Hunter Biden uses FBI informant 'bribery' claims in gun case

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Hunter Biden (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite), special counsel David Weiss (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Hunter Biden on Monday offered the federal judge in his Delaware gun prosecution additional authorities in support of his attempt to torpedo the case as selectively and vindictively brought by special counsel David Weiss, whom the defendant likened to a tool of Russian intelligence.

Pointing to erstwhile FBI informant Alexander Smirnov’s February indictment for making allegedly “false bribery allegations” against Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, the president’s son asserted Weiss knew for years that the claims were “baseless” but reopened an investigation after pressure from congressional Republicans and, just a short time later, after prosecutors reneged on a plea agreement, Weiss was appointed as special counsel and only ramped up his probe to secure bicoastal indictments for gun and tax offenses.

“Although the Special Counsel claims that its investigation of Smirnov’s fantastical claims about Mr. Biden and President Biden receiving millions of dollars in bribes began in July 2023, Mr. Weiss and his team became aware of Smirnov’s claims years earlier. In October 2020, the FBI and then-U.S. Attorney Scott Brady (W.D.P.A.) passed Smirnov’s allegations to then-U.S. Attorney Weiss, and the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office was briefed on the claims contained in the now infamous FD-1023 alleging a fabricated foreign bribery scheme involving Mr. Biden and his father,” the Biden filing said. “Again, the FBI and DOJ had closed this investigation in August 2020 because they found Smirnov’s allegations baseless, and Mr. Weiss apparently agreed because he took no action based on them for over three years.”

In this courtroom sketch Defendant Alexander Smirnov speaks in Federal court in Los Angeles, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. (William T. Robles via AP)

Despite this, the defendant continued, Weiss seemed to cave to the “shouts of extremist Republicans” while also playing right into the hands of Russian intelligence, to which Smirnov allegedly has ties. Noting that Smirnov is accused of fabricating claims that the defendant and Joe Biden were bribed by Burisma executives while the latter was vice president of the United States, Hunter Biden asserted that the timing suggests renewed attention on Smirnov’s allegedly bogus allegations played a role in undoing the plea deal:

Then, in May 2023, it is uncontradicted that extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives pushed for the FBI (even threatening to hold its Director in contempt of Congress) to release the FD-1023 in an effort to publicly air these sensational allegations against Mr. Biden and President Biden, despite those allegations being baseless. Against its wishes, the FBI relented in July 2023. With extremist Republicans and right-wing press outlets reviving interest in Smirnov’s claims, the Special Counsel apparently reopened its investigation days or weeks later. By the end of that month (July), the then-U.S. Attorney’s Office, instead of addressing with Mr. Biden’s counsel the specific questions this Court asked on July 26, instead abruptly backed away from a Plea Agreement that it signed and proposed to this Court and reneged on the Diversion Agreement. The connection between the reopening of the Smirnov allegations and the then-U.S. Attorney’s Office’s total rejection of the Agreement it made has, at the least, the appearance of catering to the shouts of extremist Republicans to scuttle the deal and keep an investigation into Mr. Biden alive.

Next, Hunter Biden accused Weiss of doing what pro-Trump operatives hoped for and “exactly” what Russian intelligence “desired by initiating prosecutions against Mr. Biden”:

The Special Counsel tells us Russian intelligence sought to influence the U.S. presidential election by using allegations against Hunter Biden to hurt President Biden’s reelection. And what did the now-Special Counsel do? The Office abandoned the Agreement it signed and filed felony gun and tax charges against Mr. Biden in two jurisdictions, which public records and DOJ policy indicate are not brought against people with similar facts as Mr. Biden. In these actions, the Special Counsel has done exactly what the Russian intelligence operation desired by initiating prosecutions against Mr. Biden. The chain of events that is only partially revealed by the public filings supports the conclusion that the Special Counsel found some pretext to renege on the Agreement it signed, actually caved to political pressure in doing so, and brought unprecedented charges—all originating with the now-revealed and totally discredited Russian disinformation campaign given to two U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and fueled by operatives of former President Trump, knowingly or blind to the fact that they were carrying out the plan of Russian intelligence.

In a distinct but related filing flagging a supplemental authority, Biden argued that a recent Third Circuit case supports his contention that Weiss improperly reneged on the plea agreement.

“Cruz confirms that the Diversion Agreement at issue here should be enforced and, if contested, construed against the prosecution because Mr. Biden ‘must get the benefit of his bargain,”” the defendant said. “Every contract requires the approval of the parties to be effective, and the only parties to that Agreement were Mr. Biden and the prosecution—both of whom executed that Agreement on July 26.”

Read the first Hunter Biden filing here.