Hunter Biden asked judges on Thursday to dismiss his criminal charges, claiming the special counsel appointed to investigate him was illegally appointed and funded.
The requests come just days after a different federal judge found that Attorney General Merrick Garland illegally appointed special counsel Jack Smith to investigate former President Trump, dismissing charges against him in his confidential documents case.
The special counsel appointed to investigate Hunter Biden – President Biden’s son – is David Weiss, who is also the US attorney in Delaware.
“The Attorney General relied on exactly the same authority to appoint the Special Counsel in the matters of Trump and Biden, and both appointments are invalid for the same reason,” said Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.wrote in the movementinvolving his federal firearm conviction.
The motion asks to overturn a jury’s verdict last month that found Hunter Biden guilty of lying on a federal gun purchase form about his drug use and illegal possession of a firearm. It marked the first criminal conviction of the son of a sitting president.
Shortly before the trial, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected Hunter Biden’s challenge to his special counsel, allowing the case to move forward. Now facing possible prison time, Biden renewed his request citing the recent ruling in Trump’s case.
Hunter Biden on Thursdaypresented a similar motionto file his criminal charges in California, where he will stand trial this fall on charges of filing false tax returns and tax evasion.
Both motions cite U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s recent decision to dismiss Trump’s allegations over documents in Florida, ruling that his special counsel’s selection “effectively usurps” Congress’s constitutional role in the nomination process. Cannon called this a threat to the “structural freedom inherent in the separation of powers.” Smith appealed the decision.
But unlike Smith, who came from outside the Justice Department to investigate Trump, Weiss was confirmed by the Senate for his role as U.S. attorney in Delaware. Hunter Biden’s lawyers, however, said the confirmation does not allow the department to engage in a game of “bait and switch.”
“The President and the Senate may agree that a person should be nominated to a specific office, but that does not mean they would agree that the nominee should be confirmed to any office,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in his California case. Like Trump, Hunter Biden’s lawyers also argue that his special counsel’s funding was unconstitutional.
Special councils have been used by presidential administrations of both political parties. In addition to the special counsels assigned to investigate Trump and Hunter Biden, a special counsel was also recently appointed to investigate President Biden’s handling of classified documents.
“The Special Counsel will no doubt try to avoid the ramifications of recent judicial opinions by complaining that Mr. Biden should have filed this motion sooner. Given the evolution of separation of powers law on this very topic, this is not a fair criticism,” Lowell wrote in court documents. “In any event, this does not deprive Mr. Biden of the right to dismiss an unauthorized proceeding and does not prevent this court from correcting a miscarriage of justice.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
