Of all the ludicrous claims about Joe Biden, Andrew Weissmann’s recent remarks on MSNBC surely take the cake. Weissmann, an attorney for the Mueller investigation and former general counsel to the FBI, gushed over Biden, absurdly portraying him as the very embodiment of the rule of law.
“What is before us is a president who is living, the rule of law he is living in …the most personal way,” Weissmann claimed. “He is not telling DOJ to stand down, which is his power to do it. It’s a norm. That is that’s the reason he’s not doing it. He could tell the Department of Justice, ‘This is what you need to do.’ He is not pardoning his son, which he could do — these are federal charges. He is not doing that. That is a power — He has a power for both of those. He’s not doing it, but this he is living, what it means to have a rule of law in this country. And it is — it is, I mean, if you want to know if he believes it, you can actually see what is happening with his own son.”
Let’s cut through Weissmann’s nonsense. He admits that Biden has the power to direct the DOJ, which directly contradicts White House claims about the DOJ’s independence. The main takeaway here is that Weissmann is blatantly lying about Biden’s supposed commitment to the rule of law.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Initially, Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, wasn’t even planning to charge Hunter with tax fraud—something that would have landed any other American in prison. Weiss claimed there was insufficient evidence for prosecution, but IRS whistleblowers revealed crucial information that forced Weiss’s hand. Gary Shapley, Jr., an IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent, and Joseph Ziegler, a criminal investigator, testified that Hunter Biden listed payments to prostitutes on his 2018 tax returns under his company, Owasco P.C. They also uncovered a $25,000 payment labeled as a “golf membership” that was actually for a sex club in L.A. Any ordinary citizen would have faced jail time for such fraudulent expenses.
Moreover, the gun charges almost didn’t come to trial because DOJ prosecutors colluded with Hunter’s legal team to give him a sweetheart plea deal, effectively granting him a clean slate and immunity from future prosecution. It was only thanks to Judge Maryellen Noreika rejecting the plea deal as unconstitutional that Hunter ended up in court.
As for Biden not pardoning Hunter on the gun charge, it’s obvious that this is a political decision. With Donald Trump facing multiple politicized prosecutions, a pardon for Hunter by his father would be politically disastrous for Joe Biden. If Hunter is to be pardoned, it won’t happen until after the election—regardless of the outcome.
Weissmann’s comments are nothing more than a desperate attempt to paint Biden in a favorable light, but the facts tell a very different story. Biden’s handling of his son’s legal troubles and the apparent manipulation of the justice system to protect Hunter reveal a troubling disregard for true rule of law.
