The Hunter Biden case is an sudden profession flip for David C. Weiss, a tricky, workmanlike prosecutor and industrial lawyer whose cussed competitiveness earned him a fame as a tough man to strike out in native softball leagues.

Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, the low-key U.S. legal professional for Delaware was held over in his job by the Biden administration to defend the Justice Department from accusations of political meddling.

Mr. Weiss grew up within the Philadelphia suburbs, attending Cheltenham High School, whose graduates embody Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson and the conservative commentator Mark Levin.

He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. After finishing regulation faculty at Widener University in Wilmington, Del., he labored two lengthy stints as a prosecutor within the Delaware U.S. legal professional’s workplace on an array of circumstances. Those included an investigation of a businessman who pleaded responsible to marketing campaign finance violations after illegally bundling contributions for President Biden’s failed 2008 bid for the White House.

Mr. Weiss, graying and bespectacled now, as soon as bore a putting resemblance to the singer Tony Orlando. In early 2018, when his colleagues celebrated him after his unanimous affirmation by the Senate, they did so towards the backdrop of an outdated, blown-up photograph from the Seventies of Mr. Weiss with lengthy, center-parted hair.

He has been, till now, a noncontroversial determine, incomes the help of each of Delaware’s Democratic senators when Mr. Trump, now a critic, nominated him in late 2017.

“David is a career prosecutor and dedicated public servant, longtime Delawarean and valued member of our law enforcement community,” Senator Chris Coons mentioned in a press release on the time, according to The News Journal.

In saying his nomination, Mr. Trump mentioned in a press release that Mr. Weiss would “share the president’s vision for ‘Making America Safe Again.’”

People who know Mr. Weiss mentioned that the Biden case, the best-known investigation he has overseen, just isn’t what he believes will outline his legacy.

In the late Nineties, whereas in non-public observe, Mr. Weiss started trying into the disappearance of Anne Marie Fahey, a secretary for Delaware’s governor — prodding his mates within the U.S. legal professional’s workplace to affix the native investigation, on the behest of Ms. Fahey’s household.

The path finally led to Thomas Capano, a former boyfriend of Ms. Fahey’s and a well-connected former Delaware deputy legal professional basic. He was convicted of murdering Ms. Fahey after their relationship ended after which dumping her physique into the ocean.

“He would tell you that was his most important case,” mentioned Thomas W. Ostrander, a lawyer who labored with Mr. Weiss for Ms. Fahey’s household. “We were in regular contact with them every day, for months and months, and David guided them through everything, because he was such an experienced trial lawyer and knew the pitfalls and challenges of putting together such a complex case.”