Hunter Biden plea: House GOP investigates ‘troubling’ provisions of DOJ deal
Ashley Oliver
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Three top Republicans asked Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday to provide records related to “troubling” provisions of the deal between President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the Department of Justice after the agreement unexpectedly fell apart in court last week.
Chairmen Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY), and Jason Smith (R-MO) of the House Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means Committees, respectively, also asked that Garland set up a briefing with them to provide clarity on the “ongoing” nature of the Hunter Biden investigation.
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They wrote, “Given recent unusual events relating to the Department’s plea and pretrial diversion agreements with Mr. Biden, we write to better understand the Department’s decision to sign off on such apparently atypical agreements.”
U.S. Attorney of Delaware David Weiss, the lead investigator in the case, agreed to a deal involving Hunter Biden pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and entering into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid a felony gun charge.
During Hunter Biden’s court hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika raised concerns with the deal, including whether it would prevent the DOJ from bringing future charges against the younger Biden related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
In their correspondence to Garland, the chairmen zeroed in on paragraph 14 of the diversion agreement, which Noreika said would make her “gatekeeper” to criminal charges and may be unconstitutional.
They also pointed to paragraph 15 of the agreement and concerns Noreika raised about it containing too broad of an immunity provision that it may improperly preclude Hunter Biden from future criminal charges.
They asked for Garland to provide by Aug. 14 a number of documents and communications related to the plea deal, including instances in the last 10 years of deals that contained similar provisions.
As for the briefing, Republicans are seeking information about the status of the investigation because, to date, the department has withheld certain information from the committees because, it has said, the investigation into Hunter Biden remains “ongoing.”
The chairmen said they were concerned the department was using that reason as a “shield” from congressional oversight. They said they also found it “difficult to understand” how Hunter Biden’s attorneys and Weiss’s prosecutors would not have agreed on the prospect of future charges, which is what prompted the deal to unravel in court.
They wrote, “It is difficult to understand how the parties would not have a meeting of the minds regarding a clause of the agreement as fundamental as the scope of the immunity provision, and it raises questions about what discussions have taken place between the Department and Mr. Biden’s counsel regarding the status of those investigations.”
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Noreika acknowledged in court that her rejection of the deal was a “curveball” and asked that Hunter Biden’s attorneys and the prosecution revisit the deal and submit briefings on it in the coming weeks.
The DOJ declined to comment.