US Attorney General Merrick Garland swears (literally: in sworn testimony) that US Attorney David Weiss was in fact the top dog when it came to charging ne’er do well First Son Hunter Biden — yet senior feds keep blowing up his claims: Two more IRS professionals have now contradicted him.
Garland repeated his claim at a Wednesday hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, saying that “no one had the authority to turn him down,” of Weiss’ alleged power to bring whatever charges the evidence justified against Hunter.
He added that Weiss “had the authority because I promised he would have the authority.”
Yet Garland immediately contradicted himself, saying others in Justice “could refuse to partner with” Weiss.
And IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf and DC IRS Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon — both vets of the tax agency — added even more wrinkles.
“My understanding is that . . . he can’t make that [charging] decision without DOJ Tax authorization,” Batdorf said of Weiss in an earlier hearing — recalling a meet where DOJ tax muckamucks gave static about charging the first son.
Batdorf also OK’d felony charges against Hunter for actions dating back to 2014, including related to his service on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma — charges that Weiss still couldn’t manage to bring before the statute of limitations passed, because someone else wouldn’t sign off.
Funny how such timing issues keep playing out to protect the Bidens.
Waldon said, re: Weiss’s alleged powers, “There was processes that Mr. Weiss would have to work out with the Department of Justice.”
Sure doesn’t sound like actually being in charge to us.
And it goes a looooong way to explain how in the heck Weiss’ office came up with a bonkers plea deal for Hunter that would have had him cop only to far fewer and lesser charges and get a basically lifetime free pass for any related crookery.
Garland appointed Weiss special counsel for the Hunter affair, giving him actual full-stop authority, only recently — long after the lack of it compromised any prosecution in exactly the ways Garland had testified wouldn’t happen.
This, to any rational person, looked like a smokescreen to please the prez.
And lo and behold, Garland said Wednesday he can’t comment on any details about Hunter because of the “ongoing” investigation — using the special-counsel probe as a shield.
He also straight-up refused to answer whether he’s had discussions with Weiss about the Hunter case.
At this point, there’s enough smoke (and sufficient sweaty squirming from Garland) that the American people would be more than right to scream fire.
