From 3h ago
The US house committee on oversight and accountability has issued a statement on attorney general Merrick Garland’s announcement of David Weiss’s appointment as special counsel.
“The DoJ is attempting a Biden family coverup,” the committee said.
The statement continued:
“This is part of the DoJ’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of our Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling “the brand” for millions of dollars to foreign nationals.
The justice department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden.
Justice department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal.
Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden justice department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.”
The committee said that it will continue the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Biden family.
It is slightly past 4pm in Washington DC. Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
In a surprise announcement on Friday, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that he has appointed US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son. Garland said that Weiss had told him earlier this week that his investigation had “reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed.”
Prominent Republicans including Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley and Steve Scalise have criticized Weiss’s appointment, with many calling the appointment a “sham” and an attempt by the DoJ to protect the Biden family.
The US judge Tanya Chutkan, presiding in the federal criminal investigation alleging Donald Trump tried to subvert the 2020 presidential election, rejected Trump’s request to designate witness transcripts and videos as non-sensitive (and thereby exclude them from the protective order requested by the prosecution).
Chutkan said at the first hearing after Trump was arraigned on federal charges in the election case: “Trump has the right to free speech but that right is not absolute.”
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump attended a court hearing in Washington DC, over special counsel Jack Smith’s request to limit Trump’s ability to publicly reveal evidence collected during the criminal investigation into the insurrection on 6 January 2021.
The White House said on Friday that it is open to training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in the US if training capacity is reached in Europe. Reuters reports White House spokesperson John Kirby saying that Washington is eager to move forward with the training.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.
The White House said on Friday that it is open to training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in the US if training capacity is reached in Europe.
Reuters reports White House spokesperson John Kirby saying that Washington is eager to move forward with the training.
Nikki Haley, one of the Republican presidential candidates and Donald Trump’s former US ambassador to the UN, told Fox News that she does not trust the justice department’s decision to appoint David Weiss.
“I don’t trust it. I don’t think the American people trust it. I don’t think that the American people trust the Department of Justice or anything that this is going to do. I think this was meant to be a distraction,” Reuters reports Haley saying.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for ex-president Donald Trump, issued a statement on David Weiss’s appointment, accusing the justice department of protecting the Biden family.
Reuters reports the statement:
“Crooked Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the entire Biden Crime Family have been protected by the Justice Department for decades even though there is overwhelming evidence and credible testimony detailing their wrongdoing of lying to the American people and selling out the country to foreign enemies for the Biden Cartel’s own financial gain.
If this special counsel is truly independent – even though he failed to bring proper charges after a four year investigation and he appears to be trying to move the case to a more Democrat-friendly venue – he will quickly conclude that Joe Biden, his troubled son Hunter, and their enablers, including the media, which colluded with the 51 intelligence officials who knowingly misled the public about Hunter’s laptop, should face the required consequences.”
Another prominent Republican has warned against David Weiss’s appointment, with the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, warning that “this action by Biden’s DoJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations.”
“If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a special counsel?
House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people,” he said.
Steve Scalise, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, also weighed in David Weiss’s appointment, calling it a “sham”.
“Don’t be fooled. Garland appointing Weiss as a sham special counsel on Hunter is a way to block info from Congress while claiming they’re investigating.
Weiss approved the sweetheart plea deal. This is an even better deal for Hunter since charges may never come. Outrageous,” he tweeted.
Republican representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who also serves as chairman of the House judiciary committee, also lambasted David Weiss’s appointment.
In a tweet on Friday, Jordan said:
“David Weiss said he didn’t have the power he needed and wanted special counsel status.”
He went on to say, “Thought we had the plea agreement all worked out. Now Weiss needs to be special counsel? What?”
The US house committee on oversight and accountability has issued a statement on attorney general Merrick Garland’s announcement of David Weiss’s appointment as special counsel.
“The DoJ is attempting a Biden family coverup,” the committee said.
The statement continued:
“This is part of the DoJ’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of our Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling “the brand” for millions of dollars to foreign nationals.
The justice department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden.
Justice department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal.
Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden justice department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.”
The committee said that it will continue the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Biden family.
Here is some context to explain how Hunter Biden and David Weiss arrived at this moment, from our recent analysis.
Last month, Hunter Biden arrived in a Delaware courtroom expecting to finalize a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over two misdemeanor tax charges.
Hours later, Hunter Biden unexpectedly pleaded not guilty to the charges after the judge overseeing the case expressed skepticism about the specifics of the proposed deal. The court adjourned without a clear next step – until today.
Weiss, who has just been made special counsel, has been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018 over potential violations of tax and gun laws. Weiss, who was appointed by Donald Trump, announced earlier this year that his office had reached a plea agreement with the president’s son. As well as admitting the charges of tax violations, Biden would enter a pre-trial diversion program on a separate felony gun charge.
Prosecutors were expected to recommend two years of probation, with Biden avoiding jail.
The pre-trial diversion program would have ultimately resulted in the gun charge being dropped, assuming Hunter Biden met certain terms laid out by prosecutors. The felony charge is otherwise punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Republicans had attacked the plea agreement as a “sweetheart deal” that reflected a double standard of justice, but legal experts note the charges brought against the president’s son are rarely prosecuted.
The US district judge Maryellen Noreika at the time gave prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s defense team 30 days to further hash out the details of the agreement, and the court is expected to reconvene in the coming weeks to re-examine the case.
Now we have a special counsel appointed, so it’s a brand new day.
Hello again, US politics live blog readers, the news day took off straight away and continues fast and furious with high-profile connections between politics and criminal investigations from both sides of the party political world. There are more developments and reactions to come, so do stay with Guardian US. We’re also covering the tragic wild fires in Hawaii and you can follow that news, live, here.
Here’s where things stand in political news:
The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that he has appointed US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel to continue his criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, president Joe Biden’s son.
The US judge Tanya Chutkan, presiding in the federal criminal investigation alleging Donald Trump tried to subvert the 2020 presidential election, rejected Trump’s request to designate witness transcripts and videos as non-sensitive (and thereby exclude them from the protective order requested by the prosecution).
Chutkan said at the first hearing after Trump was arraigned on federal charges in the election case: “Trump has the right to free speech but that right is not absolute.”
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump attended a court hearing in Washington DC, over special counsel Jack Smith’s request to limit Trump’s ability to publicly reveal evidence collected during the criminal investigation into the insurrection on 6 January 2021.
A court filing on Friday showed that Weiss had said the parties in the Hunter Biden case were at an impasse in their plea negotiations and that a trial was necessary.
As special counsel, Weiss now has additional authority to investigate whether Biden engaged in improper business dealings.
In a surprise announcement on Friday, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that he has appointed US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son.
Weiss has been overseeing the investigation into the financial and business dealings of Hunter Biden.
Garland said that Weiss had told him earlier this week that his investigation had “reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed”.
Garland said:
Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel.”
Garland went on to say that he is confident that Weiss will carry out his responsibilities in an “even-handed and urgent manner”.
As special counsel, Weiss will be permitted to “continue his investigation, take any investigative steps he wanted and make the decision whether to prosecute in any district”, Garland added.
Garland’s surprise announcement comes amid the justice department’s investigations into Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s main rival in the 2024 presidential election who has been charged for efforts in overturning the 2020 presidential election results.
Hunter Biden had been expected to finalize a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over two misdemeanor tax charges. However, he unexpectedly took a sudden turn and pleaded not guilty to the charges in court in Wilmington, Delaware, last month.
The Guardian’s full explainer on the plea deal can be found here.
When asked whether president Biden would end up pardoning his his son last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre replied: “No.”
As special counsel, David Weiss will be permitted to “continue his investigation, take any investigative steps he wanted and make the decision whether to prosecute in any district”, Merrick Garland said.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
