Attorneys want documents from ex-president and officials including Bill Barr on start of investigation into him and their ‘incessant, improper and partisan pressure’
- Hunter Biden’s defense filed legal papers in Delaware federal court Wednesday
- They want documents from Trump’s time in power discussing Hunter Biden
- Biden pleaded not guilty last month to charges related to buying a gun in 2018
President Joe Biden‘s son Hunter on Wednesday asked a federal court to subpoena documents from former President Donald Trump and senior Justice Department officials as part of his defense against gun charges.
In their filing, his lawyers claim the former president applied political pressure to a criminal investigation of him.
Biden, 53, pleaded not guilty last month to violating laws against drug users owning guns when he bought a revolver in 2018.
He has acknowledged struggling with addiction at that time.
On Wednesday his legal team filed papers with Delaware federal court requesting subpoenas for Trump, his Attorney General Bill Barr and two other former senior Justice Department figures, Richard Donoghue and Jeffrey Rosen.
They want documents, including journal entries, discussing Hunter Biden.
His lawyers cited public reporting alleging ‘incessant, improper, and partisan pressure’ applied by Trump to his three officials.
The subpoena for Trump includes a demand for: ‘All personal records (including diaries, journals, memoirs, memoranda, or notes) from the relevant time period discussing or concerning Hunter Biden, including, but not limited to, reference to any formal or informal decision, discussion, or request to investigate or prosecute Hunter Biden.’
The move is another blockbuster twist in a case that has already generated mountains of coverage.
It is the first-ever criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s child.
‘Mr. Biden seeks specific information from three former DOJ officials and the former president that goes to the heart of his defense that this is, possibly, a vindictive or selective prosecution arising from an unrelenting pressure campaign beginning in the last administration, in violation of Mr. Biden’s Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,’ his lawyers wrote to the judge.
Barr revealed in his memoir how he became irritated by Trump for pushing him over the status of the probe into Hunter Biden.
And in 2020, after Trump had lost the election to Hunter’s father, the then president blasted Barr for not revealing the existence of the investigation before polling day.
He said Barr was a ‘big disappointment’ in a series of tweets saying the revelation would have given Republicans a boost in the election.
