Hunter Biden’s attorneys are making a last-minute public defense of the first son just days before he is due to be sentenced in two different federal criminal cases, calling the prosecutions of Biden politically motivated. The defense — in a not-so-thinly veiled call for a pardon from the defendant’s own father — also says these two cases could be just the beginning for President Biden’s only son with President Trump set to return to the White House. 

The document, titled “The Political Prosecutions of Hunter Biden,” is 52 pages long. It was first reported by the Washington Post. 

“With the election now decided, the threat against Hunter is real,” Biden’s attorneys write in their lengthy public defense, which is seemingly aimed at President Biden’s own heartstrings. The president has promised that he would not commute his son’s sentence nor would he pardon him. 

“A system that is supposed to protect against abuses failed to do so and was corrupted by political leaders in this country,” the defense writes. “As a result, Hunter faces significant sentences for felonies and misdemeanors far beyond precedents of others committing less serious offenses or where civil resolutions or consent judgments are normally sought — all on the basis of his mistakes, made while in the throes of serious drug addiction.”

During the course of his Delaware gun trial, several witnesses took the stand to detail Biden’s crippling drug problems and abusive behavior at the time he purchased a firearm while addicted to crack. His ex-wife, his former girlfriend and sister-in-law, and his much younger former paramour all took the stand to talk about Biden on a personal level. 

Biden cited those painful disclosures from the witness stand in Delaware as a reason why he pleaded guilty to tax crimes in California, where he said he felt he would have put his family through even more hardship if a weeks-long trial did nothing more than dredge up other embarrassing anecdotes. 

Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, also mentions the special counsel who prosecuted the first son on both the gun and tax charges, David Weiss, who concurrently serves as the United States attorney for Delaware. Mr. Weiss was appointed to his prosecutorial position by Trump in 2018, and was elevated to special counsel by Attorney General Garland in 2022. 

Mr. Lowell says his client has every reason to fear that Trump will pressure Mr. Weiss or other Justice Department officials to seek even harsher charges against Biden once he returns to power on January 20. 

“There is no disputing that Trump has said his enemies list includes Hunter,” the defense writes. “The prospect that Trump will turn his vengeance on the Special Counsel prosecutors if they fail to take a harder line against Hunter no doubt exerts considerable pressure on them not to let up on Hunter.”