(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The chairmen of the House Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Oversight and Accountability committees informed Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday that they’re opening an investigation into the “unusual” plea agreement between the Justice Department and Hunter Biden to settle tax crimes.
“The Department’s unusual plea and pretrial diversion agreements with Mr. Biden raise serious concerns—especially when combined with recent whistleblower allegations—that the Department has provided preferential treatment toward Mr. Biden in the course of its investigation and proposed resolution of his alleged criminal conduct,” Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, James Comer, R-Ky., and Jason Smith, R-Mo., wrote in a letter to Garland.
The GOP’s investigation follows a federal judge surprisingly rejecting the Hunter Biden plea deal last week. After raising numerous concerns about the agreement, District Judge Maryellen Noreika gave defense lawyers and prosecutors 30 days to explain why she should accept the deal.
The GOP letter to Garland reiterates many of the concerns raised by Judge Noreika last week.
Noreika was particularly concern about a provision in the Biden-DOJ deal that would prohibit the DOJ from charging Biden for breaching the agreement unless she, the judge, allowed prosecutors to do so.
“[The deal] makes me a gatekeeper to criminal charges and puts me in the middle of a decision as to whether to bring a charge,” the judge said last week.
Noreika also wanted to know last week whether the plea deal would exclude Biden from being charged for his failure to register as a foreign agent when he was lobbying on behalf of foreign companies like Ukrainian energy giant Burisma.
U.S. prosecutors said the agreement does not cover this charge, but Biden’s attorney disagreed—leading the GOP lawmakers to question why this issue wasn’t settled before the parties presented their agreement to the judge.
“It is difficult to understand how the parties would not have a meeting of the minds regarding a clause of the agreement as fundamental as the scope of the immunity provision, and it raises questions about what discussions have taken place between the Department and Mr. Biden’s counsel regarding the status of those investigations,” Jordan, Comer and Smith said in their letter.
The House committee chairmen want to know, among other things, how many plea deals the DOJ has brokered that have similar provisions as the one given to Hunter. They also seek a description of the DOJ’s supposed ongoing investigation into Hunter—a prosecutor said last week the investigation isn’t finished—and an explanation for why the DOJ struck a plea deal when there’s still an open investigation.
The congressmen seek answers from Garland by Aug. 14.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
