Hunter Biden’s Prosecutor Keeps Dodging Congress

Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss keeps insisting he had complete authority to charge Hunter Biden how and where he wished. So why is he so reluctant to answer questions from Congress?

In a Monday letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Mr. Weiss repeats his recent claim to House Republicans that he had ultimate “authority” to charge the President’s son, while also providing a few more details. Mr. Weiss says he never requested a special-counsel designation, but that he did have “discussions with Departmental officials” about a “potential appointment” as a special attorney.

The latter would have let him “file charges in a district outside my own without the partnership of the local U.S. Attorney.” He says “I was assured that I would be granted this authority if it proved necessary.” This conveniently gels with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s claim that Mr. Weiss never asked for special-counsel status but could have filed charges anywhere.

Yet those claims conflict with the testimony of IRS investigator Gary Shapley. The tax specialist says a team of IRS, FBI and DOJ officials last year were ready to charge Hunter with felony tax offenses in Washington, D.C., and California, but that Mr. Weiss told them in an October meeting that he’d been denied “special counsel authority from Main DOJ” and that he wasn’t “the deciding official on whether charges are filed.” Mr. Weiss last month settled the tax case in Delaware in a deal that will likely let Hunter escape jail time.

Mr. Weiss’s letter doesn’t say if that’s what he told Mr. Shapley and the others in October. It also doesn’t answer whether U.S. Attorneys appointed by President Biden blocked Mr. Weiss from filing charges against Hunter in their D.C. and California districts. That’s Mr. Shapley’s claim, and the New York Times reports that it has confirmed the California story.

That undermines Mr. Garland’s claim that the probe was free of political interference. If Mr. Weiss did have the freedom to ask for special-attorney privileges, why didn’t he pursue the charges that his team spent years investigating and recommended?

In his letter Mr. Weiss again refused to discuss anything further about his “ongoing investigation.” But if he’s settled the case, why is it “ongoing”? Congress is right to demand that Mr. Weiss answer its questions.