During a Senate hearing in March, Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, took the opportunity to question Attorney General Merrick B. Garland about the investigation into Hunter Biden. He read out a series of highly specific queries, which he had written on a piece of paper. Grassley wanted to know if David C. Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware who continued overseeing the inquiry under Garland, had the power to bring charges against President Biden’s son in California and Washington. Grassley also asked if Weiss had ever requested to be made a special counsel and if the investigation was truly free from political considerations.
This exchange has gained significance following the release of testimonies from a senior Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigator, Gary Shapley, regarding the Hunter Biden case. Shapley’s testimony appears to contradict Garland’s previous assurances that Weiss had complete autonomy to pursue the case as he saw fit. Shapley, who supervised the IRS’s role in the investigation of Biden’s taxes, claimed that Weiss faced resistance from top federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington when he proposed bringing charges in those jurisdictions.
Shapley, testifying under whistle-blower protections, also stated that he had witnessed Weiss stating that he would not be the deciding official in prosecuting Biden. Weiss had also been denied special counsel status, which would have afforded him more flexibility in handling the case.
These conflicting accounts provided by Shapley have given Republicans an opportunity to raise doubts about the case and question the Justice Department’s claims of non-interference. However, it remains uncertain whether the differences in accounts stem from miscommunication, substantive disagreements among agencies on the best approach to the prosecution, or personal animosity among officials involved in a high-pressure, high-profile case.
Efforts by Republicans to connect Hunter Biden’s issues to his father have often fallen short, and Garland, a former federal appeals court judge, has distanced himself from the decision-making in politically contentious cases that have come across his desk. Nevertheless, Republican leaders now view Garland as a potentially vulnerable figure as they seek ways to undermine the president in preparation for the 2024 campaign.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy stated that if the claims made by the IRS whistle-blower proved true, Republicans would initiate impeachment inquiries against the attorney general. Garland vehemently denied Shapley’s allegations during a press conference. Weiss also reiterated in a letter to Congress that he had not faced constraints in pursuing the investigation. However, Weiss has yet to respond to specific questions posed by House Republicans following Shapley’s testimony.
The White House dismissed McCarthy’s impeachment threat as a distraction, and Hunter Biden’s lawyers have accused Shapley of violating federal laws governing the secrecy of grand jury material. Shapley’s attorney insists that his client has protected rights as a whistle-blower.
Concerns regarding the inconsistencies in this case have led to calls for Garland and Weiss to testify before Congress or hold a comprehensive press conference to address all the questions posed to them.
Weiss recently announced that Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to his failure to file taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. Weiss also charged Biden for illegally purchasing a handgun in 2018 but decided not to prosecute the charge under a pretrial diversion program.
The investigation into Hunter Biden was initiated by the Trump Justice Department in 2018 and eventually handed over to Weiss, a Republican who garnered support from Delaware’s two Democratic senators during his confirmation. Weiss was determined to keep the inquiry confidential for as long as possible, as revealed in transcripts from committee sessions. After President Biden’s election, Weiss remained in charge of the investigation, supported by the department’s interim leadership. Garland continued this arrangement after his confirmation and aimed to distance himself from any perception of political interference.
While Garland seemed satisfied with how the politically charged case was being handled, Shapley, an IRS employee for 14 years, was growing increasingly frustrated. He argued in meetings with Weiss and other prosecutors for aggressive pursuit of charges against Biden related to unpaid taxes in 2014 and 2015. These two years were not covered in Biden’s agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. Shapley suggested that Biden had earned income from work for a Ukraine-based energy company and Chinese clients, which he believed was being funneled through entities with a presence in Washington and Los Angeles.
It remains unclear if Weiss agreed that these aspects of the investigation should be prosecuted or if he simply sought a thorough examination of all potential charges. However, Shapley testified that in mid-2022, Weiss approached Matthew Graves, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, to request his office to pursue charges but was denied. A similar request to prosecutors in the Central District of California was also rejected. A second unnamed former IRS official corroborated this account to House Republicans. The New York Times independently verified this episode with a person familiar with the situation.
Although Weiss had the authority to pursue leads in jurisdictions beyond Delaware, department protocols required him to seek approval and collaboration from U.S. attorneys in those districts before proceeding. If Weiss wanted to bypass their approval, he could have escalated the issue to Garland, who could have appointed him as a special attorney, granting him the ability to deviate from the standard chain of command. There is no indication that Weiss sought assistance from Garland or other top-ranking officials or that he communicated about the case with anyone beyond the department’s highest-ranking career official at headquarters.
When Grassley questioned Garland on this matter during the March hearing, without explicitly referring to Shapley’s claims, the attorney general assured Grassley that Weiss would have the ability to bring charges outside of Delaware if he wished. Garland reiterated this message during a press conference following the release of the hearing transcript.
As the investigation continued, Shapley grew increasingly disillusioned with the lack of progress and was disturbed by the conduct of the Justice Department, which affected his sleep. According to Shapley, Weiss himself was unhappy, despite his public statements to the contrary, and expressed frustration over constraints imposed by higher-ups in the department.
These issues came to a head during a meeting involving…
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