Republicans grill the attorney general
Investigating the Investigations into Hunter Biden and the Former President Donald Trump: Attorney General Merrick Garland and the House Judiciary Committee
Attorney General Merrick Garland is set to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning where Republicans are expected to grill him over the investigations into Hunter Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The committee’s oversight duties are supposed to include the hearing, which is scheduled to get heated between the US’s top prosecutor and the Republican members.
Republicans have not launched an investigation into Mr. Garland. The claims are being incorporated into the case against President Biden and his administration.
That’s due to the investigations into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material, his surviving son, Hunter Biden and of former President Donald Trump.
Garland said in his prepared statement that there are different rules for rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, depending on a person’s race.
He continued, “As the President himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the President’s lawyer. I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department is a part of the United States. We follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. And that is what we do.”
After a plea deal between Biden and federal prosecutors fell apart his special counsel designation came about. Biden would have avoided prosecution on a felony firearm offense as part of the plea deal.
As the investigation was ongoing, two IRS agents came forward and accused the DOJ publicly of giving Biden preferential treatment and slow-walking the investigation.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner this week, Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan said that a major focus for the committee this morning will be on special counsel Jack Smith who is leading the federal investigation into Trump.
Jordan and other Republican lawmakers have sided with Trump in his claims that he did nothing wrong and that Smith and the DOJ are interfering in the 2024 election by prosecuting the former president.
The Special Counsel and the U.S. Attorney in Delaware vowed to sue Hunter Biden in a High-Tensor Case
When David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, asked for special counsel status, the Justice Department says Mr. Garland approved his request quickly.
They contend the special counsel and U.S. attorney in Delaware have not been forthcoming with Congress about the independence of the investigation. The conflict boiled over when two agents from I.R.S. went public with their claims that the investigation had been stymied and slow-walked because of political inference, and the Justice Department had not been transparent about the restrictions they had on Mr. Weiss.
Mr. Weiss and Mr. Garland gave assurances to lawmakers that he had ultimate authority over the Hunter Biden case.
Three other witnesses at that meeting have contradicted the specifics of Mr. Shapley’s claims, saying they did not hear Mr. Weiss say what Mr. Shapley attributed to him. In a more nuanced situation, they have vouched for the statements about Mr. Weiss being limited in his authority.
Mr. Shapley also said that Mr. Weiss had been turned down when he sought special counsel status, which would have allowed him greater flexibility in handling the case.
Instead, Mr. Weiss said he had discussions with Justice Departmental officials about a potential appointment as a “special attorney,” which would allow him to bypass the standard chain of command and file charges against Hunter Biden outside his district.
