In response to worries that President Biden’s DOJ has become politicized under his leadership, Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledged Wednesday that he would have to personally approve any potential charges against Hunter Biden.
David Weiss, the Delaware U.S. Attorney nominated by Trump, has been looking into Hunter for years for possible tax and firearms crimes. However, no charges have been brought. Garland declined to name a special prosecutor in the case to prevent a conflict of interest between himself and the Biden family.
Garland stated before the Senate Judicial Committee that Weiss “was instructed that he has complete power to issue those kinds of referrals that you’re talking about as well as bring cases in other jurisdictions if he deems it’s necessary” in response to the question of whether Weiss could charge Hunter without outside political pressure.
“And I will guarantee you that if he does, he’ll be able to do that,” Garland said in court, emphasizing that he would have to approve the charges.
He added, “I would then be required to authorize it and allow it to be presented in another jurisdiction which is what I promised I would do.”
Americans have recently lost faith in the DOJ as a result of its spying on the 2016 campaign of former President Donald Trump, the alleged failure to look into Hunter Biden’s “Laptop from Hell,” and the recent shocking news that a former New York FBI spy leader was arrested and charged for breaking American sanctions by agreeing to work for a Russian oligarch.
Republicans have questioned Weiss’s probe into Hunter’s suspected tax and weapons crimes as to why Hunter has not been charged. The U.S. attorney has enough evidence, according to House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), to arrest Hunter Biden for major crimes discovered on his abandoned “Laptop from Hell.”
He said on the Lou Dobbs podcast, “There’s enough to indict Hunter Biden right now, there was sufficient evidence to indict Hunter Biden even three or four years ago based on what was on his laptop. This U.S. attorney hasn’t gotten very many results, for whatever reason.”
Republicans have also questioned why Timothy Thibault, a former FBI “point man,” reportedly “shut down” an inquiry into Hunter’s laptop that was most likely unconnected to the continuing criminal investigations into possible tax fraud by the president’s son.
Whistleblowers allegedly informed the office of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in February that FBI agents at the Washington Field Office “incorrectly ordered information pertaining to Hunter Biden’s potential criminal wrongdoing in October 2020 — just prior to the election — to be closed by the FBI despite the fact that it was verified or verifiable.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) stated on Tuesday that “Merrick Garland owes the country answers as to why the Justice Department has declined to conduct a thorough investigation into Hunter Biden.”
Hunter’s case is being looked into by the DOJ independently of Comer’s congressional investigation. In November, Comer opened an investigation into the Biden family for nine offenses, including money laundering and wire fraud.