WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden asked a federal court in Delaware on Thursday to toss out his conviction in his gun case, citing the dismissal of charges against former President Donald Trump in his classified documents case in Florida.
On Monday, a federal judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, threw out the case against Trump, saying the special counsel overseeing his prosecution, Jack Smith, had been unconstitutionally appointed.
Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s younger son, who has been by his father’s side in recent days as the president faces mounting calls to exit the race, also cited a concurring opinion that Justice Clarence Thomas wrote when the Supreme Court expanded presidential immunity. In it, Thomas raised doubts about how Smith got his job.
Those decisions have given rise to unusual alliances: The president called the Supreme Court’s ruling “specious” and misguided, and his administration almost immediately signaled that it would appeal Cannon’s decision.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, argued that Cannon’s ruling — which referred to Thomas’ lone concurrence — should also negate the appointment of David C. Weiss, the special counsel in Biden’s gun and tax cases.
“Guided by Justice Thomas’s opinion, Judge Cannon dismissed an indictment against President Trump earlier this week because the special counsel was unconstitutionally appointed,” Lowell wrote in a 12-page filing that echoed arguments before Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony counts connected to his purchase of a firearm in 2018.
“The attorney general relied upon the exact same authority to appoint the special counsel in both the Trump and Biden matters, and both appointments are invalid for the same reason,” he wrote.
Neither opinion is binding on the Delaware case. But Biden’s lawyers asked the federal district judge, Maryellen Noreika, to correct what they called a “miscarriage of justice.”
A spokesperson for Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has been preparing for Biden’s trial in Los Angeles on tax charges stemming from a period in which the president’s son was addicted to crack and spending lavishly.
But department officials have privately expressed confidence that Cannon’s ruling will be struck down on appeal, and believe that Hunter Biden’s request will be rejected.
Biden, 54, will be sentenced later this year. He faces up to 25 years in prison, although federal sentencing guidelines call for a fraction of that penalty.
First-time offenders who did not use their weapons to commit violent crimes receive relatively light sentences, and prosecutors suggested they would not seek a sentence more severe than for any other person convicted in such a case.
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