U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, confirmed in Congressional testimony on Tuesday that he requested special attorney authority in the spring of 2022, according to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan.
Jordan said the closed-door testimony confirms allegations made by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley that Weiss did not have the ultimate charging authority in the Hunter Biden investigation.
“When he was specifically asked, did you ever request special attorney authority under Section 515, Mr. Weiss’s response was yes, in the spring of 2022. So that that goes to the heart of the matter,” Jordan told reporters.
“He won’t answer a lot of questions. But that’s the key takeaway, because this whole deposition was about the changing story we got from DOJ, regarding the authority that he had,” he added.
“And that answer, I think the key is, is entirely consistent with what Mr. Shapley said after the October 7, 2022 meeting, when he said USA Weiss requested Special Counsel authority when it was sent to D.C. and Main DOJ denied his request and told him to follow the process,” he continued.
Shapley previously testified that the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom President Biden appointed, had the final say over whether charges would be brought against Hunter Biden and that the Biden appointee was the one who made the call not to charge the younger Biden with a felony.
Shapley, who worked as an IRS investigator for over ten years and oversaw the agency’s tax investigation into Hunter Biden, told the House Oversight Committee that despite Weiss claiming he had ultimate authority over the investigation, D.C. U.S. attorney Matthew Graves was in charge.
“After U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew Graves, appointed by President Biden, refused to bring charges, I watched Mr. Weiss tell a room full of senior FBI and IRS investigators on October 7, 2022, that he was ‘not the deciding person on whether charges are filed,'” Shapley said.
Meanwhile, Weiss has publicly flip-flopped over whether he had authority on when and whether to bring charges. He said in a June 7 letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan that he did in fact have charging authority, but later walked back that claim in a second letter on June 30.
In a July letter to Senator Lindsey Graham, Weiss said he did not request special counsel authority and that he instead had discussions with departmental officials regarding a “potential appointment” under Section 515, “which would have allowed me to file charges in a district outside my own without the partnership of the local U.S. Attorney.”
Weiss later requested special counsel authority in August 2023, at which point Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him as a special counsel.
Weiss testified on Tuesday that he was not “blocked” or “prevented from pursuing charges” against Hunter Biden in the investigation that began in 2018. He claimed “political considerations played no part” in his decision-making.
He said in a statement after his testimony on Tuesday that he is “in the midst of conducting an ongoing investigation and prosecution” and that he is “limited as to what I can say at this point.”
“I am, and have been, the decision-maker on this case,” Weiss said. “I do not, however, make these decisions in a vacuum. I am bound by federal law, the principles of federal prosecution and DOJ guidelines.”
“There are processes that I must adhere to in making investigative and charging decisions,” he added. “These processes did not interfere with my decision-making authority. At no time was I blocked or otherwise prevented from pursuing charges or taking the steps necessary in the investigation by other United States attorneys, the Tax Division or anyone else at the Department of Justice.”