By Harold Hutchison
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that a letter from U.S. Attorney David Weiss casting doubt on whistleblower allegations about the Hunter Biden investigation “raises more issues.”
Weiss disputed allegations by two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers that officials at the Justice Department interfered with the probe by denying Weiss final authority to file charges against Hunter Biden, according to The Washington Post. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee released transcripts in June of depositions from Gary Shapley and another IRS whistleblower who said Attorney General Merrick Garland and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel lied to Congress about political interference in the probe.
WATCH:
“What are you going to do to compel him?” a reporter asked McCarthy about Weiss.
“I think you cannot sit back and hide behind and have an attorney general saying one thing, you say something else in private,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol building. “What do you have to hide? Wouldn’t you first and foremost, why would you wait so long to respond?”
The Justice Department announced June 20 that Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges, while a felony charge of lying on the form filled out when purchasing a firearm would be addressed via a pre-trial diversion program following an investigation by Weiss. Congressional Republicans, candidates for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and legal experts all criticized the plea agreement, with some calling it a “sweetheart deal.”
“I have not requested Special Counsel designation,” Weiss wrote in the letter sent to lawmakers Monday, the Post reported. Weiss also said that he could not discuss particular details of the Hunter Biden probe, according to the Post.
“If you knew this was a question, if you knew because of the attorney that you work — because you work for the attorney general and others, and that it would rise to such a constitutional question, why wouldn’t you step out the first day and say, ‘I got nothing to hide, let’s talk about what was said. This was right or this was wrong,’” McCarthy added. “Why do you want to mince words and say the letter itself can be delayed? That just raises more issues.”
Emails appear to back up the allegations from the whistleblowers, including one from October 2022 that said Weiss told law enforcement personnel he didn’t have authority.
“I believe the committees will do their work, and we’ll bring people in and we’ll get to the bottom of it,” McCarthy said.
