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President Joe Biden’s son Hunter asked a federal court on Wednesday to subpoena documents from former President Donald Trump and senior Justice Department officials as part of his defense against gun charges. Biden, 53, pleaded not guilty last month to violating the law against drug users who own guns when he bought a revolver in 2018.
He has acknowledged that he was struggling with addiction at the time. On Wednesday, his legal team filed papers in Delaware federal court requesting subpoenas for Trump, his attorney general Bill Barr and two other former senior Justice Department figures, Richard Donoghue and Jeffrey Rosen.
They want documents, including journal entries, discussing Hunter Biden. His lawyers cited public reporting alleging that Trump had exerted “relentless, inappropriate and partisan pressure” on his three officials. The subpoena to Trump includes a demand for: “All personal documents (including diaries, diaries, memoirs, memoranda or notes) from the relevant period discussing or concerning Hunter Biden, including, but not limited to, references to formal or informal decision , discussion or request to investigate or prosecute Hunter Biden.”
This move is another blockbuster in a case that has already generated a lot of attention. It is the first-ever criminal prosecution against the child of a sitting US president. But the documents filed Wednesday show how his defense is starting to take shape.
‘Mr. Biden is seeking specific information from three former DOJ officials and the former president that goes to the heart of his defense that this may be a vindictive or selective prosecution stemming from a relentless pressure campaign that began during the last administration in violation of the demands from Mr Biden. Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,” his lawyers wrote to the judge. Barr revealed in his memoir how he became irritated with Trump for pushing him over the status of the investigation into Hunter Biden.
And in 2020, after Trump lost the election to Hunter’s father, then-President berated Barr for not disclosing the existence of the investigation before Election Day. He said Barr was a “major disappointment” in a series of tweets in which he said the revelation would have given Republicans a boost in the election.
The president’s troubled son has long been the target of attacks from Trump and his allies in Congress. They accuse him of corrupt business practices and have tried to link his father to his activities. The allegations are at the heart of an impeachment inquiry led by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The White House dismisses the investigation as politically motivated.
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