Hunter Biden prosecutor denies requesting special counsel

The Delaware federal prosecutor leading the investigation into first son Hunter Biden denied on Monday that he requested special counsel status, disputing congressional testimony from IRS whistleblowers that he was twice barred from the role.

“To clarify an apparent misperception and to avoid future confusion, I wish to make one point clear: in this case, I have not requested Special Counsel designation,” US Attorney David Weiss wrote in a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) first published by Politico.

Weiss added that he “had discussions with Departmental officials” about his authority to bring charges outside of Delaware and “was assured that I would be granted this authority if it proved necessary,” but said he had “never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland also said in sworn congressional testimony earlier this year that Weiss had “full authority” to pursue charges wherever they led.

In testimony that the House Ways and Means Committee made public June 22, IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley and an unnamed whistleblower both said Weiss acknowledged that the Justice Department denied him special counsel status twice.

Shapley further claimed that Weiss admitted in an October 7, 2022, meeting that US Attorneys Martin Estrada and Matthew Graves had blocked Weiss from bringing charges that year in Southern California and the District of Columbia, respectively. President Biden appointed Estrada and Graves to their positions during his first two years in office.

That was apparently corroborated days later by IRS Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who according to emails shared by Shapley’s legal team said a memo drafted by the IRS agent to recount the meeting had “covered it all.”

Weiss in his letter pointed out that the “assurance” that he had the authority to bring charges “came months before” the October 2022 meeting. “In this case, I’ve followed the process outlined in my June 30 letter and have never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction,” he said.

“US Attorney David Weiss’s story continues to change,” Empower Oversight, which represents Shapley, said in a statement on Monday. “As a practical matter, it makes no difference whether Weiss requested special counsel or special attorney authority. Under no circumstances should ‘the process’ have included the political appointees of the subject’s father, because Congress and the public had been assured it would not—but it did.”

Weiss refused to share further information about the first son’s case, citing his “duty to protect confidential law enforcement information and deliberative communications related to the case.”

Both the whistleblowers’ allegations — and information from an FBI informant about a $10 million bribery scheme involving President Biden and his son — were the subject of ongoing investigations and could not be commented on, according to Weiss.

In addition to Graham, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has also requested and been denied internal communications from Weiss’ office.