Chris Lieberman, FISM News
Senate Republicans have written a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to grant U.S. Attorney David Weiss the status of special counsel as he investigates Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
The letter, organized by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and signed by 33 GOP senators, lists a number of concerns the senators have with Garland’s running of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the FBI’s handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.
Citing the resulting lack of public faith in the DOJ, Republicans are now calling on Garland to give Weiss special counsel status “to allow him to investigate an appropriate scope of potentially criminal conduct, avoid the appearance of impropriety, and provide additional assurances to the American people that the Hunter Biden investigation is free from political influence.”
Given the politicization of the DOJ under your watch and the importance of avoiding any appearance of impropriety, the undersigned request that you provide U.S. Attorney Weiss the full protections and authorities of a special counsel This is one important action that you can take that will go a long way in restoring faith in our governmental institutions.
The request came one day after CBS aired an interview with President Biden on 60 Minutes in which he maintained that his son’s dealings did not present a conflict of interest for him.
“There’s not a single thing that I’ve observed at all that would affect me or the United States relative to my son Hunter,” the president said.
Federal law allows the attorney general to appoint a special counsel in situations when an investigation or prosecution by a member of the DOJ or a U.S. attorney “would present a conflict of interest for the Department or other extraordinary circumstances.”
Weiss, who was appointed by Trump and retained by the Biden administration as the lead federal attorney in Biden’s home state of Delaware, is currently supervising the FBI investigation into the president’s son. Special counsel status would grant Weiss with broad powers to investigate and prosecute free from interference from the Department of Justice.
At the time of writing, Garland has not responded to the request.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the House Oversight Committee are set to take up a resolution Tuesday that could force the White House to turn over documents on Hunter Biden to the committee. House Resolution 1243 states, “The President is requested to transmit to the House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after the adoption of this resolution, copies of any document, record, report, memo, correspondence, or other communication in his possession that refers or relates to” Hunter Biden and his various bank holdings.
The resolution comes amidst reports of at least 150 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to Hunter Biden’s bank accounts. The Treasury Department recently changed its policy on SARs and invoked the Bank Secrecy Act to deny the committee’s request to view the documents.
However, House Oversight Committee Ranking Republican Rep. James Comer argues that the issue is a national security issue and the release of the documents is in the public’s best interest.
“President Biden’s family peddles access to the highest levels of government to enrich themselves, often at the expense of U.S. interests,” said Comer. “We need to know if President Biden has received a cut from these shady foreign business deals. If President Biden or his immediate family has, that is a national security threat and he may be compromised.”