Garland counters GOP claims
Defends probe of Hunter Biden
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department’s five-year investigation of Hunter Biden on Friday, forcefully rebutting claims promoted by House Republicans that he blocked federal prosecutors in Delaware from expanding the inquiry to encompass a greater range of crimes.
On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee released testimony from two IRS officials who said that David Weiss, the US attorney for Delaware who has overseen the inquiry, told them that Justice Department officials prevented him from bringing cases in Washington, D.C., and California.
The IRS officials also claimed in their testimony that Weiss told them that he was rebuffed in his request to be appointed a special counsel, which would have allowed him to file a detailed report of his findings that could potentially be made public once the probe ends.
Garland denied both assertions during a news conference at the department’s headquarters, saying he had given Weiss “complete authority” to “continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to.”
He scoffed at the idea that Weiss, a veteran prosecutor, would have wanted to be designated as a special counsel, given the authority he already possessed as a US attorney.
Weiss was named US attorney in Delaware by former president Donald Trump and eventually took control of the investigations into President Biden’s son, during the Trump administration. He was kept on by Garland to allow him to complete the investigation. Garland and Weiss have both made public statements that Weiss had full authority over the case.
“The only person who has the authority to make someone a special counsel, or refuse to make them a special counsel, is the attorney general,” he said, adding, “Mr. Weiss never made that request.”
Weiss had no comment. But in announcing the agreement in the Hunter Biden case Tuesday, he said that the investigation was “ongoing” — to the surprise of all parties.
It is not clear what he meant, but the declaration will have a near-term chilling effect on greater disclosure, effectively preventing Weiss from speaking publicly about the investigation until it is officially closed.
The release of the transcripts by the House committee came 48 hours after Weiss announced that Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of failing to file his taxes on time and would enter a pretrial diversion program intended to allow him to avert prosecution on a separate gun charge.
House Republicans sought to portray the testimony by the IRS officials as evidence that Biden had gotten a sweetheart deal from the Justice Department.
“If the federal government is not treating all taxpayers equally, or if it is changing the rules to engineer a preferred outcome, Congress has a duty to ask why and to hold agencies accountable and consider appropriate legislative action,” Republican Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement Thursday.
In the testimony released by the committee Thursday, the lead IRS agent investigating whether Biden committed tax crimes told Congress his team uncovered evidence that Biden had invoked his father, who was then out of office, while pressing a potential Chinese business partner in 2017 to move ahead with a proposed energy deal, House Republicans said.