House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he would open up an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Merrick Garland if the whistleblower allegations about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Hunter Biden criminal investigation turn out to be true.
While Biden plans to plead guilty to three federal charges, two misdemeanor tax charges and one felony gun charge, Republicans in Congress are livid at what they perceive as “preferential treatment” of the president’s son. And following testimony from two IRS whistleblowers alleging DOJ intervention in the investigation, they now want a deeper look into the allegations.
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On Twitter and on Fox and Friends, McCarthy threatened an impeachment inquiry of Garland stemming from testimony from the two IRS whistleblowers that the DOJ significantly hindered a criminal investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“If it comes true what the IRS whistleblower is saying, we’re going to start impeachment inquiries on the attorney general,” McCarthy said on Monday.
His statements follow testimony released last week from IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and another unnamed whistleblower, who both alleged that the DOJ interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden by blocking a request by the U.S. attorney on the case, David Weiss, for special counsel status, preventing his request to bring the charges in Washington, D.C., or California, and “concealed” foreign bribery allegations.
The testimony was released by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), who pledged to continue investigating the tips.
On Friday, Garland denied the allegations made by the whistleblowers.
“As I said at the outset, Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump as the U.S. attorney in Delaware and who was assigned this matter in the previous administration, would be permitted to continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to, and in any district in which he wanted to,” Garland said. “I don’t know how it would be possible for anybody to block him from bringing a prosecution given that he ever has this authority.”
Shapley’s attorneys released a statement over the weekend rebutting Garland’s denial, saying Weiss told “six witnesses” he did not have the authority to charge in other districts and that he had requested special counsel status.
The two whistleblowers also told Congress that the allegations made in an unverified FBI-generated FD-1023 that Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden both received $5 million bribes from the head of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma were never relayed to the IRS or the FBI investigators on Hunter Biden’s case in Delaware.
The alleged bribes would have been for Joe Biden to pressure Ukraine to fire then-Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was apparently investigating Burisma, in which Hunter Biden was a board member.
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“Neither I nor the line IRS-CI agents acting under my supervision, nor the FBI agents working with IRS-CI, were ever provided the CHS information that Attorney General William Barr recently referenced was sent to Delaware to have it checked out,” Shapley told Congress. “Prosecutors never provided such information to IRS-CI. As such, neither IRS-CI nor the FBI agents working with them were provided the opportunity to conduct a proper investigation into the allegations presented by this CHS.”
Any impeachment inquiry into Garland will have to wait until after the July 4 recess when Congress reconvenes on July 10.