Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed before Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing that he is not President Joe Biden’s lawyer despite controversies surrounding his department’s investigation into Hunter Biden.
“I am not the president’s lawyer,” Garland told lawmakers. “I will also add that I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people.”
Garland also alleged the Justice Department’s job is “to pursue justice, without fear or favor” and not to “do what is politically convenient” or “take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate.”
Garland’s opening statement comes after handwritten notes from IRS Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Gary Shapley show he quoted now-Special Counsel David Weiss as saying he was “not the deciding person” on charging Hunter Biden with tax, gun, and Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations.
The handwritten notes emerged as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) launched an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden based on four premises, including “special treatment” Hunter Biden received during the investigation.
WATCH — “President Biden Did Lie”: McCarthy Announces Impeachment Inquiry into Joe Biden
Speaker Kevin McCarthy / FacebookHunter Biden was under investigation for nearly five years by then-U.S. prosecutor Weiss for gun, FARA, and tax violations. Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel after Weiss’s plea deal with Hunter Biden blew up under judicial scrutiny.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) slammed Garland during the hearing for leveraging a two-tier system of justice:
Even with a face-saving indictment last week of Hunter Biden, everyone knows the fix is in. Four and a half years, four and a half years the Department of Justice has been investigating Mr. Biden in an investigation run by David Weiss, an investigation that limited the number of witnesses agents could interview, an investigation that prohibited agents from referring to the president as the “big guy” in any of the interviews they did get to do, an investigation that curtailed attempts to interview Mr. Biden by giving the transit Team Secret a heads up, an investigation that notified Mr. Biden’s defense counsel about a pending search warrant, an investigation run by Mr. Weiss, run by Mr. Weiss, where they told the Congress three different stories in 33 days.
In two letters to Congress, Weiss contradicted himself about whether he was the deciding authority to charge Hunter Biden. Weiss ultimately reversed his position to agree with Garland, as both claimed Weiss was the sole authority to charge Hunter Biden, a claim contradicted by Shapley’s boss, Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who confirmed Weiss did not have authority to charge Hunter Biden.
Why hasn't DOJ been square with us? pic.twitter.com/NnIy0E4fWr
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) September 19, 2023
Waldon confirmed via email that Shapley’s notes were correct from an October 7, 2022, meeting between Waldon, Shapley, and Weiss, among others. “Darrell asked me to shoot an update from today’s meeting. Darrell — feel free to comment if I miss anything,” the top line of Shapley’s email read.
In point two of the email to Waldon, Shapley recapped that “Weiss stated he is not the deciding person of whether charges are filed. I believe this is a huge problem — inconsistent with DOJ public position and Merrick Garland testimony.”
Waldon replied to Shapley, “Thanks, Gary. You covered it all.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
