The Delaware-based federal judge to preside over Hunter Biden's arraignment later this month is facing mounting pressure by former Department of Justice officials to reject his plea deal as a majority of the nation says the president's son received "sweetheart" treatment.
In a poll that questioned issues about 53-year-old Biden's agreement to plead guilty to certain tax charges and enter a diversion program on a gun charge to avoid jail time, Rasmussen Reports said on Wednesday that 55% of likely U.S. voters disagree with the deal prosecutors made with the president's son.
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That poll comes just one week after a former head of the DOJ's tax division, Eileen O'Connor, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined "Throw Hunter Biden’s Plea Deal in the Trash."
"The judge to whom that agreement is presented on July 26 ought to consider rejecting it," O'Connor wrote, noting the agreement struck between Biden and U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss "gives credence" to recent claims made by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley.
Shapely, a current IRS agent who has worked for more than 14 years with the agency and oversaw part of the investigation into Biden, said he was barred from taking "certain investigative steps" that may have led to the president himself, according to an interview with CBS on June 27.
Shapely alleged those roadblocks included being barred from bringing charges in other jurisdictions and that he was denied special counsel status by the DOJ.
O'Connor focused on the part of Shapley's testimony to Congress where the whistleblower claimed on Oct. 7 last year that Weiss admitted he was not the final decision maker with respect to charges that may be brought against Biden.
"It was this statement that shocked and troubled Mr. Shapley such that he braved the consequences of becoming a whistleblower and sought legal counsel on how to do so," O'Connor wrote.
Shapely contends that Weiss supported charging Biden with felonies for evading taxes on $2.2 million but that Weiss didn't have the authority to bring those charges in California or Washington, D.C., and he was denied special counsel status that would have allowed him to proceed in those jurisdictions.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has said there was no interference despite Shapely's refusal to back down.
Weiss has since reiterated he was given "ultimate authority" over the investigation, including for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges.
Weiss pushed back on claims that the investigation was impeded, according to a letter sent to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
"At the appropriate time, I welcome the opportunity to discuss these topics with the Committee in more detail, and answer questions related to the whistleblowers' allegations consistent with the law and Department policy," Weiss added in his Friday letter.
Also on Friday, one of Biden's attorneys, Abbe Lowell, pushed back against any attempts to "improperly undermine" the judicial proceedings scheduled in the case of the president's son. "To any objective eye your actions were intended to improperly undermine the judicial proceedings that have been scheduled in the case," Lowell wrote to House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO).
After the announcement of Biden's likely probation-only plea deal surrounding two misdemeanor tax crimes and one gun crime, numerous legal experts suggested the president's son was given preferential treatment in the eyes of the law.
"If DOJ treated Hunter Biden like the thousands of no-names who get prosecuted he would be looking at decades in federal prison. Yes, I said decades," tweeted former Utah U.S. Attorney Brett L. Tolman, who worked for the Bush and Obama administrations from 2006 to 2009.
But other former prosecutors like Renato Mariotti pushed back on assertions that the younger Biden was let off easy, tweeting, "If anything, Hunter Biden was treated harshly — those crimes are rarely charged."
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A federal judge has not yet approved the deal. A hearing is slated on July 26 before Judge Maryellen Noreika at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Washington Examiner contacted the Office of Special Counsel, attorneys for Biden, and Weiss's office for comment.