WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Justice Department is pushing back against a new batch of subpoenas quietly sent by Republicans in the House of Representatives related to Hunter Biden’s criminal investigation in a new showdown in President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.
The department said it has already taken “extraordinary steps” to refute claims of political interference in the investigation into the president’s son, despite a lack of hard evidence to support the allegations, according to a letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
The letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is in response to previously unreported subpoenas the committee sent last week as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The subpoenas went to two rank-and-file attorneys in the Justice Department’s tax division, as well as two officials who previously testified before the committee: U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Matthew Graves and former Delaware Attorney General Lesley Wolf.
The Judiciary Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hunter Biden’s tax and business affairs have been under investigation in Delaware since 2018. He has pleaded not guilty to weapons and tax charges filed after the implosion of a plea deal that would have spared him jail time.
Republicans who labeled the proposed agreement a “cute deal” have been looking into allegations by Internal Revenue Service agents that the Justice Department’s investigation into the president’s son was “slow” and mishandled.
Six senior Justice Department officials said there was no political interference in the investigation, according to the letter from Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte, chief of congressional affairs. It’s rare for the Justice Department to let regular lawyers testify in Congress.
A statement from the investigation’s top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, marked the first time a special counsel has ever appeared before lawmakers while an investigation was ongoing.
Jordan has said Weiss’ testimony before him strengthened rather than debunked allegations that the special counsel did not have full authority.
The letter, first reported by NBC, asks the committee to send specific written questions.
News of the Justice Department subpoenas comes days after Hunter Biden testified behind closed doors as part of the 14-month investigation that focused largely on his foreign business dealings. Republicans have long wondered whether there was corruption and influence peddling by Joe Biden, especially when he was vice president.
But after conducting dozens of interviews and obtaining more than 100,000 pages of documents, Republicans have still not been able to produce direct evidence of presidential misconduct. Meanwhile, an FBI informant who alleged bribery involving the Bidens — a claim Republicans had repeatedly cited to justify their investigation — is being charged by federal prosecutors who accuse him of fabricating the story.
___
Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.