The appointment of an independent counsel to investigate Hunter Biden could be yet another move by the Biden administration to keep the scandal from imperiling his presidency.
Or it could be a move that signals a new aggressiveness by the Justice Department against Hunter Biden.
But putting the same prosecutor, David Weiss, who arranged the much-criticized plea deal for Hunter Biden in charge of the independent probe smacks of an optical political maneuver which will also give Democrats cover to keep charging Donald Trump.
Even the liberal New York Times called it “cosmetic gesture” at best.
“This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on X, previously known as Twitter.
The move also insulates Weiss, from Biden’s home state of Delaware, from having to answer questions before Congress about his original plea deal with Hunter which was thrown out by a federal judge.
Weiss is the one who investigated Hunter Biden’s business dealings and brought charges which Republicans have criticized as too lenient. He has no credibility at this point.
Weiss himself asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to make him special counsel in the case against Hunter, and Garland complied.
“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 said.
The Justice Department said Weiss will not be strictly limited to investigating just Hunter and that the special counsel probe includes “any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.”
That means the special counsel investigation could lead to Joe Biden himself.
But Republicans immediately assailed the appointment of Weiss as another “coverup” by the Biden administration.
“David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just an easy way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption,” House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said in a statement. “Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the move as giving Hunter more “soft glove treatment.”
“If Hunter Biden was a Republican he’d be in jail by now,” he said.
Jordan and other Republican leaders said the House will continue its own investigation of Hunter Biden as well as Weiss’s “inconsistent” statements to Congress.