by John Solomon
“We think it's important that we talk to a wider array of involved people in a private interview setting," House Judiciary Committee Chairman tells Just the News
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is not satisfied with the Justice Department’s offer to let only David Weiss, the lead prosecutor in the Hunter Biden criminal tax probe, answer some questions in public, telling Just the News that he’s pressing ahead for interviews and documents from at least 11 officials involved in different aspects of the probe.
Jordan said his concern is that the Biden administration has given conflicting and incongruent stories about the first family’s overseas business dealings and the efforts inside DOJ to probe them. At the same time, Jordan said, FBI and IRS whistleblowers like Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler and former business associate Devon Archer have provided clear accounts suggesting there are unpunished crimes ranging from tax evasion to foreign influence peddling and bribery.
“We got these differing stories coming from the White House regarding the business, from the Justice Department regarding the handling of the Hunter Biden case. And the ones that have ever been consistent, and I think credible, incredibly credible, are the are the stories, the testimony from Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler, the two IRS whistleblowers, and their story has been confirmed by an FBI agent as well, who was deposed by the Oversight Committee,” Jordan told the John Solomon Reports podcast last week.
In a wide-ranging interview, Jordan identified some of the major question his committee is determined to get answered, including:
- Did the FBI or Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss ever investigate a trusted informant’s allegations relayed in a FD-1023 interview report in June 2020 that Burisma Holdings was coerced into making a $10 million bribe to the Bidens to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the energy firm for corruption?
- Did the FBI or prosecutors ever seek to get alleged audio tapes and other evidence that Burisma officials claimed to have possibly incriminating the Bidens?
- Why did Weiss’ office restrain and block IRS and FBI agents from asking questions about Joe Biden, from executing search warrants on properties where Hunter Biden kept evidence or conducting a previously-approved surprise interview with the president’s son?
- Why were agents on the front lines of the investigation walled off from certain evidence like the FD-1023 bribery allegations and emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop that were likely relevant to their case?
- Did Joe Biden-appointed U.S. Attorneys in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. decline to bring criminal tax charges against Hunter Biden, and if so, why?
- Why did Weiss’ office allow the statute of limitations to expire on felony charges against Hunter Biden that would have punished him for evading taxes on $400,00 in income from Ukraine’s Burisma in 2014 and scale back the case to misdemeanor charges from later years?
- Did Weiss tell investigators he was turned down from bringing charges in other jurisdiction and denied the chance to act as a special counsel?
- Why didn’t prosecutors pursue charges under The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) alleging Hunter Biden failed to file as a foreign agent for some of his clients, especially given Archer’s testimony that he considered the president’s son a “lobbyist?”
- Why did prosecutors agree to a rare plea deal that deferred punishment on a gun charge that a federal judge blew up on July 26?
Weiss’ current story in letters to Congress – claiming that he had the authority to bring any charges he wanted against Hunter Biden in any state – directly conflicts with the testimony of Shapley and Ziegler, who said Weiss told them he was turned down on charges and his request to be named a special counsel with broader prosecution authorities.
Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office made an offer late last month for Weiss to answer limited questions at a public hearing while delaying requests to interview other witnesses or access evidence in the case. Jordan said that offer is inadequate and that he is pressing ahead with demands for interviews and documents, especially from one of Weiss’ top deputies named Leslie Wolf who was cited repeatedly by the whistleblowers.
“We had 11 people that we wanted to talk to and the Justice Department says we'll make Mr. Weiss available for public testimony,” he said. “But we think it's important that we talk to some of these people in a private interview setting prior to any type of public hearing.
"Now, the question will be now that the plea agreement didn't happen last week, and this this 30 day timeframe, and what we can do in that timeframe? So we've sent letters asking questions, but will we be able to get to the interviews yet? We don't know that. But we're going to continue to push ahead for those.”
Jordan isn’t the only member of Congress pressing for such answers. Ten members of the Senate Judiciary Committee led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.), Chuck Grassley (R-Ia) and Ted Cruz (R-Tx) on Friday demanded that Weiss and Garland be called to testify about the allegations Shapley and the other whistleblowers have made.
“Mr. Shapley's "testimony credibly alleges that the Biden Administration's IRS, FBI, and DOJ mishandled the Hunter Biden tax investigation, by engaging in a 'delay, divulge, and deny' campaign,” the Republican senators wrote. “Ranking Member Graham also sought information about a FD-1023 that contained allegations of Biden family corruption. U.S. Attorney Weiss and his team had been briefed on this document and was told that the allegations did not initially appear to be foreign disinformation
Here are some other important reading materials on the dispute.
John Solomon
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/jim-jordan-has-big-questions-about-hunter-biden-probe-wants-answers-11-doj
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