Hunter Biden asks to subpoena Trump and former AG Bill Barr, alleging ‘unrelenting’ political interference in his case
First son Hunter Biden’s defense team has asked a federal judge to subpoena former President Donald Trump, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and other Justice Department officials for any records or communications about the investigation into the first son that began in 2018.
Defense attorneys Abbe Lowell and Bartholomew Dalton argue that remarks, congressional interviews, and social media posts by each have hinted at “an almost-nonstop public pressure campaign” by the former president to prosecute Hunter Biden for his own “partisan ambitions.”
The lawyers said in a Wednesday court filing that congressional testimony from IRS whistleblowers, previously released records from former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and an incident written up in Barr’s 2022 memoir “give more than a mere appearance that President Trump improperly and unrelentingly pressured DOJ” over the Hunter probe.
They asked US District Judge Maryellen Noreika to issue subpoenas for Trump, Barr, Rosen, and Donoghue to cover all documents and records regarding Hunter Biden — including diaries, journals, memoirs, memos, and notes — from Jan. 20, 2017, until the present.
All three senior DOJ officials took office after the Hunter investigation began in November 2018, with Barr assuming his post in February 2019.
Rosen served as deputy attorney general from May 2019 to December 2020, when Barr’s resignation elevated him to acting attorney general for the remainder of Trump’s term.
Donoghue served as acting deputy attorney general during the same presidential transition period, having been elevated from his position as US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
In a February 2020 interview with ABC News, Barr said Trump “had never asked [him] to do anything in a criminal case,” but admitted that his social media posts about high-profile Justice Department cases made it “impossible for me to do my job.”
Barr recounted in his memoir “One Damn Thing After Another” that he dismissed an attempt by the president to discuss the investigation during an October 2020 phone call, saying: “Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden. Period!”
Hunter’s lawyers also cite social media posts from the former president on Twitter and Truth Social, in which Trump referred to Delaware US Attorney David Weiss’ plea agreement with the first son as a “sweetheart deal” and “traffic ticket.”
“Weiss is a COWARD, a smaller version of Bill Barr, who never had the courage to do what everyone knows should have been done. He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence,” Trump wrote in a July 11 Truth Social post, weeks before Hunter’s plea deal blew up in Delaware federal court.
“Because of the two Democrat Senators in Delaware, they got to choose and/or approve him. Maybe the judge presiding will have the courage and intellect to break up this cesspool of crime. The collusion and corruption is beyond description. TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE!”
Lowell and Dalton also said House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) have bolstered Trump’s efforts to undermine the Justice Department through their own investigations of Hunter Biden and his father, President Biden.
“It is clear no measure of charges against Mr. Biden will ever be enough to appease Chairmen Comer and Smith and their MAGA allies,” they 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.”
The defense team denied that the records requests were part of any “fishing expedition” and instead went “to the heart of [Hunter’s] defense that this is, possibly, a vindictive or selective prosecution” that violates the first son’s Fifth Amendment rights.
Lowell and Dalton have requested all records to be turned over by Dec. 1 to allow sufficient time to review before pre-trial motions must be filed.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to stand trial next year following his September indictment on three charges related to having lied on a federal gun purchase form about his drug use.
He may face further tax fraud charges in Washington, DC, or Los Angeles for missing payments on millions of dollars he earned between 2017 and 2018.
House Republicans have also begun an impeachment inquiry into Biden, 80, alleging that he may have abused his office as vice president and profited from his son’s overseas business dealings.
The Post has reached out to Trump, Barr, Rosen, and Donoghue for comment.
