DOJ offers Hunter Biden investigator for testimony before the House
The Department of Justice is offering U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who led its investigation into Hunter Biden, for testimony before the House of Representatives after House Republicans demanded he, and more than a dozen other officials, appear for interviews.
In a Monday letter obtained by Fox, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that the DOJ has accepted the offer for Weiss to testify ‘at a public hearing before the committee.’
‘The Department is ready to offer U.S. Attorney Weiss to testify shortly after Congress returns from the August district work period,’ the letter reads.
‘The Department believes it is strongly in the public interest for the American people and for Congress to hear directly from U.S. Attorney Weiss on these assertions and questions about his authority at a public hearing,’ it adds.
In June, House Republicans demanded Weiss and more than a dozen federal officials appear before multiple congressional committees for transcribed interviews regarding allegations of politicization and misconduct at their agencies throughout the years-long probe into the president’s son.
The House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and House Ways and Means Committee are conducting a joint- investigation into the federal probe into Hunter Biden, and whether prosecutorial decisions were influenced by politics.
The other DOJ officials House Republicans requested testimony from include Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, who allegedly blocked lines of questioning in the investigation related to President Biden; U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, who allegedly blocked Weiss from charging Hunter Biden in his district; Jack Morgan and Mark Daly of the DOJ’s Tax Division; U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California E. Martin Estrada; Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division Stuart Goldberg; Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon Hanson in Delaware; and Assistant U.S. attorney Shawn Weede.
From the FBI, the committees called for Tom Sobocinski, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office; and FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ryeshia Holley to appear for transcribed interviews.
From the IRS, the committees called for Michael Batdorf, a director within the IRS’ Criminal Investigation division; and Special Agent in Charge of the Washington D.C. Field Office Darrell J. Waldon of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division to appear before the panels for transcribed interviews.
From the U.S. Secret Service, the committees called on any Secret Service employees who received the alleged Dec. 7, 2020 ‘tip-off’ from the FBI.
An IRS whistleblower alleged that on Dec. 7, 2020, FBI headquarters notified the Secret Service and the Biden transition team about the IRS’ criminal investigative team’s plan to interview Hunter Biden. The whistleblower said that ‘tipped off’ a group of people ‘close to Hunter Biden’ and gave those individuals the ‘opportunity to obstruct’ their approach to the witness.
Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee have taken the lead on the DOJ and FBI portion of the investigation; with Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and the House Oversight Committee taking lead on the Secret Service and Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., at the House Ways and Means Committee taking the lead on the IRS.
The joint-investigation began after IRS whistleblowers came forward with allegations that the entire investigation into Hunter Biden, which began in 2018 as an ‘offshoot’ of an existing IRS probe into a foreign pornography platform, was ‘influenced by politics.’