Former federal prosecutor Shan Wu Thursday criticized special counsel David Weiss' planned gun charge against Hunter Biden in an article for The Daily Beast, accusing him and the DOJ of "casting about" for any excuse to make an indictment stick to the president's son amid political pressure.
"Special Counsel Weiss’ plan to indict Hunter Biden now over the gun charges is both ill-timed and ill-advised. It’s ill-timed because it comes in the wake of a federal court of appeals striking down as unconstitutional the very gun federal law that Biden may be charged with violating — a decision that was pending at the time of the failed plea deal in July, but which has since been decided," wrote Wu. "If the deal in July had gone through then the prosecution would likely have been unaffected by the adverse gun decision. Now, however, Biden’s defense team is likely to challenge the constitutionality of the charges."
Originally, Weiss and Hunter Biden had a plea agreement planned on the gun charge and a pair of tax charges, but it fell apart during a hearing when Weiss said the investigation was ongoing and more charges could come later, something Hunter Biden's attorneys say was not stipulated to.
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Additionally, Wu argued, the new gun indictment "is also ill-advised because the defense has a colorable argument that DOJ cannot renege on the diversion agreement. Biden’s defense attorney Abbe Lowell has already stated that in their view the diversion agreement was already entered into, approved, and that Biden is in full compliance with the terms." This issue means that a judge could theoretically find the DOJ is barred from reneging on the agreement — this is a similar issue to the one that overturned the sexual assault conviction of comedian Bill Cosby.
What seems to be going on here, Wu argued, is that Weiss, a Donald Trump appointee, was pressured by allegations from GOP lawmakers that Hunter Biden was receiving too light a sentence, and wanted to crack down more harshly after the fact for better optics — which is not how the justice system should work.
The Justice Department, concluded Wu, is not meant to "go exploring into the unknown looking for charges." Rather, "they should apply the law to the facts before them, and five years is more than enough time for Weiss and the DOJ to have done just that — and completed the Hunter Biden mission."