Hunter Biden asks judge to toss conviction, citing Aileen Cannon's ruling on special counsels

President Biden's son is citing a ruling that a Trump-appointed judge made in the classified documents case

By Nandika Chatterjee

News Fellow

Published July 19, 2024 12:44PM (EDT)

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, arrives to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 06, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, arrives to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 06, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Hunter Biden is trying to pull a Trump card and have his criminal conviction on gun charges thrown out and another case of tax evasion dismissed, citing a recent controversial ruling that declared special counsels to be unconstitutional.

Special counsel David Weiss secured Biden’s conviction in Delaware federal court last month on charges that he lied about his illegal drug use when buying a gun. Weiss is also pursuing the tax case against Biden, in which he has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in September, USA Today reported.

In a legal filing, Biden's attorneys citing a ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Donald Trump this week after affirming the former president’s claims that Smith's appointment and funding violated the Constitution, USA Today reported.

President Joe Biden’s son maintains that Cannon’s ruling is  reason enough to dismiss special counsel Weiss’s cases against him, NBC News reported.

“Based on these new legal developments, Mr. Biden moves to dismiss the indictment brought against him because the Special Counsel who initiated this prosecution was appointed in violation of the Appointments Clause as well,” the filing reads. “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.”


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