A trio of top House Republicans are demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) hand over information pertaining to Hunter Biden’s plea deal, which has been on hold for days after a judge raised concerns about the agreement.
GOP lawmakers have railed for weeks against the plea agreement, calling it a “sweetheart deal” and arguing Hunter Biden was given preferential treatment because he is the son of President Biden.
The three Republicans escalated those attacks in a Monday letter, asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to answer a list of questions and provide documents and communications about Hunter Biden’s “unusual” plea agreement — the first request from Congress parsing the particulars of the deal.
“The Department’s unusual plea and pretrial diversion agreements with Mr. Biden raise serious concerns — especially when combined with recent whistleblower allegations—that the Department has provided preferential treatment toward Mr. Biden in the course of its investigation and proposed resolution of his alleged criminal conduct,” the letter reads.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) all signed the letter. The House GOP for months has been investigating the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and its associates. Lawmakers have previously made requests regarding the investigation into Hunter Biden led by U.S. attorney for Delaware David Weiss.
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Hunter Biden’s plea deal was put on hold last week after the judge overseeing the case questioned the parameters of the agreement. As part of the deal, Biden was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay income taxes. He also reached a diversion agreement relating to an unlawful possession of a weapon charge.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee, raised concerns about the setup of the two-part deal and the scope of Biden’s immunity, and she ultimately gave both parties more time to explain why the deal — which she has to greenlight — should be accepted.
The three House Republicans pointed to some of Noreika’s concerns in their letter, including provisions in the pretrial diversion agreement that would shield Hunter Biden from future criminal charges on the gun charge or other federal charges within the scope of the agreement.
“Taken individually, each of the provisions discussed above raises serious concerns about how the Department has handled this matter. But when considered together, the provisions appear to be even more troubling,” the GOP chairmen wrote.
They claimed the Justice Department “shifted a broad immunity provision, which benefits Mr. Biden, from the plea agreement to the pretrial diversion agreement apparently to prevent the District Court from being able to scrutinize and reject that immunity provision.”
“And then, the Department has benefitted Mr. Biden by giving up its unilateral ability to bring charges against him if it concludes that he has breached the pretrial diversion agreement. Instead, it has placed upon itself the burden of getting the District Court’s permission to bring charges even though the District Court normally has no role in policing a pretrial diversion agreement in that manner,” they continued. “So, the District Court is apparently removed from the equation when it helps Mr. Biden and inserted into the equation when it helps Mr. Biden.”
The trio of Republicans also voiced concerns about the DOJ saying the investigations into Hunter Biden are “ongoing,” arguing it is an effort to shield the DOJ from congressional oversight. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) raised a similar claim last month.
“How can Hunter Biden plead guilty, no jail time, and the DOJ say there’s still an investigation, try to withhold information to the House? That’s unacceptable and will not stand,” McCarthy told reporters at the time.
The committee chairmen are asking Garland to provide information on other pretrial diversion agreements similar to Biden’s, in addition to “a generalized description of the nature of the Department’s ongoing investigation(s) concerning Hunter Biden.”
The letter from Jordan, Comer and Smith came the same day lawmakers heard testimony from former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer behind closed doors. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) told reporters Archer said Hunter Biden included President Biden on a number of phone calls that presumably included business associates, a detail that Republicans will likely use in their attempts to link the president to his son’s business dealings.
Goldman said the testimony did not prove President Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), however, said he thought Archer’s testimony “implicate[s] the president.”
That testimony came nearly two weeks after two IRS whistleblowers testified publicly, claiming that authorities slow-walked the case into Hunter Biden. The two whistleblowers previously spoke to the Ways and Means Committee behind closed doors, and those transcripts were released shortly after Hunter Biden’s plea agreement was announced.