Weiss wasn’t going to charge Hunter Biden until whistleblowers came forward: report
David Weiss, the US Attorney who has led the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, reportedly did not plan to charge the president’s son until IRS whistleblowers came forward about his alleged tax fraud, according to a report.
Weiss was willing to conclude the investigation without even as much as a plea deal before the agents accused the Justice Department of interfering, according to private correspondence between Weiss and Biden’s legal team obtained by the New York Times.
After the whistleblowers spoke out, Weiss suddenly demanded Mr. Biden plead guilty to committing tax offenses
“It appears that if it weren’t for the courageous actions of these whistle-blowers, who had nothing to gain and everything to lose, Hunter Biden would never have been charged at all,” a team of lawyers for one of the I.R.S. agents told the newspaper in a statement.
Weiss was first appointed to look into troubling allegations regarding Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings — especially while his father was in office — in 2018.
Four years later, Weiss found evidence of wrongdoing but determined he did not have enough evidence to indict the younger Biden, sources familiar with the case told The Times.
Mr. Weiss told an associate that he did not want to bring any charges, even misdemeanors, against Hunter Biden because the average American would not be prosecuted for them, the paper reported.
Negotiations between Weiss and Biden’s legal team began in January. By May, Biden’s team proposed a deal by which Biden would not have to plead guilty — but would agree to what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement, which typically entails conditions such as enrolling in drug treatment or anti-violence programs or giving up firearms.
Meanwhile, IRS investigator Gary Shapley, who had been blocked from pursuing leads into Biden, told the DOJ’s watchdog that Weiss had told him that federal prosecutors in Washington and California had refused to bring tax charges against Mr. Biden, despite evidence of crimes.
Lawyers for a second tax investigator sent a letter to the I.R.S. commissioner alleging the team of investigators on the case had been removed after expressing concerns about political interference from the Justice Department, further stoking outrage from Republican lawmakers.
Days later, Weiss informed Biden’s lawyer Chris Clark that he was demanding Hunter plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges.
A plea bargain, under which Biden would serve no jail time, dramatically fell through last month at the federal courthouse in Delaware after a judge raised concerns about ongoing probes into the president’s son that could result in future charges.
Biden pleaded guilty to the two misdemeanor charges — which were dropped on Thursday — and gun charges.
Weiss was elevated to special counsel in the federal probe by Attorney General Merrick Garland, which allows him to widen the scope of his investigation into other districts around the country.
