Biden

Hunter Biden, the son of President Biden, walks from Marine One upon arrival at Fort McNair, on Sunday, in Washington. The Biden’s are returning from Camp David. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

House Republicans on Thursday sent letters to the Justice Department, IRS and Secret Service requesting that officials involved in the Hunter Biden tax investigation appear before the House Judiciary Committee for transcribed interviews.

The letter to the Justice Department, obtained by The Washington Post, includes requests for nine Justice Department and two FBI officials to face questions over the investigation of President Biden’s son. The request comes after two IRS agents who supervised the investigation of Hunter Biden told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that Justice Department officials slowed and stymied the investigation of his finances.

This month, Hunter Biden reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would probably keep him out of jail. He is due in federal court in Wilmington, Del., on July 26 to enter his guilty plea, which must be approved by a judge.

Among the officials included on the House Republicans’ letter – signed by Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Jason T. Smith of Missouri and James Comer of Kentucky – is David Weiss, the Delaware U.S. attorney who oversaw the case. Weiss was appointed by President Donald Trump and is a longtime figure in Delaware legal circles.

One of the IRS agents involved in the investigation, Gary Shapley, challenged congressional testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland that Weiss had full authority to lead the probe.

Garland has stood by his comments, and Weiss said in a June 7 letter to Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, that the attorney general had granted him “ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges and for making decisions necessary to preserve the integrity of the prosecution, consistent with federal law.”

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Shapley testified that in an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting that included prosecutors, FBI agents and IRS agents, Weiss claimed he was not the “deciding official on whether charges are filed,” according to a transcript of Shapley’s testimony released last week. Shapley said Weiss had told them that he had approached the U.S. attorneys in Los Angeles and D.C. about bringing tax charges in their jurisdictions but was rebuffed.

Jordan sent Weiss a letter last week requesting answers to questions about his correspondence with the Judiciary Committee by July 6.

The committee chairman also requested that two IRS officials involved with the case appear for transcribed interviews: Michael Batdorf, a director within the IRS criminal investigation division, and Darrell J. Waldon, special agent in charge of the division’s D.C. field office. Smith chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and Comer chairs the Oversight Committee.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department confirmed that Garland received the letter but declined to comment further. The attorney general said last week that he would not prevent Weiss from testifying about whistleblowers’ allegations.

“I would support Mr. Weiss explaining or testifying on these matters when he deems it appropriate,” Garland said at an unrelated news conference about the arrests of two people involved in fentanyl production and sales.

Garland also disputed Shapley’s claim that Weiss said he had asked to be named a special counsel on the case to gain greater authority but had been turned down.

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“Mr. Weiss never made that request to me,” Garland said.

In another letter to the Secret Service, the chairmen called for transcribed interviews from any Secret Service agents who received a “tip-off” from the FBI about the IRS’s plans to interview Hunter Biden as a part of the criminal investigation. An unnamed IRS investigator, who appeared before the Ways and Means Committee a week after Shapley’s May 26 appearance, alleged in his testimony that he believed the investigation was hampered by Hunter Biden’s lawyers being tipped off about a search of his storage unit the team was planning to conduct.

Spokespeople for Weiss; Matthew Graves; the U.S. attorney for D.C.; and E. Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, who all were included on the list of Justice Department officials sought for interviews, declined to comment.

The chairmen gave the agencies a July 13 deadline to respond to the requests made in the letters.

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