In the wake of the plea deal offered to Hunter Biden last month by U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss following a multi-year investigation, House Republicans have raised a number of questions about the manner in which that probe was conducted and allegations of interference by the Department of Justice.
Now comes word that the federal prosecutor will soon appear before relevant House committees to answer those questions, though a date for Weiss' testimony has not yet been established, Breitbart reported.
It is hoped that the eventual hearing with Weiss will clear up at least some of the contradictions between the official statements from Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland and the sworn testimony of a pair of IRS whistleblowers who cried foul over how the investigation into Hunter Biden was handled.
The Washington Examiner reported that the Republican-led House Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means Committees recently sent a letter to the Justice Department that requested transcribed interviews with U.S. Attorney Weiss and around a dozen other officials.
In a reply letter sent this week, the DOJ said that Weiss "welcomes the opportunity to meet with the Committee at an appropriate time, consistent with the law and Department policy."
The letter added that the DOJ's "Office of Legislative Affairs will reach out to your staff tomorrow to discuss the appropriate timeline and scope of such an appearance."
Of course, the DOJ response letter did not specify when the "appropriate time" for the interview might be, and further doubled down on the disputed assertion that Weiss had maintained "ultimate authority" to bring charges against Hunter Biden at any time and within any jurisdiction outside of his own Delaware district.
It was on June 20 that the office of U.S. Attorney Weiss announced that a plea deal had been reached with Hunter Biden on a pair of misdemeanor tax code violations, for which he would likely only receive probation, as well as a "pre-trial diversion agreement" to avoid a felony gun charge for lying about his history of drug abuse on the federal form to purchase a firearm.
That deal sparked an immediate outcry from Republicans, in light of the array of much more serious alleged crimes the president's son had been under federal investigation for since at least 2018.
The outcry only grew more intense two days later when the House Ways and Means Committee released the sworn testimony of two IRS whistleblowers who'd been involved in the years-long investigation and alleged partisan interference by senior DOJ officials and preferential treatment of the president's son.
NBC News reported this week that those two whistleblowers are now scheduled to testify under oath again next week in a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee.
Further upping the ante, Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) also sent a letter this week to AG Garland and U.S. Attorney Weiss to demand that the prior sworn testimony of the IRS whistleblowers be submitted for the consideration of the federal judge who will decide whether or not to accept the plea deal in a July 26 court hearing.
"Over the course of a single week in June, the existence of a plea agreement in this matter became public, a plea hearing was scheduled, and the Committee submitted whistleblower testimony to the full House," Smith wrote. "Given the abruptness of the plea agreement announcement shortly after it became public that whistleblowers made disclosures to Congress, the seriousness of the whistleblower allegations, and the fact that multiple congressional investigations into the matter are ongoing, we ask that you file this letter and the attached information in the docket."
"Placing the attached materials into the record is critical because the testimony provided by the two IRS whistleblowers brings new and compelling facts to light, and because it is essential for the Judge in this matter to have relevant information before her when evaluating the plea agreement," the chairman added.
