Hunter Biden seeks subpoenas for Trump-era officials in federal gun case

Amid his criminal case involving a trio of federal gun charges, first son Hunter Biden has requested that a judge allow the issuance of subpoenas to former President Donald Trump and a series of individuals who served in his administration, as NBC News reports.

In Biden's estimation, the probe that led to the criminal counts he now faces was the product of “incessant, improper, and partisan pressure" from the former president and those who worked under him.

According to a filing submitted by Biden's lawyers to U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, subpoenas are being sought for Trump himself as well as former Attorney General Bill Barr, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue.

“Mr. Biden 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,” wrote Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell.

The famed defense attorney added, “In the leadup to the 2020 election, IRS case files show certain investigative decisions were made 'as a result of guidance provided' by, among others, 'the Deputy Attorney General's office.'”

Also referenced in the filing is a recent memoir penned by Barr in which the former AG recalled Trump asking him in the fall of 2020 for an update on the status of the investigation of Hunter Biden.

According to Barr's book, as Breitbart noted, the irritated AG remembers replying, “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,” Lowell further posited.

In addition to those claims, Hunter Biden's legal team claims that now-Special Counsel David Weiss buckled to pressure to indict the first son primarily due to pressure applied by Republicans in the House after an initial plea bargain was scuttled in court this summer.

According to Lowell, the GOP-led pressure campaign “culminated in Special Counsel Weiss's then changing course and bringing this Indictment on September 14 against Mr. Biden, charging three felony counts for the same gun and the same facts that just a few months prior Mr. Weiss had agreed to divert under a pre-trial diversion agreement.”

Weiss ultimately charged Biden with three counts related to gun possession during a period of drug use.

Two of the counts Biden faces involve claims that he completed a federal gun purchase form and indicated that he was not a drug user at the time of the transaction, and the third count accuses Biden of possessing a firearm at the same time he was using narcotics, contrary to prevailing federal law.

As NBC News notes, two of the aforementioned criminal counts have maximum penalties of 10 years in prison, and the third carries a maximum term of five years.

While it is certainly Mr. Biden's right to raise arguments of bias and improper prosecutorial influence as he attempts to defend himself in this criminal case, the idea that the son of President Joe Biden – whose administration is doggedly pursuing what many believe to be two politically driven cases against his likely rival in the 2024 presidential election – surely comes across as rather rich to millions upon millions of Americans.