high stakes of a second Trump administration especially in the age of COVID. He has a qualified v.p. It was an understandable move in context. Didn't have to run for re-election.

Your list of accomplishments, especially with a 50-50 Senate is appropriately respected.

[Bob from Ohio]

"He has a qualified v.p. "

Who? First I heard of this.

[Michael P]

Just like Joe Biden "would have beaten Trump – could have beaten Trump", so would his VP!

I think few of his followers realize, even now how many things were critical to the 2020 election. One of those was his ability to campaign mostly from his basement, while the media covered it up as justified by COVID, to hide his mental state then. He could not do that in 2024. Joe himself is beyond realizing those factors, sadly, but his followers still might.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Purple,

Well put. And of course no refutation, just childish insults.

[Kazinski]

Yet he has a negative 20 (dis)approval

56% disapproval - 36%approval.

Obviously some of that 36% are Biden cheerleaders here, but his appeal hs pretty selective.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I have trouble believing that even Purple Martin actually believes Biden was more consequential than, say, Polk or Adams. And really his list boils down to picking a Supreme Court justice who is u likely to have much influence, passing a symbolic bill supporting same sex marriage and a largely inconsequential gun bill, and a bunch of economic initiatives that (rightly or wrongly) were generally viewed as unproductive and cost his party the election. That’s not exactly a recipe for greatness, a great historical legacy.

[David Nieporent]

From a different perspective, James Buchanan was pretty consequential too.

[Drewski]

Indeed. And all this with a somewhat hostile Congress. I think the biggest blow to his legacy will be the secrecy over his mental state, although that's inextricably tied to his running for a second term.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Meh. The Safer Communities Act did almost nothing but pad Joe's resume. It may have technically been the "first major gun reform legislation in decades", but only because the baseline was zero.

[Lee Moore]

The integrity of the justice system is not threatened by what anybody says about it, least of all an old crank with dementia.

To the extent that it’s threatened it’s threatened by its own failings.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Hear hear! Any system which can take 15 years or an appeals court to decide the trial can proceed to the next step, is plain broken.

Any system which pretends Rule of Law is personified by appeals courts deciding 2-1 then 7-8, then the Supremes deciding 5-4, all with the best law libraries, the brightest law clerks, and all the time in the world to discuss and debate the finer points, is plain broken.

[tylertusta]

Do those failings of the justice system include oversensitive judges who use the statements from cranks as a justification to soap box their own political preferences?

[Dan Schiavetta]

The report sounds like it's all political accusations and sniping, no findings of facts.

[Commenter_XY]

Sounds a lot like the special counsel report on Pres Trump, huh. 😉

[Jason Cavanaugh]

We all know you won't read it, lest you find out that you're wrong.

[tylertusta]

You're never going to get findings of facts in a Special Counsel's report because it's the job of the prosecutor to accuse. It's the jury's job to find facts.

I for one loathe speaking indictments and special counsel reports for precisely the same reason you don't like Weiss's: it's accusations and sniping. I especially loathe indictments that wander away from the substance of the charges, some of which is borders on preventing the accused from getting a fair trial.

[not guilty]

I think that federal indictments became more verbose in the wake of Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 243 n.6 (1999), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490 (2000), lest a defendant claim that he had been convicted based upon facts that had not been submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

While Jones and Appprendi dealt directly only with any fact (other than prior conviction) that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be submitted to a jury, charging additional facts in an indictment can be a prophylactic measure to foreclose a federal court's regarding facts pleaded in an indictment that once were regarded as surplusage or prolix being deemed to be essential elements of a statutory offense. IOW, a hedge against future expansion of Jones and Appprendi beyond their factual settings.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I don’t think that’s really right. Juries are never instructed on the speaking part of speaking indictments, and the vast majority of federal charges are still just a bare recital of the elements of the crime.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Did you try reading it

[TwelveInchPianist]

The jury already found the facts. Huter was guilty.

President Biden pardoned his son based on political accusations and sniping, remember? After lying and saying he wouldn't.

[Commenter_XY]

POTUS Biden pardoned his son because it became clear that he himself (and Jim, his brother) would be implicated in other crimes arising from the laptop from hell. Not that the developing cauliflower could ever be put on trial...

[Noscitur a sociis]

In what we could this pardon have in any way helped to insulate Biden or his brother from those putative crimes?

[Roger S]

The more serious crime was Hunter Biden was, allegedly, accepting bribes on behalf of his father. There was plenty of evidence that Hunter took money in excess of his competence, and he used his father's name to get that money.

[David Nieporent]

There wasn't, but even if there was, that does not constitute "accepting bribes on behalf of" his father.

[Noscitur a sociis]

That is not, to put it mildly, responsive to my question.

[grb]

Roger S : "There was plenty of evidence that Hunter took money in excess of his competence, and he used his father's name to get that money"

So that's a crime, huh? Well, I guess it's to be expected. After all, you (with Trump, Giuliani, Fruman, Parnas, Comer etc) spent 6-7 years trying to find any conceivable evidence of any possible crime to smear Joe Biden. And you (with Trump, Giuliani, Fruman, Parnas, Comer etc) failed every single time, every single way.

So I guess the next resort is inventing fantasy crimes eligible for fantasy charges.

[Roger S]

I do not think that a President or VP son should be doing what Hunter Biden was doing, and I do not think it is good for the USA for foreign officials to think that we do business that way.

As for smearing Joe Biden, he is a pathetic old man who turned out to be a terrible President. I am just glad we only need to put up with him for 6 more days.

[grb]

Commenter_XY : " .... it became clear that he himself (and Jim, his brother) would be implicated in other crimes arising from the laptop from hell."

1. Biden pardoning Hunter wouldn't prevent him from being implicated in your fantasy crimes.

2. But there were never any crimes found on the laptop. It's emergence as an engineered October Surprise was a comical nonevent. It went off like a squib soaked in a bucket of water overnight. Now you love to talk, XY, even with nothing substantive to say. But for all your skill in droning irrelevance, you can't produce any crime off the laptop. Risqué pics of Hunter aside, there was barely a thimbleful of tepid scandlette in the entire damn thing.

That's why the laptop's promoters segued to promising Exciting! New! Developments! that never occurred. Rudy started claiming there was child porn, but he's just a clumsy stupid broken-down liar. Tucker had a series of shows claiming a real scandal was about to emerge, but kept postponing the reveal.

In the end? Your jokey laptop (and associated reporting) produced these next-to-nothing stories : (1) Hunter may have gotten a biz associate a handshake with daddy. (2) Hunter may have talked about cutting pops in on a deal after Joe had left government service. The deal went nowhere anyway. (3) Joe probably wasn't 100% ignorant about Hunter's business dealings.

And that's it. Doesn't look much like your masturbatory fantasies above, does it CYA?

[Commenter_XY]

Yeah, all made up.
https://bidenreport.com/#p=1

[Noscitur a sociis]

Do you have an answer to my question above?

[grb]

Seems not. He just has the most comically ludicrous website any gullible dupe ever fell for.

[Bob from Ohio]

President Biden pardoned his son because he is his son.

Only a Democrat believed the denials for a millisecond.

[Sarcastr0]

Read this thread? It’s not the Dems weaving elaborate alternate theories.

[Bob from Ohio]

Theories on motive are not the same as believing his lying.

[Sarcastr0]

It's all about motive.

"POTUS Biden pardoned his son because it became clear that he himself (and Jim, his brother) would be implicated in other crimes arising from the laptop from hell" is nutballs, eh?

[Commenter_XY]

You are correct; POTUS Biden's motive, that is. 😉

[Sarcastr0]

Per Bob, you're a Democrat.

[windycityattorney]

"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."

Hhahaahahahahha. Is this 'deranged psychopath' 'thug' serious? Oh wait...wrong special counsel. Carry on.

MAGA

[grb]

Blackman : "I think Biden's pardon of his son, attack on the special counsel, and vetoing of the JUDGES Act will go a long way to defining how Biden will be remembered: not as uniting candidate who put his country before any party, but as just another self-serving politician who puts his own interest first when push comes to shove."

This is said by one of Trump's most slavish abject bootlickers. Isn't that hilarious?

[Frank Drackman]

Who dies first? Parkinsonian Joe or Whoring Hunter?
My moneys on Hunter, he’s about as Sober as Ted Kennedy(who….) in his Whoring prime, not that Hunters any worse (he’s been yet to leave a ….)
Just that Vodka, Cocaine and Fent-a-Nol kill you faster than Bourbon

Frank

[Voize of Reazon]

Blackman's complaint is that Joe Biden kept his opinion to himself and his thumb off the scales, and only let out his Weiss whines when it was too late to affect the case. How much better it would have been had he openly directed the DoJ to help his cohort and punish his enemies like Trump has promised.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I mean, if the president knows that one of his subordinates is treating a citizen unfairly, it seems appropriate to step in and fix it. The problem is that Biden knew that Hunter wasn’t being treated unfairly, and that it would be politically disastrous to use his power to prevent him from being held accountable for his crimes, so instead he lied and said that he would trust the Justice Department, and only used his influence after it was too late for there to be any repercussions.

[Dan Schiavetta]

How often does someone get prosecuted for tax evasion after he's paid up all he owes?

[grb]

Damn good question. I bet the answer is next to none. Of course the Trumpian lickspittles here will note Hunter broke the law, even if treated more harshly than normal.

Of course the same is true of their orange-tinted god (in the few instances where their childlike whining about "lawfare" has any validity at all)

[Roger S]

Pres. Biden could have ordered Garland not to do that.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

And yet did not...

[Noscitur a sociis]

Repaying (some of) your the taxes you cheated the government out of after they tell you they caught you is not generally a legal defense or a significantly mitigating factor, especially if you use someone else’s money to do it, for reasons that I would like to assume are obvious.

Other than that, great point!

[Voize of Reazon]

I don't defend the pardon after the promise. I don't even defend it without the promise, Presidents should not pardon anyone they have an interest in.
But your judgement is too harsh. I think Biden is basically honest and ethical, and when he made that promise he intended to keep it, because he really believes a President shouldn't use his power for personal benefit. In the end though the temptation was too much.

[Kazinski]

Well I agree the gun charge is politically motivated, there really is no rationale for charging users of intoxicants for merely owning or possessing firearms.

But the Biden Administration's political bias against gun owners and practice of charging gun owners for any and every possible charge made it inevitable that Hunter be charged by Weiss.

It should have been administration policy from the beginning not to charge that crime years, or at least after Bruen, and Hunter was one of the administrations anti-gun victims.

[Sarcastr0]

the Biden Administration's political bias against gun owners and practice of charging gun owners for any and every possible charge made it inevitable that Hunter be charged by Weiss

Is this something you have evidence happened at the federal level?

[Michael P]

I thought the serious part of the charge was not the possession of a firearm while being a user of a controlled substance, but lying to the federal government on the form. That seems to be the major complaint that a lot of people have about conservatives.

[Drewski]

Oh, yeah, all anybody talks about at the office is Biden vetoing the JUDGES Act. Well, they would if they'd ever heard about it, and also cared deeply about federal court staffing levels. And if the playoffs weren't on.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I’m not sure that “the American people are too dumb to understand how badly Biden screwed them” is the rousing defense you seem to think it is.

[Drewski]

I'm not sure what you think I'm defending. No, I don't think Biden will be best-remembered for something nobody noticed that didn't change the status quo. If you, like Blackman, want to push that veto as the center of Biden's presidential legacy, by all means go ahead! I absolutely support frothing yourself into a lather and ranting about Biden's veto of the JUDGES Act at length to anyone around you.

[Ken Arromdee]

Whether a prosecution is politically motivated is a fact-specific thing that can be either true or false, or true to some degree, depending on the details of the case. There's no blanket principle "you shouldn't call any prosecution politically motivated"; facts on the ground are important.