Over a dozen sources had Hunter Biden tips

Sen. Chuck Grassley grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland over the Hunter Biden probe Wednesday, revealing for the first time that “over a dozen sources” had tipped off the FBI and Justice Department to potential criminal activity by the first son.

“Recent lawfully protected whistleblower disclosures to my office indicate that the Justice Department and FBI had — at one time — over a dozen sources that provided potentially criminal information relating to Hunter Biden.” Grassley (R-Iowa), 89, told Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “The alleged volume and similarity of information would demand that the Justice Department investigate the truth and accuracy of the information.”

“Accordingly, what steps has the Justice Department taken to determine the truth and accuracy of the information provided?” Grassley asked. “Congress and the American people have a right to know.”

Garland, 70, deflected, saying he had promised during his confirmation hearings not to interfere in the probe headed by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, and “I have carried through on my pledge.”

Grassley later cast doubt on Garland’s claims that the probe by Weiss — one of the few serving US attorneys appointed by President Donald Trump — was truly independent.

“Has the Delaware US attorney sought permission of another US Attorney’s Office, such as in the District of Columbia or California, to bring charges?” the senator asked. “If so, was it denied?”

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Garland said before insisting that Weiss has been told that “he is not to be denied anything that he needs, and if that were to happen, it should ascend through the department’s ranks, and I have not heard anything from that office to suggest that they are not able to do everything that the US attorney wants to do.”

“Well, let me give you my view,” Grassley said. “If Weiss, the US attorney there in Delaware, must seek permission from a [President] Biden-appointed US attorney to bring charges, then the Hunter Biden criminal investigation isn’t insulated from political interference, as you publicly proclaimed.”

It was not immediately clear whether the scenario Grassley referenced was merely hypothetical. Neither a spokesman for the Iowa Republican nor the Delaware US Attorney’s Office responded to requests for comment or clarification.

Grassley first referenced allegations from “highly credible whistleblowers” in July 2022, accusing Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray in separate letters of burying “verified and verifiable” dirt on President Biden’s son — and had falsely chosen to dismiss it as “disinformation.”

If the allegations were proven, Grassley said at the time, it would show that the federal law enforcement agencies were “institutionally corrupted to their very core.”

“You have an obligation to the country to take these allegations seriously, immediately investigate and take steps to institute fixes to these and other matters before you,” he told Wray and Garland in the letter.

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The Iowa senator also told the agency heads that the “volume and consistency” of the whistleblowers’ information corroborated that the FBI obtained “derogatory information” about the first son’s “criminal financial and related activity” in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

But the agency closed the investigation the month before voting, according to the whistleblowers, and the assistant special agent in charge of the probe had “attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future,” Grassley wrote.

At the same time, the senator said, former intelligence officials sought to “smear” those who called for investigations into Hunter Biden’s business dealings as being driven by “foreign disinformation.”

Hunter Biden, 53, is under long-standing investigation by federal authorities in connection with his overseas business interests, with investigators reportedly believing they have enough evidence to charge him with tax crimes and lying on a federal gun purchase form.