David Weiss, the district court attorney from Delaware who advanced a Hunter Biden plea deal so lenient it was rejected by Judge Maryellen Noreika, made a special request to take on the job of Biden's special counsel.
Weiss was appointed last Friday by Attorney General Merrick Garland (right), who said he waited three days before granting Weiss' request.
"I smell a trap," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) said on Washington Watch Friday. "This bunch is notorious for this kind of thing, saying Oh, we're going to work with you – and then they slam the door on your hand."
"David Weiss [who, as U.S. attorney in Delaware, has been investigating Hunter Biden] has moved to simply dismiss the entire case and says that they would like to refile charges in either Washington, DC, or California – which should tell you everything. This is clearly, in my opinion, forum selecting because the judge in this case [Judge Maryellen Noreika] did not want to just rubber-stamp this sweetheart plea deal. "Now suddenly, [Weiss decides] this is the wrong jurisdiction [and that] We have to go file in Washington, DC, or California, and get a liberal judge – who, of course, will be favorable toward the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden." "This does not pass the smell test …. This is obviously something that because [Judge Noreika] didn't give the prosecution what they wanted, then they want to go to a favorable judge. They're saying, Yeah, let's go to a judge that won't inquire on anything and we'll just give us what we want, which is to protect the Biden crime family." Jenna Ellis, constitutional attorney |
Burchett is a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which is looking into Hunter Biden's business dealings.
"I know everyone else wants to be more diplomatic, but this thing stinks," the Tennessee Republican added. "I don't trust this bunch as far as I can throw the dome off the Capitol, and I'm very much concerned about the process."
Weiss announced in late June that Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax and would enter a pretrial diversion program regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user or addicted to a controlled substance.
Often referred to as a "sweetheart deal," the arrangement would not require jail time for Joe Biden's son in spite of the fact that a years-long investigation showed he received more than $1.5 million in income for tax years 2017 and 2018. Hunter Biden owed more than $100,000 in taxes for each year.
The deal began to unravel when the Justice Department and Hunter Biden's defense team could not agree on Noreika's question of whether the plea arrangement protected him from possible future of illegal foreign lobbying.
Even the Left media sees the irony here
The irony in the timing and circumstances of the Weiss appointment wasn't lost only on House Republicans and conservative media. For example, CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Friday called the appointment "very suspicious."
Tapper asked why Biden's case now merits special status when less than two months ago Weiss was trying to push it across the finish line with the "sweetheart" plea deal.
There are multiple issues with the appointment of Weiss, Tapper said, noting that special counsels are often non-U.S. government employees. Furthermore, the CNN anchor asked why stick with Weiss when the plea deal he authored was just decimated by a federal judge?
Some Republicans, including Burchett, see the appointment of Weiss as a potential hurdle in the House investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings. The official X account – formerly Twitter – for the House Judiciary Committee Republicans after the Weiss appointment posted:
"David Weiss can't be trusted, and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family's corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it."
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has provided evidence through bank records, whistleblowers and an FBI document that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden each received $5 million payments as part of an alleged bribery scheme involving foreign nationals.
Any impact on current House investigations?
In a separate investigation, the House Judiciary Committee has been investigating sensitive material on Hunter Biden's laptop.
"We're talking about over $20 million that we know about," Burchett told show host Jody Hice. "You know as well as I do that if Tim Burchett can find $20 million, there's probably a whole heck of a lot more. Every two weeks something pops, and you know the next one will be bigger."
The fear among GOP legislators is that a special counsel investigation – headed by someone who many Republicans see as favorable to Hunter Biden – will impede their work as potential witnesses from other DOJ branches may begin to answer questions with the overused excuse: "I can't discuss that because it's an ongoing investigation."
"[The House investigations] is what they're trying to head off," Burchett explained. "In fact, sometimes they'll stop the investigations of other [committees], say the Oversight Committee, because now they [Hunter Biden, in this case] are under the auspices of a federal investigation."
