Judge letting Hunter Biden’s lawyers explain why he shouldn’t sanction them
Hunter Biden’s legal risks are far from over. After having been convicted of gun charges, in a few weeks he’ll face a trial on tax charges.
Multiple observers say they expect Joe Biden to deliver a pardon before he leaves office, but right now it’s Hunter Biden’s lawyers who are in jeopardy.
It’s because a judge concluded they misrepresented the facts in demanding that those tax counts be dismissed.
Their argument, based on a recent federal judge’s decision in Florida that dismissed a classified documents dispute involving President Donald Trump, suggests the same circumstances exist for Hunter: That the “special counsel” who brought the case wasn’t legally appointed.
The Washington Examiner explains Judge Mark Scarsi issued an order that Biden lawyers Abbe Lowell and Mark Geragos explain why they should not be sanctioned for making false statements.
“The misstatements in the current motion are not trivial,” the judge determined.
It is special counsel David Weiss who brought the tax charges.
Biden’s lawyers suggest that Weiss never was legally appointed, so the case has no foundation at all.
“The attorneys first brought the request about Weiss’s appointment earlier this year, and Scarsi denied it. However, after a judge in Florida ruled special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed and tossed out former President Donald Trump‘s classified documents case, Biden’s attorneys said the new development warranted raising their argument about Weiss again,” the report said.
But Scarsi noted that while Smith was a private citizen, a lawyer working outside of the government, when he was improperly appointed by the administration Weiss actually was a U.S. attorney when he brought the original case against Hunter Biden. He later was made special counsel.
That makes the circumstances of the cases against Trump and Biden dramatically different.
Scarsi called that difference “meaningful.” But he said the lawyers’ motion “avoids the issue by misrepresenting the history of the proceedings.”
“This court has little tolerance for lack of candor from counsel,” he said.
The issue is that private citizens such as Smith apparently need to be confirmed by the Senate before they can wield the power of the government against individuals like Trump.
Weiss, as U.S. attorney before being titled special counsel, already had that power.
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