US District Court Judge Terry Doughty, who still honors the US Constitution, accused the Biden Regime of violating the First Amendment by censoring unfavorable views in a blistering 155-page opinion.
The judge called the Biden Regime’s efforts “Orwellian.”
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth,’” Judge Doughty wrote.
“This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech,” he continued. “American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country … the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario.”
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting DHS, FBI, DOJ, and other agencies from its government-wide, fascist conspiracy with Big Tech to censor speech and manipulate the public.
News. DOJ Tipped Off Hunter Biden Before a Search of His Storage Unit, IRS Whistleblowers Say. In a article printed the other day, we touched on this. Here’s Gateway Pundit’s article.
A recent executive meeting of the Ways and Means Committee resulted in a decision to release to the public testimony from two whistleblowers. The whistleblowers, both IRS employees, made shocking revelations about misconduct and abuse of power by Biden’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) during the investigation of Hunter Biden’s tax evasion case.
The whistleblowers claim that the Department of Justice (DOJ) tipped off Hunter Biden prior to a federal search of his storage unit.
The information revealed during the Ways and Means Committee’s executive meeting shows that Hunter Biden appears to have received preferential treatment in the investigation of his tax crimes.
Despite IRS officials recommending that Hunter Biden be charged with criminal activity for attempts to evade or defeat taxes, fraud and false statements, and willful failures to file returns, supply information, or pay taxes for over $8.3 million in income, the testimony alleges that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment during the investigation.
Further allegations point to the DOJ interfering in the investigation, deploying a strategy of “Delay, Divulge, and Deny” to shield Hunter Biden, according to the news committee’s press release.
Delays in the investigation were allegedly unjustified and pervasive, the DOJ was accused of divulging information about the investigation to Hunter Biden’s lawyers in advance, and there were several denials of attempts to bring charges or achieve special counsel status from the DOJ.
The Department of Justice interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s clear tax issues with a “Delay, Divulge, and Deny” campaign – that ultimately shielded him by allowing the statute of limitations to pass on his tax crimes.
DELAY: Recurring unjustified delays pervaded the investigation, including in authenticating the message between Hunter Biden and Chinese officials. Investigators were told by U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf that “there is no way” a search warrant for evidence would get approved because the evidence of interest would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden.
DIVULGE: Investigators found out that attorneys for Hunter Biden were tipped off about actions relating to the investigation in advance. For example, even as investigators had probable cause to search a Northern Virginia storage unit in which Hunter Biden had stored files, attorneys for Biden were tipped off.
DENY: U.S. Attorney of Delaware David Weiss tried to bring charges in District of Columbia around March 2022 and was denied. Weiss sought special counsel status from DOJ in the Spring of 2022 and was denied. Weiss sought to bring charges in the Central District of California in the Fall of 2022 and had that request denied in January 2023.
The testimony also details the retaliation against IRS employees who blew the whistle on this misconduct. These employees reportedly faced hostility after raising concerns up their chain of command. Actions were taken to cut the IRS investigative team out of the process, and in some cases, unrelated investigations were hampered with limits and pauses. The whistleblowers and their entire team were eventually removed from the investigation on May 15, 2023, after blowing the whistle to Congress.
The testimony of two whistleblowers puts the DOJ and IRS under intense scrutiny and highlights the urgent need for investigation and accountability within these agencies.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1671942487185952768
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) released the following statement:
“Today, the Ways and Means Committee voted to make public the testimony of IRS employees blowing the whistle on misconduct at the IRS and the Biden Department of Justice regarding unequal enforcement of tax law, interference and government abuse in the handling of investigations into criminal activity by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and retaliation against IRS employees blowing the whistle on this abuse.
“The American people deserve to know that when it comes to criminal enforcement, they are not on the same playing field as thewealthy and politically connected class. The preferential treatment Hunter Biden received would never have been granted to ordinary Americans.
“Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging, and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes. The testimony shows tactics used by the Justice Department to delay the investigation long enough to reach the statute of limitations, evidence they divulged sensitive actions by the investigative team to Biden’s attorneys, and denied requests by the U.S. Attorney to bring charges against Biden.
“IRS employees who blew the whistle on this abuse were retaliated against, despite a commitment IRS Commissioner Werfel made before the Ways and Means Committee to uphold their legal protections. They were removed from this investigation after they responsibly worked through the chain of command to raise these concerns.
“The Committee has acted in good faith with participation from both Democrats and Republicans, as the issues raised today ought to be a bipartisan concern. Hopefully we can find a path forward to continue to go where the facts lead us. If the federal government is not treating all taxpayers equally, or if it is changing the rules to engineer a preferred outcome, Congress has a duty to ask why and to hold agencies accountable and consider appropriate legislative action. The scales of justice must not be skewed in favor of the wealthy and the politically connected.”
The transcripts for the whistleblower testimony are posted below via Ways and Means Committee:
President Biden has snapped at reporters who have asked him about alleged corruption involving him and his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Looking. The Biden Investigation interfered with constantly. I’ve decided to post three different articles on the same Biden scandal. Fox goes first.
IRS decisions ‘at every stage’ of probe ‘had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation,’ a whistleblower said.
Justice Department investigators were “trying to limit”questioning related to President Biden as part of the investigation into Hunter Biden, despite objections from FBI and IRS officials, a whistleblower alleged.
The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be “influenced by politics.”
One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that “at every stage” of the probe, decisions were made that “had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.” He cited several examples involving apparent references to Hunter Biden’s father.
Shapley pointed to text messages and emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, which Fox News Digital first reported before the 2020 presidential election and before it was known that Hunter was under federal investigation.
President Biden has snapped at reporters who have asked him about alleged corruption involving him and his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In December 2020, Shapley said investigators were preparing to interview Biden business associate Rob Walker.
“Among other things, we wanted to question Walker about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy,’” Shapley said. “We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden.”
But Shapley said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf “interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad.’”
It has been reported that Joe Biden is referred to as “the big guy.”
“When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning,” Shapley said. “This upset the FBI, too.”
Shapley said that “basically everyone in the room except for the prosecutors had a big problem with” not asking questions about President Biden.
The “Ten held by H for the big guy” message is an email from May 13, 2017, which included a discussion of “remuneration packages” for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as “Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,” in an apparent reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.
President Biden, left, and Hunter Biden (Getty Images)
The email includes a note that “Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.” A proposed equity split references “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” with no further details.
Shapley said that on Oct. 22, 2020, the team and Wolf stated that U.S. Attorney David Weiss had “reviewed the affidavit for search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause had been achieved.”
“Even though the legal requirements were met, and the investigative team knew evidence would be in these locations, AUSA Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden,” Shapley said.
Shapley said IRS and FBI agents conducting the Walker interview “tried to skirt AUSA Wolf’s direction” to avoid questions on “dad” and “the big guy.”
“And they were like, ‘How can we not ask?’ Like, that was wrong. We got to ask. We got to ask,” Shapley said. “And so they basically decided that they would ask the question without saying the words ‘big guy,’ and that then they would somehow be doing what they were asked to do.”
Shapley repeatedly testified that there were “multiple times where Lesley Wolf said that she didn’t want to ask questions about dad.”
“And dad was kind of how we referred to him,” Shapley said. “We referred to Hunter Biden’s father, you know, as dad.”
Shapley said Joe Biden was referred to in that way “so that we could speak more openly without yelling, ‘President Biden.’”
He also discussed an instance in December 2020 when Hunter Biden vacated the Washington, D.C., office of his Owasco firm and put all of his documents into a storage unit in northern Virginia.
“The IRS prepared an affidavit in support of a search warrant for the unit, but AUSA Wolf once again objected,” Shapley said.
According to Shapley, Weiss was leading the investigation into Hunter Biden and agreed that if the storage unit wasn’t accessed for 30 days, “we could execute a search warrant on it.”
“No sooner had we gotten off the call then we heard AUSA Wolf had simply reached out to Hunter Biden’s defense counsel and told him about the storage unit, once again ruining our chances to get evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed,” Shapley said.
He also said a message in which Hunter Biden refers to his father in a message to Chinese energy company CEFC executive Henry Zhao made it clear a search of the guesthouse at the Bidens’ Delaware home was needed. But he said Wolf said that the “optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant.”
These revelations come just days after the Justice Department announced that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of a deal that is expected to keep him out of prison. The president’s son also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
In response to the whistleblower allegations, the Justice Department said in a statement: “As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware.”
The White House has repeatedly said President Biden has never been involved in his son’s business dealings. They also maintain the president never discussed them with him.
Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) told reporters Thursday that the Justice Department twice prevented United States Attorney David Weiss from bringing stronger charges against Hunter Biden.
Upon the committee’s vote to unseal IRS whistleblower evidence of alleged Justice Department political interference in the Hunter Biden tax probe, Smith said IRS whistleblowers allege that President Joe Biden’s DOJ twice prevented charges against Hunter Biden in Washington, DC, and California in 2022.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress in March that he would have to personally authorize any potential charges levied against Hunter Biden by Weiss. Yet Garland also said Wednesday he gave Weiss “full authority to decide the matter as he decided was appropriate.”
On Tuesday, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to only two federal tax violation charges and one charge of violation of gun laws.
“Testimony shows that U.S. Attorney of Delaware David Weiss tried to bring charges in the District of Columbia around March of 2022 and was denied. Weiss sought Special Counsel status from the DOJ in the spring of 2022 and was denied,” Smith told reporters. “And Weiss once again sought to bring charges in the Central District of California in the fall of 2022 and had that request denied in January of 2023.”
Smith also said the IRS recommended charges against Hunter Biden that were not approved by Garland.
“The testimony we released today shows the IRS recommended charges against Hunter Biden that included attempt to evade or defeat tax, a felony; fraud or false statements, a felony; and willful failure to file returns, supply information, or pay tax,” Smith said. “These tax crimes cover an estimated $2.2 million and unreported tax on global income streams to Mr. Biden and his associates from Ukraine, Romania, and China totaling $17.3 million from 2014 to 2019.”
“Mr. Biden personally received $8.3 million,” Smith added. “Whistleblowers detail foreign payments to Mr. Biden, including $664,000 from the Chinese company, state energy HK, a large diamond worth $80,000, and a Porsche worth $142,000. These payments are just a fraction of the total, but they provide insight into a world of wealth and influence that no ordinary American would recognize.”
In addition, Smith told reporters the probe into the president’s son was afflicted with unusual problems, including whistleblower claims that Hunter Biden received special treatment because his father is the president:
IRS investigators say they found themselves hamstrung internally. The testimony we have just released details a lack of U.S. Attorney independence, recurring unjustified delays, unusual actions outside the normal course of any investigation, a lack of transparency across the investigation and prosecution teams, and bullying and threats from the defense counsel.
This was a campaign of delay, divulge, and deny. Whistleblowers say recurring unjustified delays pervaded the investigation, including authenticating a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden demands payment from Chinese officials, noting that his father is in the room.
The whistleblowers revealed IRS investigators were told by U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf that because the evidence would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, “There is no way” a search warrant for evidence would ever get approved.
Smith also said the investigation forewarned Hunter Biden of any future searches for materials that could be used as evidence:
IRS whistleblowers told this committee that crucial information about the investigation was devolved to Hunter Biden’s attorneys. For example, even [when] investigators had probable cause to search a Northern Virginia storage unit in which Hunter Biden had stored files, attorneys for Biden were made aware prior to any search, providing them valuable time to remove any materials that could be useful evidence.
Throughout the investigation, Garland refused to name a special counsel in the tax investigation, which could have provided a degree of separation between President Joe Biden and his Justice Department, according to allegations revealed in April by an IRS whistleblower.
On July 26 Hunter Biden will appear before a judge, who will presumably accept the plea deal. If the judge accepts the plea deal, Hunter Biden’s lawyer claimed in an interview with MSNBC, no additional allegations of wrongdoing alleged by Republicans could ever be brought against the president’s son.
Wendell Husebø
Finally Gateway Pundit.
House Ways and Means Chair Details Multiple Felony Charges the IRS Recommended Against Hunter Biden – All Blocked By Biden’s DOJ (VIDEO)
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) on Thursday detailed MULTIPLE felony charges that whistleblowers said the IRS recommended against Hunter Biden.
The investigation into Hunter Biden opened in November 2018 as an off-shoot of a separate, corporate investigation by the IRS.
Rep. Smith said, “The investigation was in the ordinary course of work at the IRS. It was not ordered by any individual, any chairman or any political entity.”
The IRS recommended charges against Hunter Biden that included:
Attempt to evade or defeat tax – A FELONY
Fraud or false statements – A FELONY
Willful failure to file returns, supply information or pay tax
“These tax crimes cover an estimated $2.2 million in unreported tax on global income…from Ukraine, Romania, and China, totaling $17.3 million from 2014 to 2019.”
He added, “Mr. Biden personally received $8.3 million.”
WATCH:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1671937433334849536
Rather than charging Hunter Biden with felonies for evading taxes and providing false statements to the feds, Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ gave him a sweetheart deal.
Hunter Biden was hit with two misdemeanors related to unpaid taxes from 2017 and 2018.
Joe Biden’s DOJ blocked two search warrants and multiple felony charges against Hunter Biden, according to an IRS whistleblower who spoke to lawmakers.
“I am blowing the whistle because the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice Tax, and Department of Justice provided preferential treatment and unchecked conflicts of interest in an important and high-profile investigation of the President’s son, Hunter Biden,” IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley told lawmakers in a testimony obtained by Just The News.
According to Just the News, Shapley told lawmakers that an Assistant US Attorney in Delaware working on Hunter’s case REJECTED a search warrant for Joe Biden’s Delaware home in 2020.
A separate search warrant for Hunter Biden’s storage locker was also blocked by Joe Biden’s henchmen.
A supervisory IRS agent divulged to Congress widespread interference in the probe of Hunter Biden, including the blockage of two search warrants and more extensive criminal charges, while also confirming the government had evidence that Joe Biden met with his son’s Chinese business partners, according to testimony released Thursday,
Just the News obtained the testimony of IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley shortly after the House Ways and Means Committee voted to pierce Hunter Biden’s tax privacy and make the agent’s allegations of preferential treatment and political interference public.
U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss, for the state of Delaware, DOJ photo.
Looking. Don’t be surprised if we’re not given the full DOJ information on Hunter Biden. Ongoing Investigation. I’m sure that Republicans in both the House and Senate will ask for the information that was gathered over the past five years.
I’m also sure that the DOJ will say that it’s an ongoing investigation. Below are the charges filed in 2018.
WILMINGTON, Del. – The United States Attorney for the District of Delaware filed charges today against Robert Hunter Biden (“Hunter Biden”) of Los Angeles. Hunter Biden has been charged with two misdemeanor tax offenses and a felony firearm offense and has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to the tax offenses and enter into a pre-trial diversion agreement with regard to the firearm charge at a proceeding to be scheduled by the assigned United States District Court judge.
According to the tax Information, Hunter Biden received taxable income in excess of $1,500,000 annually in calendar years 2017 and 2018. Despite owing in excess of $100,000 in federal income taxes each year, he did not pay the income tax due for either year.
According to the firearm Information, from on or about October 12, 2018 through October 23, 2018, Hunter Biden possessed a firearm despite knowing he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance.
Hunter Biden is charged with two violations of failure to pay income tax and one violation of unlawful possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison on each of the tax charges and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the firearm charge. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department reportedly permitted the president’s personal attorneys to search for classified documents in separate locations without security clearances or the FBI present.
IRS director told to stand down. The IRS was handling the Hunter Biden case. They had 12 agents on it. But something strange happened. Not only was the whole team removed, but the DOJ Behind Biden Probe Whistleblower Removal.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel says the Department of Justice directed his agency to remove a whistleblower from the investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances, reports Fox News.
“I want to state unequivocally that I have not intervened — and will not intervene — in any way that would impact the status of any whistleblower,” Werfel wrote in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., and ranking member Richard Neal, D-Mass., in mid-May.
“The IRS whistleblower you reference alleges that the change in their work assignment came at the direction of the Department of Justice. As a general matter and not in reference to any specific case, I believe it is important to emphasize that in any matter involving federal judicial proceedings, the IRS follows the direction of the Justice Department.”
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel says the Department of Justice directed his agency to remove a whistleblower from the investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances, reports Fox News.
“I want to state unequivocally that I have not intervened — and will not intervene — in any way that would impact the status of any whistleblower,” Werfel wrote in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., and ranking member Richard Neal, D-Mass., in mid-May.
“The IRS whistleblower you reference alleges that the change in their work assignment came at the direction of the Department of Justice. As a general matter and not in reference to any specific case, I believe it is important to emphasize that in any matter involving federal judicial proceedings, the IRS follows the direction of the Justice Department.”
Werfel also said he contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in response to allegations of retaliation.
“When I first learned of the allegations of retaliation referenced in your letter and in media reports on May 16, 2023, I contacted the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). In light of laws and policies designed to protect the integrity of pending proceedings, I am unable to provide details on this matter.”
“TIGTA confirmed that my role as commissioner in any whistleblower proceeding is not an investigative one. When an IRS employee raises allegations of this kind, the commissioner’s office does not run an investigation, seek the identity of the whistleblower, or similarly intervene; instead, the inspector general serves as a critical guardian of the whistleblower process and conducts relevant inquiries into the matter,” he added.
Investigating the President and the DOJ. AP Photo/Alex Brandon, AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Probe Biden Admin over Plan to Hide Classified Docs Scandal.
Is it time for another special prosecutor? Thursday the WP ran a article where the DOJ and the WH were not going to go public with the information about the missing top secret papers found at the Penn Center or Biden’s home. All documents Biden had no right to have. Documents that were Top Secret.
According to the Washington Post on Thursday, the White House and Justice Department not only agreed to obscure the scandal from public view, but they also refused to divulge that the second trove of classified documents was already unearthed at Biden’s home in Wilmington when CBS News first contacted the White House about the initial leak of classified documents illegally stored at the Biden Penn Center.
“CBS News was the first news organization to learn of the matter, contacting the White House on Jan. 6 to ask about the Penn Biden Center documents,” the report continued. “White House officials confirmed the scoop, but since the investigation was ongoing, they decided not to offer any additional details — including the critical information that a second batch of documents had been discovered at Biden’s home.”
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department reportedly permitted the president’s personal attorneys to search for classified documents in separate locations without security clearances or the FBI present.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department reportedly permitted the president’s personal attorneys to search for classified documents in separate locations without security clearances or the FBI present. I wonder if they realize that the DOJ folks who made this decision will be called to testify, and Biden will have to hire outside lawyers if this goes to a trial. Maybe a sitting President can’t be charged, but Biden’s lawyers can be charged. Tampering with Evidence.
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department considered having FBI agents monitor a search by President Biden’s lawyers for classified documents at his homes but decided against it, both to avoid complicating later stages of the investigation and because Mr. Biden’s attorneys had quickly turned over a first batch and were cooperating, according to people familiar with the matter.
After Mr. Biden’s lawyers discovered documents marked as classified dating from his term as vice president at an office he used at a Washington-based think tank on Nov. 2, the Justice Department opened an inquiry into why and how they got there. Mr. Biden’s legal team prepared to search his other properties for any similar documents, and discussed with the Justice Department the prospect of having FBI agents present while Mr. Biden’s lawyers conducted the additional searches.
Instead, the two sides agreed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys would inspect the homes, notify the Justice Department as soon as they identified any other potentially classified records, and arrange for law-enforcement authorities to take them.
Those deliberations, which haven’t previously been reported, shed new light on how the Biden team’s efforts to cooperate with investigators have thus far helped it avoid more aggressive actions by law enforcement.
In the week since news reports first surfaced about the documents, the incident has drawn parallels to the discovery of a much larger number of documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, which federal agents obtained a warrant to search in August after more than a year of negotiations between Mr. Trump’s lawyers, the National Archives and the Justice Department and after Mr. Trump’s lawyers said all documents had been returned.
Mr. Trump’s supporters have accused the Justice Department of a double standard in treatment; Mr. Biden’s supporters have pointed to the president’s legal team’s cooperation and swift moves to inform the Justice Department of the documents’ discovery as a key difference. Mr. Biden has said he doesn’t know what the documents are or how they wound up at his office at the Penn Biden Center or his Delaware home. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was director of the Washington think tank from 2017 to 2019, told reporters on Tuesday that he was unaware that government documents had been stored there.
Biden ‘Cooperating Fully’ With DOJ as Garland Appoints Special CounselPlay video: Biden ‘Cooperating Fully’ With DOJ as Garland Appoints Special Counsel
President Biden said Thursday a “small number” of classified documents from his time as vice president were found at his home and in his personal library. Attorney General Merrick Garland outlined the decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The discussions and the Justice Department’s willingness to let the Biden lawyers do the searches unsupervised also suggest federal investigators are girding for a monthslong inquiry that could stretch well into Mr. Biden’s third year in office.
One reason not to involve the FBI at an early stage: That way the Justice Department would preserve the ability to take a tougher line, including executing a future search warrant, if negotiations ever turned hostile, current and former law-enforcement officials said.
Representatives of the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment. In a call to reporters about the investigation, White House spokesman Ian Sams said the president and his team were cooperating fully with the special counsel review “so that it can proceed swiftly and thoroughly.”
The White House revealed on two separate days last week that documents had been located at the president’s Delaware residence, as well as those found at a garage there in December. Part of the reason the new documents were revealed separately is that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys don’t have security clearances to handle classified documents and had to set aside any material that could qualify as such. Richard Sauber, special counsel to Mr. Biden, who has that clearance, accompanied Justice Department personnel to retrieve documents, when they discovered additional pages with classification markings.
Attorney General Merrick Garland last week assigned a former top prosecutor in the Trump administration, Robert Hur, to serve as special counsel investigating the discovery of the documents in the locales associated with Mr. Biden. Justice Department officials were concerned that an FBI presence as the Biden team hunted for documents could complicate investigators’ ability to execute search warrants or subpoena documents as the investigation proceeds, some of the people said, in a sign that investigators are considering the possibility of a grand jury investigation into the matter.
Mr. Hur is expected to begin his job as special counsel by the end of the month, after he winds down his work as a defense lawyer at the law firm Gibson Dunn, people familiar with his appointment said.
Robert Hur has been appointed special counsel in the Biden documents investigation.PHOTO: MICHAEL MCCOY/REUTERS
Soon after the initial discovery in November, Mr. Garland tasked the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Chicago, John Lausch, with reviewing the documents, with an eye toward determining whether a special counsel should be appointed.
Mr. Lausch told Mr. Garland on Jan. 5 that he thought a special counsel was warranted given the many unanswered questions about the documents, and Mr. Garland quickly agreed, the people said.
Mr. Hur is expected to grapple with legally and politically thorny considerations that could be reminiscent of those from the last special counsel related to a sitting president, potentially including whether to pursue in-person testimony from Mr. Biden. During the 2017-19 special counsel inquiry led by Robert Mueller into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign and any links between that effort and the Trump campaign, investigators tried for more than a year to interview then-President Trump before ultimately settling for written testimony.
Mr. Sams declined to say whether Mr. Biden would sit for an interview with the special counsel if asked.
Legal experts said an open-book strategy could help shorten Mr. Hur’s inquiry and keep it from dragging out over Mr. Biden’s presidency.
“My goal would be to get everybody interviewed by Robert Hur as quickly as possible—not throw up roadblocks, not assert privileges, and get this thing over with,” said Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel in the Obama administration.
The Justice Department investigation into the Biden documents comes as another special counsel is already deep into a parallel inquiry into the classified documents at Mr. Trump’s Florida home.
Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was searched by FBI agents last year.PHOTO: MARCO BELLO/REUTERS
The FBI in August executed a search warrant at the property, believing more such documents remained there based on witness interviews and security-camera footage. They removed dozens of boxes containing additional documents, many of which were mixed in with clothing and news clippings. Prosecutors later disclosed they were investigating whether anyone sought to obstruct their inquiry, in addition to whether anyone should be prosecuted for mishandling the documents. Mr. Trump has called the Justice Department’s moves a witch hunt and said he did nothing wrong.
The Justice Department has sought to keep the two inquiries separate by assigning them to different teams, according to people familiar with the matter. The Biden White House has highlighted differences between the two inquiries, stressing in particular how their cooperative stance compares to the Trump team’s resistance to turn over records to the National Archives after repeated requests. Mr. Trump’s legal team later clashed with the Justice Department over the appointment of an outside arbiter, known as a special master, to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Yet the Biden team’s bumpy rollout of its discoveries—it only confirmed the document discoveries after news reports and has offered few new details—complicates its attempt to draw a hard distinction between Mr. Biden’s actions and those of Mr. Trump, said John Fishwick, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia during the Obama administration.
“He is the sitting president, there’s no reason for him to hold back anything about this,” Mr. Fishwick said. “It makes it harder to say it’s apples and oranges, and it undercuts the argument that you were different.”
John Durham, who was appointed by former Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, will continue with his investigation as special counsel but is expected to resign as the U.S. attorney from Connecticut.
David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, will reportedly remain in office and continue to oversee the tax investigation into the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
The Biden administration may also keep the acting U.S. attorney in Washington D.C., Michael Sherwin, onboard as he oversees a sweeping investigation into the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
So Joe wants his own hacks in there so they can watch over Antifa and BLM. Protect them in other words.
This information was leaked yesterday to CNN. Reuters, Forbes, ABC and other MSM ran with the story. It looks as if there are 56 attorneys left. I say the ones who were appointed by the Senate should stay.
