<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655419328512,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000168-ed8c-d9d9-a9ec-ffac26f80002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655419328512,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000168-ed8c-d9d9-a9ec-ffac26f80002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_53618102", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1020311"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6eae-dd13-a9fb-7eae501c0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedRepublican senators appear to have been blocked by the Department of Justice from getting answers about the Hunter Biden investigation from the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware.
After repeatedly being stonewalled by DOJ headquarters in Washington D.C., Sens. Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) sent a May letter to U.S. attorney David Weiss, who is handling the Biden criminal case.
The senators asked about possible conflicts of interest and the existence of recusals within the Justice Department, raised concerns about the president’s son’s claims of judicial influence in Delaware, pressed the federal prosecutor on whether he was being properly supported by Main Justice, and inquired about what steps he had taken during his investigation.
DOJ headquarters was clearly alerted to the letter, because it was it, not Weiss, that responded to Grassley and Johnson, denying their requests for information.
“This responds to your letter to the Department of Justice, dated May 9, 2022, regarding the employment of certain Department employees and regarding certain actions that may or may not have been taken by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware,” acting Assistant Attorney General Peter Hyun said in a letter last week to Grassley and Johnson, with the official saying DOJ had responded in February 2021, March 2021, July 2021, and February 2022 to similar letters.
Hyun told the senators: “Department attorneys receive ethics and professional responsibility training as appropriate, sign a pledge to maintain public trust in government, and are subject to the Department’s scrupulous ethics and recusal protocols” and that “it will not be able to provide you with any further information regarding Department officials’ employment or specific recusal decisions.”
HUNTER BIDEN BRAGGED ABOUT HIS INFLUENCE OVER JOE BIDEN
Weiss was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2018. In February 2021, President Joe Biden asked all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump for their resignations, Weiss being the exception. John Durham was asked to step down as the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut but was kept on as special counsel for his criminal review of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Hunter revealed he was under federal investigation for his taxes shortly after the 2020 election and is reportedly being scrutinized for possible money laundering, as well as possible foreign lobbying violations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Nicholas McQuaid, a former federal prosecutor, was appointed acting chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division at the start of the Biden administration. McQuaid had been a partner at Latham & Watkins with Hunter Biden defense lawyer Christopher Clark and worked on cases with him right until McQuaid took the job at the Justice Department. McQuaid is now listed as principal deputy assistant attorney general for the division.
The senators pointed out to Weiss in May that they had sent letters to Garland about McQuaid repeatedly asking about his “conflicts of interest in the Hunter Biden case.”
The Justice Department hinted in February 2021 that McQuaid may have recused himself from the case, but did not say so directly, when the DOJ told the Washington Examiner that McQuaid “is screened and recused from matters in which he has a financial interest or a personal business relationship, including matters involving his former law firm.”
The senators asked Weiss a number of questions about the controversy: “Is Mr. McQuaid recused from the Hunter Biden criminal case? … Have any employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware been recused from the Hunter Biden criminal case? … Have you or any employee in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware exchanged any communications with Mr. McQuaid?”
The two senators revived their arguments about the Biden family’s financial links to China in a series of floor speeches beginning in March.
Grassley and Johnson had also asked Weiss whether his office had issued grand jury subpoenas to a host of banks for records relating to Hunter Biden; his uncle and Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden; James Biden’s wife, Sara Biden; Hunter Biden’s business associates John Walker, Eric Schwerin, and Devon Archer; and corporate entities linked to them, such as Hudson West III and the Lion Hall Group.
“While the Department strives to provide Congress with as much information as possible to satisfy its oversight interests, the Department also has a longstanding policy, spanning Administrations, not to confirm, deny, or comment on individual matters that may be under investigation, except under limited circumstances not applicable here,” the DOJ official told the senators in his June letter.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Grassley and Johnson also asked whether Weiss’s office has “received sufficient resources and support from the Justice Department to properly execute the Hunter Biden criminal case” and whether Weiss has “discussed the need for a special counsel or independent counsel to properly investigate.”
Then-Attorney General William Barr rejected the idea of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden in December 2020.
