33 GOP Senators Urge Garland to Give Hunter Biden Investigator Special Counsel Powers

More than 30 Republican senators have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to give the federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden special counsel protections, arguing that such a move would help assure the American people that the probe is free from political influence amid widespread allegations of bias at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The president’s son has been investigated by the office of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-appointed prosecutor, since at least 2019.

While prosecutors have not publicly disclosed what is being investigated, documents from the investigation and people who have testified to a grand jury say it includes looking into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings with entities in China and other foreign countries.

“There is no way of knowing the entire scope of the investigation, but evidence seems to be mounting that Hunter Biden committed numerous federal crimes, including, but not limited to, tax fraud, money laundering, and foreign-lobbying violations,” the senators wrote in the Sept. 19 letter to Garland.

The letter, led by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), alleges heightened politicization of the DOJ under Garland.

Hunter Biden attends a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony honoring 17 recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on July 7, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

It also references whistleblower information received by Grassley’s office detailing a “widespread effort within the FBI to downplay or discredit negative information about” Hunter Biden, including allegations that the FBI “shut down investigative activity and avenues of information relating to potentially criminal information on Hunter Biden before the 2020 presidential election.”

The senators accused Garland of taking the “inexplicable step of chilling lawful whistleblower activity” by issuing an Aug. 30 memo reminding DOJ employees of a policy prohibiting communications with Congressional members without