Hunter Biden cites Trump and Clarence Thomas to try and have his tax evasion charges dropped in California
Hunter Biden is desperately trying to throw out his gun charges and a separate tax evasion case by claiming the person prosecuting him was wrongfully appointed.
The younger Biden’s lawyers pointed to a federal judge’s decision Monday to dismiss charges against Donald Trump for illegally retaining classified documents after leaving office.
In that ruling, Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon found that the appointment of Jack Smith, the special counsel in the classified documents case, was unconstitutional because he was not authorized by Congress to hear the charges.
The legal maneuver follows the Supreme Court’s decision a few weeks ago to grant Trump presidential immunity in the documents case in which Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that Smith had been improperly appointed.
Smith’s office is appealing the ruling.
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive to hear the verdict in his federal gun trial at the federal district court in Wilmington
Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Jack Smith as special counsel, in an effort to shield his own office from prosecution of President Biden’s rival.
“The Attorney General invoked the exact same authority to appoint the special counsel in both the Trump and Biden cases, and both appointments are invalid for the same reason,” Biden said in a court document.
In June, another special prosecutor, David Weiss, secured the conviction of Hunter Biden on charges that he lied about his drug use when he bought a gun years ago, when his crack addiction was at its peak.
The same special prosecutor is leading a tax case against Hunter that is set to begin in September.
The president’s son has pleaded not guilty in this case.
The move by Biden and his legal team underscores the potential impact Cannon’s decision could have on limiting the attorney general’s ability to appoint special counsel in sensitive political investigations.
It also shows a shocking situation in which the president’s son abuses a ruling that is in Trump’s favor for his own benefit.
FBI agents seized boxes of classified materials from Trump’s Florida club
Judge Cannon made her ruling two days after Trump was shot and as the Republican convention is about to convene, weeks after Trump’s lawyers challenged the constitutionality of Jack Smith’s nomination
U.S. President Donald Trump applauds alongside Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was just sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on October 26, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on the west front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017
However, Hunter Biden and his team will likely have a hard time appealing the ruling, as Smith was not a U.S. government employee when he was nominated for the position — and he has not been confirmed by the Senate.
Weiss, on the other hand, was confirmed by the upper house to be Delaware’s chief prosecutor, meaning he at least has congressional approval to serve as a federal judge before being appointed as special counsel.
The president’s son has previously challenged Weiss’s appointment on other grounds, but that effort was rejected by federal judges in both his gun and tax cases.