Garland appoints Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case
This could – and should – have happened long ago. Why is it happening now? My first answer is that the House investigations have shed some light on the scope and meaning of Hunter’s activities and on the need for more than a tiny slap on the wrist – or rather, on the need for the appearance of more than a tiny slap on the wrist. Weiss is already somewhat compromised, so he may be just the person to appoint to give that appearance but not that reality.
Then again, perhaps they’re getting ready to replace Joe, and this is part of it.
I do not think this is the beginning of a real reckoning, however. I’m with Jim Jordan here, and I was before I even read what he said:
House Judiciary Chairman Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, blasted Weiss’ appointment in a statement issued through a spokesman.
“David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it. We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistleblowers as well as Weiss’s inconsistent statements to Congress.” said Jordan spokesman Russell Dye.
Another possibility is that the appointment of a special prosecutor will be the signal for the Democrats to say the House needs to stop its own investigation because it will interfere with the special counsel’s investigation (or the special counsel’s “investigation”).
And now I see this from Rep. Comer of Kentucky:
“This move by Attorney General Garland is part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of the House Oversight Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals. The Justice Department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden. Justice Department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal,” Comer said.
He continued: “Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden Justice Department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption. The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened. We will also continue to work with the House Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means to root out misconduct at the Justice Department and hold bad actors accountable for weaponizing law enforcement powers.”
Good.
And the MSM will continue to ignore them or write stories from the “Republicans pounce!” angle.
ADDENDUM:
Andrew C. McCarthy has already weighed in:
Gillian, this is a sham. There is no special counsel investigation and there is no Biden investigation. The special counsel regulations, what makes a special counsel special is that you’re a lawyer who’s brought in from outside the United States government, not just outside the Justice Department, outside the government. This U.S. attorney is being appointed notwithstanding that he is an attorney who’s a top official in the Biden Justice Department. And Garland made clear, is going to remain a top official in the Biden Justice Department. This is the Biden Justice Department’s vehicle for maintaining control of an investigation that they are not pursuing. They’ve had the case for five years. They’ve never indicted it. They’re strategically allowing the statute of limitations to run to the point that the 2014 and 2015 conduct, which covers most of the $21 million that the congressional investigation report showed this week, that’s already time barred. And it’s time barred because David Weiss himself decided to let those charges die rather than bring an indictment. They’re not doing anything that you would do if there was an actual investigation. And he can’t be a special counsel because he’s inside the government, and the point of having a special counsel is to bring in someone from outside the government who we can trust to do a credible investigation.
Of course, just being outside the government doesn’t guarantee that, either.
ADDENDUM II:
Here’s what Ace has to say. He points out – among other things – that one of the motives to appoint Weiss may have been to protect Weiss himself from Congressional investigation into Weiss’ involvement in the sweetheart Hunter Biden plea deal and immunity offer.
If you missed how it all shook out, David Weiss hid the covert blanket immunity provisions for Hunter Biden in a separate document, as an addendum to the alternative sentencing agreement for the gun charge. He kept this out of the actual plea deal so that the judge would not see it.
His scheme was to confer blanket immunity on Hunter Biden for all crimes he committed in the past, including those never named or referenced. Immunity deals are read in favor of the defendant by judges — so Hunter, by merely showing this secret codicil could be read as conferring blanket immunity, would in fact have blanket immunity. A judge would say, “Well the prosecutor wrote this sloppily, but we construe these agreements against the prosecutor and in favor of the defendant, so congratulations, you have blanket immunity for all crimes in your entire past!”
But of course this arrangement was not done “sloppily.” David Weiss wanted to give Hunter Biden blanket immunity for all past crimes, but he knew a judge would never, ever agree to that … so he stuffed this Double-Secret Immunity provision into the alternate sentencing memorandum.
The judge asked him (or his prosecutor) if there was any precedent in all of legal history for putting the bulk of the plea deal into a document that was not the plea deal, but a side document, and Weiss (or his prosecutor) had to admit: “No.” There was no legal precedent for what Weiss was attempting to do, give a secret, backdoor Get out of Jail Free for All Past Crimes card, and give it in an alternative sentencing memo to boot.
And that’s why the plea deal fell apart: When the judge asked him directly if he was trying to give Hunter blanket immunity for all crimes he may have committed in the past, Weiss had to claim he wasn’t trying to do that, because then he’d be admitting he was committing the crime, and the disbarrable level vioation, of attempting to perpetrate a fraud on the court. …
And in that context, Merrick Garland now appoints Weiss special counsel, so that he won’t have to answer questions about his own criminal behavior.
So many possible angles here.
Can a special councel sequester witnesses or otherwise make them legally unavailable to the House Oversight Committee?
as pointed out below, picking weiss is technically illegal
Just heard Andy McCarthy on the Clay and Buck Show and he was very good on this.
The whole thing is a sham.
Griffin:
Here’s a link to a McCarthy interview on the subject. I’ll add it as an addendum to the post.
A stall tactic. It will take a long time, like until the 2024 election is history, before the Special Counsel publishes any findings.
The evidence has been available to Garland, et al, for a along time.
There is no new evidence. There is only evidence that was hidden, but has now been made public.
I was going to response to “Another possibility” with the old “embrace the power of ‘and'”, but the Comer quotation recognizes the ‘and’ clearly. I have low expectations, but I’m very happy to see Republicans at least calling out the behavior of the DOJ. Weiss is unfit to be Special Counsel on this matter. He made his case, lied about it, and his intentions were already rejected by a judge, while the House was mulling over contempt charges for lying to Congress. Frankly, Weiss being named Special Counsel now should also be considered contempt on the part of AG Garland.
“Can a special councel sequester witnesses or otherwise make them legally unavailable to the House Oversight Committee?”
That’s exactly what the Mueller special prosecutor investigation did – they used heir LawFare developed misinterpretation or redefinition of the § 1001 Obstruction statue to stone wall Congressional investigations by Republican majority committees. It was only when Barr was confirmed as AG, and immediately held he highly partisan Mueller prosecutors to the DOJ OLC official interpretation that the Mueller investigation was shut down. But by then, the Dems had retaken both Houses of Congress, and Pelosi and Schumer shut down the investigations.
Their theory (for stonewalling Congress) was that the Congressional investigations would be interfering with the Mueller investigation, and thus would be Obstructing Justice.
The uber-weasel Garland has his flunky Weiss on a tight leash.
Time for Congress to make Fido bark.
They are so blatant now is their BS stonewalling. Obviously they think there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them…..and they’re probably right. And since the MSM isn’t covering any of this, the average Joe/Jill is ignorant of the level of malfeasance that is the government now. Of course it’s just going to grow, but by that time we are either in CW2, or all under their thumb.
From Ace: Merrick Garland Appoints David Weiss Special Counsel — Which He Should Have Done Years Ago — in Apparent Bid to Protect Weiss From Being Investigated Over His Attempt to Defraud the Court to Covertly Confer Blanket Immunity on Hunter Biden
Another Friday news dump.
If you missed how it all shook out, David Weiss hid the covert blanket immunity provisions for Hunter Biden in a separate document, as an addendum to the alternative sentencing agreement for the gun charge. He kept this out of the actual plea deal so that the judge would not see it.
His scheme was to confer blanket immunity on Hunter Biden for all crimes he committed in the past, including those never named or referenced. Immunity deals are read in favor of the defendant by judges — so Hunter, by merely showing this secret codicil could be read as conferring blanket immunity, would in fact have blanket immunity. A judge would say, “Well the prosecutor wrote this sloppily, but we construe these agreements against the prosecutor and in favor of the defendant, so congratulations, you have blanket immunity for all crimes in your entire past!”
But of course this arrangement was not done “sloppily.” David Weiss wanted to give Hunter Biden blanket immunity for all past crimes, but he knew a judge would never, ever agree to that, given that he was already giving Hunter a sweetheart deal on the three crimes actually named in the plea agreement (lying on a gun application and two of his tax evasion charges that Weiss had not yet allowed to lapse via the statute of limitations).
…
Before, Weiss could not investigate any crimes that occurred outside of Delaware.
Now he can do that — hypothetically.
But he’s not being appointed special counsel so that he’ll have the power to investigate all crimes Hunter committed in other jurisdictions.
Oh no. Oh no no no no no.
He’s being appointed special counsel so that he’ll have the power to grant immunity to all crimes Hunter committed in other jurisdictions.
Banana Republic. Illegitimate tyrannical junta.
Coverup.
It certainly seems that this is a move to stymie\hobble the House investigations.
What a joke. But it will work. Look how successful the whole “Trump appointed Weiss” gambit was.
And still, every mainstream press report I read on this matter explains it by saying “Hunter Biden was late paying his taxes, but he paid them.” As if that was the entirety of the matter.
[W]hat makes a special counsel special is that you’re a lawyer who’s brought in from outside the United States government, not just outside the Justice Department, outside the government.
Can somebody sue Garland to get Weiss replaced?
Or would that just be another “no standing” case?
I thought it odd that Neo’s source for the excerpt from McCarthy’s interview on Fox was Mediaite — considering their spin on other posts about the same story.
Here’s an example of “lying by omission” from the first link.
https://www.mediaite.com/news/foxs-andrew-mccarthy-decries-sham-hunter-biden-special-counsel-meant-to-be-someone-from-outside-the-government/
Notice what they left out (although McCarthy does mention his other connections with the case): Weiss was the architect of the first failed plea deal. The new one is explained in another post at the site.
“JUST IN: Federal Prosecutors Say Hunter Biden’s Plea Negotiations ‘Are At An Impasse,’ Case Headed For Trial”
I thought Jake Tapper was trying to regain a soubriquet I and others once awarded him, “The last honest reporter,” which he lost when Trump was elected. Watch what he does here.
And note the media boilerplate at the end.
https://www.mediaite.com/crime/jake-tapper-says-conservatives-have-legitimate-questions-about-garlands-odd-special-counsel-pick-in-biden-probe/
Everybody who believes Weiss was appointed so he could actually bring charges against Hunter raise your hand.
https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-say-itll-take-a-lot-more-than-eyewitness-testimony-bank-records-audio-video-complete-confessions-for-them-to-believe-biden-did-anything-wrong
Notice what Carlucci implies in this post, which is blatant spin: GOP wanting a special counsel in no way translates to what he claims.
His first claim is just malarkey.
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/democrat-on-fox-says-garland-announcing-hunter-biden-special-counsel-was-a-surprise-to-white-house/
This is actually something we would like Mediaite’s readers to know, and the journalist could have added the context for them.
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/comer-rages-after-hunter-biden-special-counsel-named-trying-to-stonewall-congressional-oversight/
And finally, just so you all know what the Democrats are reading, this post quotes a letter purporting to demonstrate that Rep. Comer is a lying no-good flim-flammer — and maybe some of it is even true — but not this part. For his first claim, which narrows the president’s connection to the absurdly narrow level derided by most intelligent pundits and readers, I refer you to the Website of Record above.
https://www.mediaite.com/news/white-house-drops-searing-memo-on-hunter-biden-probe-an-hour-before-hunter-biden-special-counsel-named/
Ace, quoting Turley, addresses the “there’s no evidence” spin.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/405719.php
“Jonathan Turley on Democrat Partisan Media’s Spin That No Money Has Yet Been Proven to Have Gone to Joe Biden: You’re Aware That Mafiosi Routinely Direct Paymemts to Their Family Members So the Feds Can’t Touch It, Right?
Actually he does not make that analogy but that’s basically what he’s talking about.”
Turley doesn’t use an analogy at all, he states plainly that enriching a person’s family IS a bribe.
Ace also links this story, which should actually be in Not the Bee.
What a time to be alive!
https://babylonbee.com/news/garland-appoints-special-counsel-to-cover-up-bidens-crimes
This level of corruption has occurred in our history but never by the President himself. It was always underling like Albert B Fall who was Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, appointed by Harding to try to improve relations with Mexico.
“Grant was personally honest with money matters. However, he trusted and protected his close associates, in denial of their guilt, despite evidence against them.[5][6] According to C. Vann Woodward, Grant had neither the training nor temperament to fully comprehend the complexities of rapid economic growth, industrialization, and western expansionism.[6][7] During his presidency, Grant enjoyed speaking with men of wealth and influence, but he was also personally generous to the poor.[8] Grant had come from a humble background where men of superior intelligence and ability were threats rather than assets. Instead of responding with trust and warmth to men of talent, education, and culture, he turned to his military friends from the Civil War and to politicians new as himself.[6][7] According to Grant’s son, Ulysses Jr., his father was “incapable of supposing his friends to be dishonest.”
Neither was ever shown to be corrupt. Biden is a first.
This “special counsel” appointment feels like a turning point for me personally – so particularly corrupt and blatant that it seems to cross a disgust threshold.