'Pressure campaign': Hunter Biden wants to subpoena Trump and Barr in criminal trial
President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is now seeking to compel both former President Donald Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr to provide documents that may assist with his defense ahead of his pending criminal trial. He's also requesting subpoenas for former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue.
In a 16-page filing submitted Wednesday in the US District of Delaware, Hunter Biden's attorneys allege that he may be the victim of "a vindictive or selective prosecution that arose out of an incessant pressure campaign that began in the last administration, in violation of Mr. Biden’s constitutional rights."
"Public reporting reveals certain instances that appear to suggest incessant, improper, and partisan pressure applied by then President Trump to Messrs. Rosen, Donoghue, and Barr in relation to an investigation of Mr. Biden," the filing read. "Additionally, former Attorney General Barr’s latest book recalls an instance in mid-October 2020 in which President Trump called Mr. Barr and inquired about the investigation of Mr. Biden, which Mr. Barr says ended with 'Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden. Period!'"
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"These confirmations of communications give more than a mere appearance that President Trump improperly and unrelentingly pressured DOJ to pursue an investigation and prosecution of Mr. Biden to advance President Trump’s partisan ambitions," the subpoena motion continued.
Biden, 53, has been the subject of a years-long probe investigating his taxes and the purchase of a firearm in 2018. That investigation has continued into his father's administration, with his father's Department of Justice selecting Trump-appointed US attorney David Weiss as special counsel to oversee the proceedings. President Biden's son was set to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges relating to his failure to pay taxes earlier this summer — each carrying a potential one-year prison sentence — before the Trump-appointed judge overseeing his case suddenly delayed the hearing, effectively scuttling the deal.
Hunter Biden's dealings with Ukrainian company Burisma have also been of interest to primarily Republican congressional leaders and Trump DOJ investigators. Earlier this week, Oleksandr Dubinsky — a member of Ukrainian parliament who worked with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden — was accused of being a Russian spy and charged with treason.
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