Hunter Biden investigation: Special counsel David Weiss to lead probe

In an interview on Fox News, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who's running for the Republican presidential nomination, said she doesn't trust the special counsel appointment for Hunter Biden.

They're "trying to distract away from all this money conversation about what’s happened with the Biden family" and the actions of the Bidens "smells bad," she said.

Haley also pointed to her GOP rival, Donald Trump, saying "you’ve got a former president that’s been charged 73 times, you’ve got now the current president and his family who are in these pay-to-play schemes."

"I think it’s all the more reason why we’ve got to have a new generational candidate and a new generation of a president," she added.

U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., lauded Garland's appointment of Weiss, saying that it demonstrated his commitment to "avoiding even the appearance of politicization at the Justice Department."

"And President Biden’s decision to keep Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss on in Delaware when he was sworn-in stands in stark contrast to former President Trump’s repeated efforts to use the Justice Department and Attorney General as his personal lawyer," Durbin said in a statement.

"U.S. Attorney David Weiss is a distinguished prosecutor, and I trust that the Justice Department’s professional, nonpartisan approach will carry on as the Special Counsel continues his investigation."

An IRS whistleblower last month testified before the House Oversight Committee about allegations of meddling in the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden, claims which Weiss has denied.

Gary Shapley, an agent in the IRS’ Criminal Investigation division, testified that he saw Weiss tell a room full of senior FBI and IRS investigators in October that he was “not the deciding person on whether charges are filed.” Shapley alleged that he raised concerns during the meeting and that two weeks later, the IRS was entirely cut out of the case by the Justice Department.

Weiss has also been accused of retaliating against the IRS whistleblower, though he has repeatedly denied both allegations: in a letter sent last month to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Weiss said that the DOJ did not retaliate against any IRS official “for making protected disclosures to Congress,” and that he believed he could file charges outside his home district if the investigation leads in that direction.

There’s a notable connection between the two special counsels now overseeing separate probes into the Bidens.

Weiss has been appointed as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case, while Robert Hur is the special counsel overseeing the classified documents probe involving President Joe Biden. 

Both were tapped to serve as U.S. attorneys by then-President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2018. Hur previously served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, and Weiss served as the U.S. attorney for Delaware.

As U.S. attorneys in neighboring states, they at times worked together on cases. In January 2020, their offices both worked together to charge a violent a violent extremist group known as “The Base.” 

There is no reason to believe the two will collaborate on their separate probes. Their history of working together, however, is why some broadcast news stations have been airing footage of Weiss at a news conference with Hur standing behind him.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, commented on the news of the special counsel at the start of his speech during a campaign stop in Harlan, Iowa.

“You see the stuff with Hunter Biden," DeSantis said. "If he was a Republican, he’d be in jail by now.”

The attorney general sent a letter to top lawmakers on the House and Senate Judiciary committees informing them of Weiss' appointment as special counsel "minutes" before the news conference, according to two sources with direct knowledge.

The letter was sent to Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., along with Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., according to a copy obtained by NBC News.

Garland said in the letter that Weiss and federal law enforcement partners began investigating "allegations of certain criminal conduct" by Hunter Biden and others in 2019.

"I have concluded that, under the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, it is in the public interest to appoint David C. Weiss as Special Counsel for the Department of Justice," Garland wrote to the lawmakers.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., criticized Garland's appointment of a special counsel in the probe of Hunter Biden, claiming that Weiss cannot "be trusted" in the role.

"This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption," McCarthy said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel?"

He added that Republicans will "continue to pursue the facts."

McCarthy in June raised the prospect of impeaching Garland over the federal investigation into Biden's son. At the time, he pointed to allegations made by a former IRS employee that Garland meddled in the Hunter Biden case. The DOJ denied the whistleblower's claims.

Garland has reiterated Trump-appointed Weiss' independence in the investigation and is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this fall.

The new special counsel prosecuting Hunter Biden filed a strong statement in favor of holding a trial in the venue where crimes are alleged to have occurred at the same time former President Trump is pushing to remove his trial on 2020 election charges from Washington, D.C.

As Weiss wrote in a filing Friday, the same day he was named special counsel, Hunter Biden would be able to try to have his case dismissed if the prosecution is pursued in Delaware. The venue didn't matter when the president's son was expected to accept a plea deal. But since that fell through last month, he would be able to move to dismiss the case on venue grounds if it is not shifted to California or Washington, D.C., where he allegedly broke tax laws.

"In criminal cases, proper venue is an important constitutional safeguard," Weiss wrote in his filing in the Hunter Biden case, a sentiment that aligns with the counterargument to Trump's push to be tried outside Washington.

Weiss cited Article III of the Constitution, which provides that prosecutions "shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed," and the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees defendants the right to trial "by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed."

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign criticized the Justice Department.

In a statement posted on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, campaign spokesperson Stephen Cheung accused the DOJ of shielding the "Biden Crime Family" from legal retribution "for decades."

The DOJ typically appoints special counsels to oversee politically sensitive investigations, but Cheung, in his statement, did not appear to endorse the move.

If this special counsel is truly independent — even though he failed to bring proper charges after a four year investigation and appears to be trying to move the case to a more Democrat-friendly venue — he will quickly conclude that Joe Biden, his troubled son Hunter, and their enablers, including the media, which colluded with the 51 intelligence officials who knowingly mislead the public about Hunter’s laptop, should face the required consequences

Stephen Cheung, trump campaign spokesperson