(CNN) — The Justice Department special counsel whose six-year case into Hunter Biden was short-circuited last month by the unconditional pardon President Joe Biden granted to his son, criticized the outgoing president in his final report Monday night.
Special counsel David Weiss chastised President Biden for making “gratuitous and wrong” accusations that his long-running investigation into Hunter Biden was unfair and tainted by politics.
When the president pardoned his son last month, he said Hunter Biden was the victim of a “selective” prosecution that was “unfair” and a “miscarriage of justice.”
Weiss said in his report that “other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.”
Weiss added, “I prosecuted the two cases against Mr. Biden because he broke the law.”
“Far from selective, these prosecutions were the embodiment of the equal application of justice – no matter who you are, or what your last name is, you are subject to the same laws as everyone else in the United States,” Weiss wrote.
“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 report states. “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.”
Weiss investigated Hunter Biden since 2018, when he was the Donald Trump-appointed US attorney for Delaware. After Joe Biden became president, he kept Weiss to finish his work, even while replacing almost all other US attorneys, as is common.
Attorney General Merrick Garland elevated Weiss to “special counsel” in 2023, after a proposed Hunter Biden plea deal imploded in court.
Weiss charged two people during the course of his investigation: Hunter Biden and Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who falsely accused Hunter and his father of taking $10 million in bribes from Ukraine. House Republicans used those claims to bolster their failed impeachment push.
Smirnov was sentenced last week to six years in prison.
During Weiss’ investigation, he made history by becoming the first prosecutor in American history to file criminal charges against the son of a sitting president. Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury on three counts related to his unlawful purchase and possession of a gun while abusing illicit drugs.
Weiss also brought a nine-count federal tax indictment against Biden, who pleaded guilty on what was supposed to be the first day of his trial in September. He admitted to tax evasion, filing false tax returns, and failing to file and pay his taxes on time.
Hunter Biden was never sentenced for those crimes, because he was pardoned by his father after the November election, short-circuiting the court process.
The Weiss special counsel investigation has been fraught with allegations of politicization from both sides of the aisle. He has previously denied that his work was hampered by any political interference.
The Biden family and some Democrats have accused Weiss of unfairly targeting Hunter and doing Trump’s bidding, caving to his demands to indict Hunter Biden. But many Republicans argued that Weiss went soft on Hunter and offered him a “sweetheart deal” that would’ve swept his crimes under the rug, if it hadn’t fallen apart.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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