Hunter Biden investigation: Department of Justice confirms David Weiss will appear before Congress
Ashley Oliver
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United States Attorney David Weiss, who has led the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, will appear for a congressional hearing, three House chairmen confirmed Friday.
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY), and Jason Smith (R-MO) revealed in a letter that the Department of Justice informed congressional staff on a recent teleconference that Weiss would participate in a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee at a date to be determined.
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In the letter, addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the three chairmen reiterated their demand that the attorney general also arrange for nearly a dozen other DOJ witnesses to meet with the committee before it meets with Weiss.
Weiss, after a yearslong investigation involving the FBI and IRS, brought two misdemeanor tax charges and one felony gun charge against President Joe Biden’s son in June in anticipation of sealing a plea deal with him in court on July 26. Hunter Biden is expected to plead guilty to the former two charges and enter a pretrial diversion program for the third charge.
The chairmen, who have joined a chorus of Republicans in denouncing the agreement as a “sweetheart deal,” asked Garland in June for interviews with nine DOJ and two FBI officials who they said “possess information concerning allegations of politicization and misconduct with respect to the Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden.”
They wrote on Friday, “While we look forward to Weiss appearing at a hearing at the appropriate time, we must first conduct our investigative work, including conducting the transcribed interview of witnesses identified in our June 29 letter.”
The chairmen vowed to subpoena Garland to compel the DOJ witnesses’ testimonies should he not begin scheduling their interviews by July 24.
The DOJ, for its part, has shown some resistance to the chairmen’s demands, questioning their legislative purpose, restating its policy of not revealing information about ongoing investigations or pending court matters, and insisting only “supervisory personnel” rather than line prosecutors or other staff answer Congress’s questions.
The chairmen argued “there is no serious dispute” about potential legislative reforms, pointing to a number of possibilities, such as modifications to “special attorney” and “special counsel” rules, reforms to the Tax Division of DOJ, and an expansion of the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to share tax information with Congress.
They also rejected DOJ’s reasoning for withholding certain information about matters pending in court and added that “even if” the department’s reasoning were valid, Hunter Biden’s case should not be deemed pending once the plea agreement is finalized on July 26.
On the issue of DOJ communicating with Congress, the chairmen wrote, “The Department has made available non-Senate-confirmed and line-level employees for testimony to Congress in the past, and we expect no deviation from this precedent in this matter.”
The chairmen have been working in a joint capacity to lead their own parallel investigations into both Joe Biden and his son.
Comer has led the Oversight Committee in delving into Hunter Biden’s foreign business schemes and examining what role Joe Biden allegedly had in them while he was serving as vice president. Jordan on the Judiciary Committee has probed DOJ on whether Garland, Weiss, and others have given the Bidens special treatment. Smith has been working on the Ways and Means Committee with two longtime IRS criminal investigators-turned-whistleblowers who approached Congress this year with accusations the IRS and DOJ mishandled their investigation of Hunter Biden.
In regard to Weiss, the chairmen wrote Friday they take interest in his “inconsistent representations” of his authority in leading the case after the IRS whistleblowers formally alleged in testimony on June 22 that Weiss, a Trump-appointed official, was blocked from bringing charges against Hunter Biden in California and Washington, D.C.
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Weiss said on June 7 he had been “granted ultimate authority” on “where, when, and whether to file charges” in the case. He then said he wanted to “expand” on that explanation on June 30, saying he was “geographically limited” to Delaware but that he could request “special attorney” status from Garland to bring charges in an outside jurisdiction.
The chairmen wrote, “Weiss’s shifting statements about his authority to bring charges against Hunter Biden, especially his authority to bring charges outside of Delaware, suggest that improper political considerations factored into the Department’s investigative and prosecutorial function.”
Letter