Hunter Biden Attorneys Ask Judge to Subpoena Trump, Barr for Docs Related to Criminal Investigation

Hunter Biden’s attorneys are asking a federal judge to subpoena former president Donald Trump, former attorney general Bill Barr, and other DOJ officials for records and communications related to the criminal investigation into the younger Biden that began in 2018.

Attorneys for the first son wrote in a Wednesday filing in Delaware court that Trump has engaged in “an almost-nonstop public pressure campaign” to prosecute the younger Biden because of Trump’s own “partisan ambitions.” 

Hunter Biden lawyers Abbe Lowell and Bartholomew Dalton asked a Delaware federal court to issue subpoenas to Trump, Barr, former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue for any documents and records regarding Hunter Biden from January 20, 2017 until the present. The attorneys asked that records be turned over by December 1 and said the requested information gets “to the heart of [Hunter’s] defense that this is, possibly, a vindictive or selective prosecution” that violates Hunter Biden’s Fifth Amendment rights.

The attorneys cited congressional testimony from IRS whistleblowers, records from former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and a situation detailed in Barr’s memoir as evidence that Trump “improperly and unrelentingly pressured DOJ” over the Hunter probe. Barr wrote in his 2022 memoir, One Damn Thing After Another, that he refused to discuss the investigation with Trump during a phone call in October 2020. “Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden. Period!” he said.

The attorneys also point to social-media posts from Trump that dismiss Biden’s plea agreement as a “sweetheart deal” and “traffic ticket.” Biden’s lawyers also claimed investigations into President Biden and his son by the House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer have been an extension of Trump’s efforts to undermine the DOJ.

“It is clear no measure of charges against Mr. Biden will ever be enough to appease Chairmen Comer and Smith and their MAGA allies,” the lawyers wrote.

“As anyone can readily tell, it is not just pressure from within the Trump-era Executive Branch that is the problem; it is also incessant, unrelenting outside interference from congressional Republicans and their allies in the prosecutorial process, which is supposed to be independent and free from political interference. Undoubtedly, the current political climate has jeopardized that longstanding and fundamental American principle,” they added. 

The filing comes after U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, confirmed in Congressional testimony last week that he requested special attorney authority in the spring of 2022, according to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan. 

Jordan said the closed-door testimony confirms allegations made by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley that Weiss did not have the ultimate charging authority in the Hunter Biden investigation.

“When he was specifically asked, did you ever request special attorney authority under Section 515, Mr. Weiss’s response was yes, in the spring of 2022. So that that goes to the heart of the matter,” Jordan told reporters.

“He won’t answer a lot of questions. But that’s the key takeaway, because this whole deposition was about the changing story we got from DOJ, regarding the authority that he had,” he added.

“And that answer, I think the key is, is entirely consistent with what Mr. Shapley said after the October 7, 2022 meeting, when he said USA Weiss requested Special Counsel authority when it was sent to D.C. and Main DOJ denied his request and told him to follow the process,” he continued.

Shapley previously testified that the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom President Biden appointed, had the final say over whether charges would be brought against Hunter Biden and that the Biden appointee was the one who made the call not to charge the younger Biden with a felony.