Attorney General Merrick Garland is scheduled to testify to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, marking his first congressional appearance since an IRS whistleblower called into question his claim that U.S. Attorney David Weiss had ultimate charging authority over Hunter Biden. While Garland has much to answer for beyond the botched Hunter Biden investigation — such as the targeting of pro-life protesters — the Judiciary Committee should focus on getting answers to these questions.
The committee should start with a series of direct questions to the AG focused on aspects of the Hunter Biden investigation before confronting Garland with inconsistencies between his prior statements and Weiss and the whistleblowers’ claims. The committee and the country need to understand how the attorney general directed the handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.
Specifically, what if anything did Garland say to Weiss about how the investigation should be run? Did Garland directly communicate with Weiss? When and how often? Did the AG instead assign an assistant attorney general to interact with Weiss? Who? When? What specific authority or concerns did Weiss discuss with Garland or his assistant attorneys general?
Then the $5 million question: Did Weiss ever discuss special attorney or special counsel status and, if so, when? A follow-up $5 million question seems exceedingly appropriate in this situation: When did Garland first provide Weiss with authority to prosecute Hunter Biden in other districts?
Of course, we know the answer to that is when Garland named Weiss special counsel, but having the
