{"id":2011681,"date":"2023-08-25T05:59:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T09:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-investigation-whats-next-for-congressional-republicans-biden-family-inquiries\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T06:01:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T10:01:59","slug":"hunter-biden-investigation-whats-next-for-congressional-republicans-biden-family-inquiries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-investigation-whats-next-for-congressional-republicans-biden-family-inquiries\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s next for GOP&#8217;s Biden family inquiries after Hunter Biden investigation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhunter-biden-investigation-whats-next-for-congressional-republicans-biden-family-inquiries%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2011681&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>House Republicans to Focus on Key Players \u200din\u2063 DOJ Investigation of Hunter Biden<\/h2>\n<p>When House Republicans return from their August recess, their investigations into \u2064the Biden family will focus on a handful of \u2064key people who \u200dplayed roles in the Department of Justice\u200d investigation of \u200dHunter Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Their inquiries could also clash with new realities inside the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>Republican lawmakers \u200dhaven\u2019t yet heard from the Justice Department that the appointment \u200cof\u2064 a special counsel in the\u2064 Hunter Biden criminal case, which\u2064 occurred while Congress was out of session, will \u200bshut down their ability\u2063 to speak with a handful of\u200d DOJ officials they\u2064 had asked to\u2064 interview weeks earlier.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2062 also haven\u2019t \u2062heard that the Justice Department intends to \u2064cooperate, according to multiple GOP congressional \u2063aides\u2064 familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Those \u200baides said\u2064 the way DOJ officials handled\u2063 the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden\u200d over the past five years \u2063will \u200cbe a top area of\u2062 interest for congressional investigators \u2014 and relevant as House Republicans weigh an impeachment inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>Before \u2064Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David\u2062 Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, as special counsel on \u200bAug. 11, the DOJ had offered to make Weiss available to lawmakers\u2064 on several dates \u200bin late September \u2062and mid-October.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers are \u200dstill pressing to get access to Weiss, although \u200ca person familiar said they are seeking a transcribed interview\u200c behind closed doors, not a public hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans appear nearly as eager to speak with Lesley Wolf, a prosecutor\u200d in \u200dWeiss\u2019s office. \u200bTwo IRS whistleblowers \u200daccused \u200cWolf of deliberately stymieing parts of the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Wolf tipped off Hunter Biden\u2019s legal team that investigators \u2062were preparing to\u200c execute a search warrant on a storage unit he owned, the whistleblowers said, and she forbade agents from asking witnesses any questions about\u200b President Joe Biden\u2019s involvement in his son\u2019s foreign businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Dates for Wolf\u2019s transcribed interview had not been\u2063 set before Weiss\u2019s\u200c appointment, and the\u2063 Justice Department has not said whether \u200dit will allow her to testify.<\/p>\n<p>A New York Times report this week suggested\u200d Wolf was pulled from\u2062 the Hunter Biden case around the time a\u200c now-withdrawn plea deal came together in\u2063 June; her departure from the case coincided with the IRS whistleblower disclosures.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers could note her lack of a \u2064role in the ongoing investigation when seeking her testimony, skirting what they expect to be \u200ca\u200b Justice\u2064 Department excuse to withhold information from Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Chairmen\u200d of the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways \u200cand Means Committees also \u2063requested interviews with nine \u2063other Justice Department and FBI officials in June, none \u200bof which have been scheduled.<\/p>\n<p>While subpoenas for all of those \u200bwitnesses are on the table, a person familiar with the situation said congressional aides are still\u200b attempting\u200d to negotiate most of the interviews without taking\u200c that step.<\/p>\n<p>But the Judiciary and Ways and Means \u200bCommittee did issue\u2063 subpoenas for two \u2062of those witnesses this week, suggesting a significant interest in them: Thomas\u200d Sobocinski and Ryeshia Holley, both FBI agents\u2063 in the\u200d bureau\u2019s Baltimore field\u2062 office. In\u2062 total, the committees\u2062 issued four subpoenas.<\/p>\n<p>The Baltimore field office lent resources to the investigation of Hunter Biden that Weiss, as the U.S. attorney in Delaware, oversaw. The IRS also participated significantly due to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-investigation-whats-next-for-congressional-republicans-biden-family-inquiries\/\" title=\"What's next for GOP's Biden family inquiries after Hunter Biden investigation?\">alleged tax crimes involved<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Both Sobocinski and \u200bHolley were present at a key meeting on Oct. 7, 2022, in which Weiss told members of the investigative \u2063team that\u2062 his requests for special \u200bcounsel authority\u200b had \u2064up to that point been denied\u200c and that \u2062other U.S. attorneys appointed by Joe Biden had blocked his efforts\u200b to charge Hunter Biden in \u2063other jurisdictions, according \u2064to IRS whistleblower testimony.<\/p>\n<p>The other two subpoenas sent this week also involved\u200b officials involved in the investigation: Darrell \u200cWaldon \u2064and Michael Batdorf, two IRS agents.<\/p>\n<p>Waldon was, according to one of the IRS whistleblowers, also in attendance\u2062 at the Oct. 7, 2022, \u2064meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The GOP\u200c committee chairmen said in their letter to Batdorf this\u200b week that they have reason to believe he has knowledge of\u200d what \u200dtranspired during that meeting.<\/p>\n<p>One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-republicans-defect-to-advance-biden-nominee-accused-of-lying-about-iran-deal\/\" title=\"Three Republicans Defect To Advance Biden Nominee Accused of Lying About Iran Deal\">congressional aide familiar<\/a> with the thinking behind the \u200dfour subpoenas sent \u2064this week said Republicans\u2019 effort to get more information about the meeting is ultimately about determining whether Garland or Weiss lied to Congress when \u200dboth, at various points over the past several months, assured lawmakers that Weiss\u200b never faced any constraints on how\u2064 to handle the \u200bHunter Biden\u2064 investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Corroboration of the IRS whistleblower\u2019s testimony from one of \u2062the other witnesses present \u200cat or informed of the\u200c meeting\u2063 could put further pressure on Garland and Weiss to address the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers are\u200b also set to\u200b dig into \u2062what the FBI did to investigate a bribery\u200b allegation involving Joe and Hunter Biden that it had in its possession\u200c for \u2062years.<\/p>\n<p>Another \u200dperson familiar with the congressional\u200d investigations\u2064 said GOP members\u2062 are\u200c exploring\u2062 ways to get information from the Justice Department about how the allegation, memorialized on what\u2019s \u2062known\u200c as an FD-1023\u2062 document, factored into the criminal investigation of the business dealings mentioned in the document \u2063that was underway at the time the FBI received the allegation. The claim from a confidential FBI source involved\u200d Hunter Biden\u2019s work\u2062 with a Ukrainian energy company that benefited from \u200cthe policy steps Joe Biden took in Ukraine at the time as vice president.<\/p>\n<p>And the prospect of \u200can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mccarthy-isnt-calling-for-biden-impeachment-inquiry-yet-but-could-in-the-future\/\" title=\"McCarthy refrains from demanding Biden impeachment inquiry for now, but may consider it later.\">impeachment inquiry remains<\/a> likely, aides said.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) \u200dhas continued to signal that an impeachment inquiry would help\u200c Republicans\u200b seek the answers they\u2062 need from the Biden administration and uncooperative witnesses, as the inquiry would unlock more powerful tools for congressional investigators.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers will face a government funding pinch when they return from\u200b recess next month, which could pull \u2063their focus from\u200b the Biden family investigations\u2062 for several weeks.<\/p>\n<p>But the collapse of Hunter Biden\u2019s plea agreement and the \u2062public \u2064accusations of deferential treatment that Hunter Biden\u2019s own \u2062lawyers have leveled at the Biden Justice Department could fuel calls for such a step to begin in \u2063the\u2063 weeks ahead, particularly if the Justice Department refuses\u2062 to\u2063 cooperate with the latest flurry \u200bof interview \u2063requests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When House Republicans come back from recess, they will concentrate on a few individuals involved in the DOJ&#8217;s probe of Hunter Biden. However, their investigations may conflict with changes happening within the DOJ. Nikki Haley stood out in the debate amidst a group of loud men, as claimed. GOP legislators have yet to address this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2011682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}