Special Counsel’s Report on Hunter Biden Criticizes President’s Criticism of Impeachment

David C. Weiss, the special counsel who spent years investigating Hunter Biden, criticized President Biden for making “baseless allegations” about his investigation that threaten “the integrity of the justice system as a whole” in a final report made public Monday.

“The president’s characterizations are wrong based on the facts in this case, and to a very important degree, they are wrong,” Mr. Weiss.

His investigation was the subject of heated debate until the president issued a pardon that ended the charges against his son, saying the prosecution was the result of “dirty politics.”

A jury in Wilmington, Del., found Hunter Biden guilty of three felony counts last June of lying on a federal gun application. He also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles in September for falsifying records and failing to file returns. The period of his tax crimes included both the time when he was addicted to crack cocaine and after he was sober.

In his report, Mr. Weiss dismissed criticism, especially from Democrats, that the case against Mr.

This report served as a direct response to the president. Mr. Weiss, citing judicial decisions that found the case was properly prosecuted, used his final words in the long-running investigation to defend his job and criticize the president’s conduct.

“Politicians who attack prosecutors’ decisions about their jobs as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of the case are undermining public confidence in our criminal justice system,” said Mr. Weiss. “The president’s statements unfairly cast aspersions on the integrity not only of the employees of the Department of Justice, but of all public servants who make these difficult decisions with integrity.”

Previous special counsels have issued thick reports of hundreds of pages. Technically, the last volume of Mr. Weiss has more than 200 pages, but most of them are appendices containing earlier civil court documents. The actual findings of Mr. Weiss’s report are contained in a 27-page summary.

The White House and representatives for Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

The release comes amid an 11th-hour legal battle over the publication of a report by Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed two impeachment charges against Donald J. Trump, because both collapsed in part because of Mr. Trump’s election. Trump in 2024. victory.

The time of Mr. Weiss as special counsel began after he had already investigated Hunter Biden for several years on tax, financial and foreign lobbying issues. The two sides made a settlement agreement, but the unusual nature of the agreement – in addition to the government’s unwillingness to promise that the investigation would end with the agreement – caused its collapse in July 2023.

The failed request led Mr. Weiss sought and received an appointment as special counsel, which allowed him to prosecute the president’s son in two areas – related to lying on a gun purchase form in Delaware, and tax charges in Los Angeles.

Mr. Biden pardoned his son in December while awaiting sentencing on both counts. The president not only released him from his conviction, but also granted him a large amnesty for all possible crimes covering a period of more than 10 years.

By doing this, the president said his son’s case was politicized, a claim that angered Mr. Weiss and the Department of Justice, especially because the president had been saying for years that the case should be handled independently.

Because the president’s pardon excluded any such analysis, the report said, Mr. Weiss did not draw conclusions about whether Hunter Biden may have committed other crimes.

The legal team of Mr. Biden has long argued that the criminal charges were unfounded, in part because at the time in question, he was in the throes of drug addiction. They also said that similar behavior by other people did not lead to federal charges, and that Hunter Biden was the victim of an opportunity for Republicans to empower the Justice Department to pursue criminal cases.

Mr. Weiss said his prosecution was warranted based on the facts and the law.

The special counsel wrote: “I considered his struggle with addiction and his choice to file false claims after he was sober. “And while it is possible that Mr. Biden made a loan agreement with his friend who paid his taxes, there is no evidence that Mr. Biden repaid any of that money.”

Mr. Weiss also indicted and won the indictment of another man, Alexander Smirnov, for lying to the FBI during the 2020 election by falsely claiming to have knowledge of corrupt father-son payments. Mr. Smirnov, an FBI veteran, alleged that executives of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015 – allegations made by congressional Republicans.