Special counsel to meet with Judiciary panel on Hunter Biden investigation
Special counsel David Weiss is slated to appear before investigators with the House Judiciary Committee next month to answer questions about his ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden.
Weiss, who had previously committed to a meeting with the panel, will sit for a closed-door interview Nov. 7, a source familiar confirmed to The Hill.
The meeting follows testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who complained the criminal investigation was slow-walked under Weiss’s leadership, showing preferential treatment to the president’s son.
Weiss has denied any favoritism in how he handled the investigation, which initially was slated for a plea deal, with Biden pleading guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay taxes.
But after that plea deal evaporated over confusion between prosecutors and Biden’s attorneys over the extent he would be shielded from further prosecution, Weiss signaled there could be further charges for Biden.
Those charges might even come in California or Washington, D.C., Weiss indicated in court filings, two jurisdictions where the whistleblowers — IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler — said there was stronger evidence of tax crimes.
Still, other details of the whistleblowers’ testimony has been challenged by other investigators involved in the Biden case.
Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for D.C., reportedly told the panel’s investigators that he did not stage any opposition to Weiss bringing charges there, saying that though he did not seek to directly partner in the case, he offered assistance from his office to do so.
And one FBI investigator, Thomas Sobocinski, said he never heard Weiss say he had been denied special counsel status — a claim from Shapley said he took to mean Weiss did not have total control over the investigation.
The agent also said none of the investigative team responded when he asked in a meeting if anyone felt the case was being politicized. Sobocinski said the team was being necessarily cautious in approaching Biden, given the need to confer with the Secret Service rather than arrive at Biden’s home with competing sets of armed agents.
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