WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight President, Tristan Leavitt, and Founder and Chair, Jason Foster, wrote in an op-ed for The Federalist about the need for even more congressional oversight and public scrutiny after U.S. Attorney David Weiss was appointed a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case.
“The appointment of Weiss and the controversies that led to it raise serious questions about Justice Department misconduct, and those questions need not be sidelined indefinitely in deference to the very process in need of scrutiny right now,” they wrote in the piece.
To read the full piece, please visit The Federalist.
No, Appointing A ‘Special Counsel’ Is Not A License For DOJ To Obstruct Congress
Capitol Hill should resist this lie with every constitutional power it can muster.
by Tristan Leavitt and Jason Foster
The Federalist, Aug. 21, 2023
“The need for more public scrutiny of the Justice Department’s improper handling of the Hunter Biden case was already high following whistleblower revelations, the collapse of the sweetheart plea deal, and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as “special counsel.” Now, the Biden legal team has apparently released a trove of its emails with prosecutors to friendly press. These new revelations about Justice Department collusion with Biden family lawyers make it clear the two sides acted essentially as allies to kill the case, and it almost worked.
“It is now more important than ever that Congress get serious about obtaining answers from the DOJ. Our client, IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, and IRS case agent Joe Ziegler both blew the whistle to Congress regarding five years’ worth of political favoritism, pulling punches, and conflicts of interest in the Biden case on Weiss’s watch. Since then, they’ve been threatened, retaliated against, and removed from the case.
“On March 1, 2023, Garland swore to Congress that the buck stopped with Weiss alone in the Hunter Biden case. But the Justice Department’s actions directly undercut his claims. Just weeks later, DOJ headquarters officials granted an audience for Biden lawyers to appeal above Weiss’s head, and soon an unprecedented generous plea deal with the president’s son was offered as the whistleblowers were removed from the case. Only after that plea agreement fell apart in open court on July 26 did Garland finally give Weiss the “special” authority they both claimed this year he did not need.
“U.S. Attorney Weiss was obviously the wrong choice for special counsel because IRS whistleblowers had already credibly alleged that his own office and he himself had given Biden preferential treatment and provided misleading information to Congress. With his appointment as special counsel, many across the political spectrum (including perhaps Garland) seemed to think that move somehow insulated the Justice Department from congressional questioning about the growing controversy. But it shouldn’t…”
The rest of Leavitt and Foster’s op-ed can be found on The Federalist website.