This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The federal prosecutor who earlier moved forward on a sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden on various criminal tax and gun charges now has been given the status of "special counsel" by Merrick Garland, Joe Biden's attorney general.

The Washington Examiner reported David Weiss asked for the designation and Garland granted it.

"Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel," Garland said.

The investigation of Hunter Biden was begun in 2018, and concerned charges he took in millions of dollars in income and never paid taxes on the money. He also is accused of lying on a routine federal form when he applied to buy a handgun.

The Examiner said, "In June, the investigation resulted in Weiss's office and Hunter Biden reaching a plea deal, which involved the younger Biden pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and entering into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid a felony gun charge."

Republicans, pointing out that others facing the same charges have ended up in jail, called it a "sweetheart" deal and a U.S. district judge rejected it because it could have been interpreted to prevent Hunter Biden from facing any future charges regarding other crimes.

Among those, WND has reported, could be charges he acted as a foreign agent without registering, as required by law.

The rejection of the plea deal ordinarily would mean that Biden would be set for trial on the original charges, but observers said they thought another plea deal would be proposed. Now a special counsel case has developed.

The Examiner earlier reported he could face a complaint regarding the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act, as he "lobbied U.S. officials, alongside many others who did not register under FARA, for work that, emails show, clearly involved advocacy that would trigger the FARA requirements."

That work involved advocacy for Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that was paying Biden tens of thousands of dollars per month to be on its board.

The Daily Caller News Foundation also reported legal experts criticizing the DOJ's handling of the Hunter Biden case.

Mike Davis, founder, and president of the Article III Project, told the DCNF plea agreement would have caused “too much of a political backlash” if the terms revealed in court were written down.

“The Biden Justice Department’s sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden couldn’t even withstand basic questioning by a friendly Delaware federal judge,” Davis told the DCNF. “That’s because we now know there was an even sweeter secret deal: today was supposed to be the end of all criminal charges involving the Biden family. They were going to protect President Biden by sweeping under the rug today in Delaware all the Biden family crimes.”

“The Biden Justice Department couldn’t write that into the plea agreement, because it would cause too much of a political backlash,” Davis continued. “And the Biden DOJ could continue to pretend they are investigating Biden crimes–and continue to protect the Bidens by rebuffing congressional inquiries under the false claim of an ‘ongoing investigation.’”

There also have been accusations of "malfeasance" in the investigation.

In a report, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee made public transcripts of depositions from Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers who said Garland and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel lied to Congress about the Hunter Biden probe.

According to the whistleblowers, Weiss, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2017, allegedly told investigators that he was “not the deciding person” as to whether or not Hunter Biden would be charged.

"I wanted the public to understand what happened in this case,” Eileen J. O’Connor, who headed the Tax Division of the Justice Department from 2001 to 2007, told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “Informed citizens are essential to the operation of this government. From my decades as a tax practitioner and my six years as head of the tax division, I read Special Agent Shapley’s testimony with deep, deep interest. When I got to page 95, my jaw dropped."

She continued, “Attorney General Garland testified under oath to Congress in March that he had given U.S. Attorney Weiss all the authority he needed to do, whatever he needed to do, wherever he needed to do it,” O’Connor said. “But you might recall that When Rod Rosenstein named Robert Mueller special counsel, we were able to see the contemporaneous documentation of that authority and of what that enabled Robert Mueller to do. There has been no documentation at all of Attorney General Garland’s assertion that he gave Weiss authority and we can see from what happened that apparently he didn’t have it."