- Mike Turner said he had serious doubts about David Weiss, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware
- The House Intelligence Committee Republican chair raised concerns that Weiss allowed statute of limitations to expire
- ‘There’s some question as to whether or not it’s a prosecutorial misconduct, but it certainly could be a prosecutorial malpractice,’ Tuner said
By SOPHIE MANN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 22:08 EDT, 13 August 2023 | UPDATED: 22:09 EDT, 13 August 2023.
The Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee has accused the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden of ‘prosecutorial misconduct’, claiming that David Weiss deliberately allowed potential charges to expire.
Mike Turner said he had serious doubts about Weiss, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, who for the past five years has been investigating Joe Biden’s son.
Weiss on Friday was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel – a move which gives him broader day-to-day independence from supervision than previously, and which is designed to remove any suggestion that Weiss was being leant on by the White House.
Yet Turner told CBS News on Sunday morning that he did not have confidence in Weiss’s commitment to the case.
‘The concern here with Weiss being special counsel is that he was the one that allowed the statute limitations to expire on some very critical felony charges that could have been brought against Hunter Biden,’ said Turner.
Mike Turner, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that he was concerned about David Weiss’s appointment as a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden
Turner appeared on CBS News’ Face The Nation on Sunday morning
Weiss on Friday was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Pictured is Hunter Biden with a woman.
Asked by Face The Nation host Margaret Brennan why Weiss would have let Hunter Biden off the hook, Turner said an IRS whistleblower – who testified that Weiss slow-walked the case – told them so.
Turner said the IRS whistleblower told them it was ‘Department of Justice interference.’
‘There’s some question as to whether or not it’s a prosecutorial misconduct, but it certainly could be a prosecutorial malpractice,’ Turner said.
‘In any event, when you’ve been given the charge to handle claims of such explosive nature and allow the statute of limitations to expire, resulting in – you know, Hunter Biden has in his pocket $125,000 worth of taxes that were owed to the United States that, as a result of these being expired, remain in his pocket.’
Brennan questioned his claim, asking why ‘a U.S. attorney appointed by President Trump working under a Republican attorney general with career prosecutors’ would have ‘that level of conspiracy?’
Turner replied: ‘I think those are questions that he has to answer. You know, why did this occur?
‘The IRS whistleblowers said that it was interference from the Department of Justice that allowed them to expire.’
He added: ‘So he certainly was knowledgeable, aware that it was going to be expiring. And then something occurred where he allowed those to expire.’
The House Republicans are continuing to investigate Hunter Biden and his potentially criminal history, as well as whether his father, President Joe Biden, is connected to those alleged crimes
David Weiss (pictured) is a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, who for the past five years has been investigating Joe Biden’s son
Hunter Biden pictured leaving a California office building in August. In July, he pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to pay more than $100,000 in taxes owed on over $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018
Hunter Biden, in July, pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to pay more than $100,000 in taxes owed on over $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018.
He did not enter a plea in a separate case in which he is charged with unlawfully owning a firearm while using illegal drugs, which is a felony.
Top Democrats were hopeful a plea agreement between Hunter Biden and Weiss would have allowed the president to move past his son’s legal troubles and relegate the issue to Republican-led congressional investigations.
But a federal judge refused to accept a proposed plea deal and Weiss said in a court filing on Friday that talks between the two sides have since broken down.
A potential trial raises the possibility of an unprecedented spectacle in U.S. history: The son of a sitting president facing criminal charges while his father campaigns for re-election, likely against Republican Donald Trump, who faces at least three upcoming criminal trials of his own.
Republicans have accused the elder Biden of profiting from his son’s business ventures in Ukraine and China, though they have yet to produce any evidence of wrongdoing.
House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in July that the chamber might launch an impeachment inquiry in the autumn.
Half of Americans believe Hunter Biden received preferential treatment from prosecutors who tried to reach a plea deal, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in June found before the plea deal fell apart.
But most Americans said the Hunter Biden plea deal did not affect their likelihood of voting for Biden next year, the poll found.