David Weiss to seek grand jury indictment of Hunter Biden by end of month
Ashley Oliver
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Special counsel David Weiss confirmed in a court filing on Wednesday that he plans to ask a grand jury to deliver an indictment against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden by the end of September.
Weiss, who was appointed special counsel in the investigation of the younger Biden last month, wrote that he plans to “obtain the return” of an indictment before Sept. 29 in line with the Speedy Trial Act.
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Weiss did not specify which charges he would bring against the president’s son but made references in the agreement to a felony gun charge and misdemeanor tax charges that had been a central part of a now-defunct plea deal between the parties.
The revelation of a forthcoming indictment comes after the plea deal had collapsed at a hearing in July. The deal had involved Hunter Biden pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and entering into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid the felony gun charge.
Weiss alleged in June that Hunter Biden had unlawfully purchased a gun while addicted to drugs.
The plea deal unraveled after U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika unexpectedly raised questions at the hearing about certain provisions of the deal, including whether they would preclude Hunter Biden from future charges for, for instance, violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Unable to address Noreika’s concerns fully, the younger Biden’s defense team and federal prosecutors hit an “impasse” over the agreement, according to a court filing.
Soon thereafter, Abbe Lowell, a longtime attorney who has represented high-profile Democrats, joined the case on behalf of the younger Biden, while outgoing attorney Chris Clark said he needed to step down in case he had to serve as a witness to the plea deal’s collapse.
Clark had accused Weiss of deciding “to renege” on their deal and argued that while the deal as a whole was no longer intact, the pretrial diversion agreement for the gun charge had been executed on the day of the plea hearing after it was signed by both parties, so the terms of it had actually gone into effect.
Prosecutors for Weiss took a stern turn and shot back in response that Clark’s claims were inaccurate.
They said that the plea deal for the misdemeanors failed not because prosecutors backed out but because Hunter Biden ended up pleading not guilty at the hearing. They also said the diversion agreement was not active because a probation officer declined to approve it.
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They said the younger Biden’s defense lawyers ran into “a problem entirely of their own making” during the plea hearing by cornering their client into having to plead not guilty to the misdemeanors.
They noted that Noreika pointed out during the hearing that if Hunter Biden pleaded guilty, she would not have been able to accept the plea because the younger Biden’s attorneys indicated to her that it was not a “knowing and voluntary” plea. She made this determination after Clark told her during the hearing that the plea would have been based on promises outside of the plea deal for the misdemeanors, such as promises featured in the pretrial diversion agreement.
In a response on Wednesday, Lowell doubled down on the diversion agreement having been “executed” and said Hunter Biden “will continue to follow the conditions of it.”