Critics of the Biden regime on Friday blasted Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to serve as special counsel investigating the Biden family’s shady business schemes. Republicans said Weiss is the wrong person for the job after offering Hunter Biden a sweetheart plea deal that fell apart under a judge’s scrutiny.
During a press conference Friday, Garland said Weiss requested the appointment earlier this week.
“On Tuesday of this week, Mr. Weiss advised me that in his judgment, his investigation had reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be appointed,” Garland said.
“This move by AG Garland is part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of @GOPoversight’s mounting evidence of President Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a written statement.
“The most immediate impact of this appointment will be to insulate the Department itself,” explained George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley on Fox News Friday evening. “Weiss was supposed to testify in Congress. That’s highly unlikely. If he does, it’s unlikely that he’s going to give any real information,” he added.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said: “David Weiss can’t be trusted, and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it.”
House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.)also called the appointment “an attempt to whitewash the Biden family corruption.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters put it even more bluntly.
“This isn’t an investigation, it’s a cover-up,” he said on “Watters’ World” Friday night. “Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland handpicked the same Delaware prosecutor who has been covering for the Bidens for the last 25 years.”
He added: “David Weiss, who just spent the past five years squelching this investigation is still in charge!”
New York Post reporter Miranda Devine told Watters that appointing Weiss special prosecutor in the Biden corruption case is “like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.”
.@mirandadevine: "David Weiss is the attorney that approved that sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden and who oversaw an investigation that, as the IRS whistleblowers showed us was a travesty of slow walking, obstruction, and basically protecting Joe Biden…
This is like putting… pic.twitter.com/DFCaVc4RDj
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 12, 2023
Even CNN’s Jake Tapper questioned the move.
“I think there are some legitimate questions about this whole situation,” Tapper said on “CNN News Central.” “First of all, I do think it’s fair to question why would U.S. Attorney Weiss be appointed to special counsel. Usually, a special counsel is an outside attorney. Now, it has happened before. Durham came from inside, and the attorney general has the right to do that, but it is odd.”
Tapper acknowledged that it was problematic that Garland had stuck with the very person who was responsible for the “colossal failure” of the Hunter plea deal and that the original deal did not appear to be “strong enough.”
The CNN anchor also argued that Garland’s messaging now appears inconsistent regarding Weiss’ jurisdiction and whether he previously had the power to charge outside of Delaware.
“The Justice Department and Weiss denied what the whistleblowers were saying, but this move makes it seem as though, well, maybe the whistleblowers were right. Maybe what they were alleging is true, and he didn’t have the ability to charge whatever he wanted to charge, and now he does. So I do have a lot of questions about that, and I do think some of the political questions being raised by Republicans have merit,” Tapper said.
While most fair observers derided the appointment, a lawyer for Hunter Biden expressed confidence that Weiss will administer justice fairly.
“Whether in Delaware, Washington, D.C., or anywhere else, we expect a fair resolution not infected by politics,” Biden lawyer Christopher Clark said.
Weiss is the federal prosecutor who brought charges against President Biden’s son in Delaware. Last month, he announced a probation-only plea agreement for Hunter Biden, which was rejected by a judge.
In June, Hunter Biden struck a deal with federal prosecutors to avoid prison by pleading guilty to two tax crimes and admitting to a gun charge that could be dismissed. Weiss’ team on Friday asked the judge to disregard that deal because the two sides were at an “impasse.”
Garland did not take questions after the press conference.