U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland reiterated his stance that the Justice Department has had no contact with the White House regarding its probe into Hunter Biden during a GOP-led House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, as Republicans have made the agency a central focus of its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn ... [+]
Garland, when asked by Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) about accusations from a whistleblower that the agency purposely slow-walked the investigation into the president’s son, Garland said he has not been involved in the Hunter Biden probe.
Garland responded to the allegation by saying, “much of what you are describing occurred during the Trump Administration with a Justice Department appointed by Trump,” referencing Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by Trump and whose office brought charges against Hunter Biden last week.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) also asked Garland whether the Justice Department has told the president to distance himself from his son: “You’ve got the president bringing Hunter Biden around to state dinners . . . has anyone told him to knock it off?”
Garland responded by repeating previous denials from the White House and the Justice Department that they have coordinated on the Hunter Biden probe, telling Gaetz “no one that I know of has spoken to the White House about the Hunter Biden case.”
Garland told the committee,“I am not the president’s lawyer” or “the prosecutor for Congress,” while noting that the “overwhelming majority” of DOJ prosecutors and staff “are career public servants, meaning, they were not appointed by the president of any party.”
Garland appeared before the committee for a routine oversight hearing for the first time since Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office indicted former President Donald Trump and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ office indicted Hunter Biden—as Republicans have sought to draw contrast in the handling of both investigations to bolster their claims that the Justice Department has been weaponized against Republicans and has helped protect the president’s son.
Weiss’ office charged Hunter Biden last week with three counts related to a gun purchase he made in 2018 while he was an admitted drug user. The case has been the subject of a string of whistleblower accusations that the agency treated Hunter Biden more leniently than it would other defendants, because he is the president’s son, though some of those claims have been refuted by other DOJ officials called to testify before Congress. Republicans have used the accusations to bolster their claims that the Justice Department has been co-opted by Democrats as the issue has become a central focus of its impeachment probe into President Joe Biden. Weiss, a Trump appointee, and Garland have also repeatedly denied the whistleblower accusations, while the White House has said that it has no involvement in the Hunter Biden case.
Garland also referenced increased threats against Justice Department officials as Republicans have ramped up their attacks on the agency, telling lawmakers “singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous, particularly at a time of increased threats to the safety of public servants and their families.” The FBI has created a special unit focused on threats against Justice Department officials working on the Hunter Biden case, NBC reported recently, citing an FBI official’s June testimony to the Judiciary Committee.
“We apply the same laws to everyone,” Garland said. “There is not one set of laws for the powerful and another for the powerless, one for the rich and another for the poor, one for Democrats and another for Republicans, or different rules depending on one’s race, ethnicity or religion . . . our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate.”
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