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Hunter Biden (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky), the 77th and 85th U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and then-President Donald Trump pictured together in 2020 (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Criminal defendant Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, filed a motion Wednesday seeking the issuance of subpoenas for former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and former President Donald Trump, citing an excerpt from Barr’s book in support of the argument there was “more than a mere appearance” that Trump “improperly and unrelentingly pressured DOJ to pursue an investigation and prosecution […] to advance […] partisan ambitions.”
Hunter Biden unveiled an aggressive criminal defense strategy as he fights special counsel David Weiss’ gun prosecution in Delaware federal court, where Biden was indicted in September after an agreement plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes fell apart.
The first count of the indictment alleged that Hunter Biden “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive” a gun company to obtain a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver that he “was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false an fictitious.” The second count alleged that Biden falsely “certified” to the ATF on “Form 4473” that he was not an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs. The third and final count charged that Biden illegally possessed the Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver from Oct. 12, 2018 to Oct. 23, 2018 — for 11 days — while “knowing” that he was an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs.
On Wednesday, Hunter Biden asked U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika to sign off on subpoenas of Trump, Barr, former acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, seeking “[a]ll documents and records,” whether personal or official, and “[a]ll personal records (including diaries, journals, memoirs, memoranda, or notes)” from Jan. 20, 2017 — Trump’s inauguration — until the present day containing communications on “any formal or informal decision, discussion, or request to investigate or prosecute Hunter Biden.” Those documents, Biden argued, may support his defense theory that he is being vindictively or selectively prosecuted for political reasons and in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.
What Biden seeks, from the filing:
1. All documents and records (personal or official platforms) reflecting communications from the Relevant Time Period to, from, between, or among the Subpoena Recipient relating to or discussing any formal or informal investigation or prosecution of Hunter Biden, including, but not limited to, any decision, referral, or request to investigate or not investigate or charge or not charge Hunter Biden.
2. All documents and records (personal or official platforms) reflecting communications from the Relevant Time Period to, from, between, or among the Subpoena Recipient and any Executive Branch official, political appointee, Department of Justice official, government agency, government official or staff person, cabinet member, or attorney for President Trump (personal or other) discussing or concerning Hunter Biden.
3. All personal records (including diaries, journals, memoirs, memoranda, or notes) from the Relevant Time Period discussing or concerning Hunter Biden, including, but not limited to, reference to any formal or informal decision, discussion, or request to investigate or prosecute Hunter Biden.
The defendant said that he needs the documents by Dec. 1 so he has enough time to “review the material in advance of any necessary pre-trial motion, evidentiary hearing, and/or trial.”
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To aid his request, Hunter Biden referred to “public reporting” of “certain instances that appear to suggest incessant, improper, and partisan pressure” by then-President Trump on Rosen, Donoghue, and Barr to launch an investigation of Joe Biden’s son, more than a month before and after Trump lost the 2020 election. Hunter Biden cited a line from Barr’s book “One Damn Thing After Another,” in which Barr recalled Trump asking about a Biden probe and Barr yelling back, “Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden. Period!”:
In addition, public reporting reveals certain instances that appear to suggest incessant, improper, and partisan pressure applied by then President Trump to Messrs. Rosen, Donoghue, and Barr in relation to an investigation of Mr. Biden. For example, on December 27, 2020, then Deputy Attorney General Donoghue took handwritten notes of a call with President Trump and Acting Attorney General Rosen, showing that Mr. Trump instructed Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue to “figure out what to do with H[unter] Biden” and indicating Mr. Trump insisted that “people will criticize the DOJ if he’s not investigated for real.” (These notes were released by the House Oversight Committee as part of the January 6 investigation.) Additionally, former Attorney General Barr’s latest book recalls an instance in mid-October 2020 in which President Trump called Mr. Barr and inquired about the investigation of Mr. Biden, which Mr. Barr says ended with Mr. Barr yelling at Mr. Trump, “Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden. Period!” These confirmations of communications give more than a mere appearance that President Trump improperly and unrelentingly pressured DOJ to pursue an investigation and prosecution of Mr. Biden to advance President Trump’s partisan ambitions.
Trump’s own social media posts, whether on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, or on Truth Social are long-standing public evidence that Trump has demanded “law enforcement, the media, and the public to go after” Hunter Biden, the motion said.
Relatedly, Biden continued, Trump’s Republican allies, for instance House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), have carried on an “almost-nonstop public pressure campaign” to “criticize DOJ’s handling” of the initial tax and gun case, particularly after the since-failed plea deal came to light.
“From that point forward, Republicans pushed for more severe charges against Mr. Biden from the now Special Counsel in an effort to make Mr. Biden’s prosecution an election issue,” the filing said.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell, who represented Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, wrote in the motion there seems to be “no measure of charges against Mr. Biden will ever be enough to appease Chairmen Comer and Smith and their MAGA allies.”
Anticipating that the DOJ would dub the subpoena requests as a “fishing expedition,” the Biden motion said the defense seeks “specific information from three former DOJ officials and the former President that goes to the heart of his defense that this is, possibly, a vindictive or selective prosecution arising from an unrelenting pressure campaign beginning in the last administration, in violation of Mr. Biden’s Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.”
“Moreover, each of the former DOJ officials had known contacts with then President Trump concerning Mr. Biden, and according to recently released IRS investigative case files, each had a hand in one way or another in the still ongoing investigation of Mr. Biden, either in Delaware or elsewhere,” the motion continued. “Lastly, as reflected by both the handwritten notes taken contemporaneously by Mr. Donoghue (involving Mr. Rosen and Mr. Trump) and Mr. Barr’s vignette in his recent book, these individuals are in fact likely to have relevant materials in their possession that are responsive to Mr. Biden’s document requests.”
Read the motion here.
