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Senator Charles Grassley said at a hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday that more than a dozen “whistleblowers” have provided “potentially criminal” information about Hunter Biden to the FBI.
The Iowa Republican told Garland, who was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his first trip to Capitol Hill this year, that the damning statements require the Justice Department to review the matter following reports that the president’s son was the subject of a federal investigation involving tax matters and a potentially false statement on a gun purchase form.
It was one of multiple efforts at the oversight hearing to try to get Garland to answer to allegations of “corruption” that extend beyond the president’s son.
“Recent disclosures from legally protected whistleblowers to my office indicate that the Department of Justice and the FBI had at one time more than a dozen sources that provided potentially criminal information related to Hunter Biden,” said Grassley, who has a long history of dealing with complainants in the Senate. .
It came during a tense hearing in which Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) criticized Garland for failing to arrest abortion-rights protesters outside the homes of Supreme Court justices.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told a Senate hearing that more than a dozen ‘whistleblowers’ came forward with information about Hunter Biden
“The alleged volume and similarity of the information would require the Department of Justice to investigate the truth and accuracy of the information,” he said, reading from a prepared statement with questions for the attorney general.
“Accordingly, what steps has the Department of Justice taken to determine the truth and accuracy of the information provided?” he asked Garland. “Congress and the American people have a right to know,” she intoned.
Grassley and other panel members are aware that Garland cannot comment in detail on the ongoing investigations, but they still used the hearing to try to get public commitments.
“I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation,” Garland told Grassley, 89, who was re-elected in November for an eighth term.
Grassley tried to get AG Merrick Garland to say that the US Attorney in Delaware would have the ability to bring charges in other jurisdictions.
Several senators mentioned Hunter Biden at the hearing, though the event spanned trans prison housing, crime and fentanyl.
Garland spent hours fielding hostile questions from Republicans who accused him of bias despite what he said were efforts to steer clear of accused investigations.
When he took office, Garland kept Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump holdover, in place as a way to insulate the investigation from the appearances of a conflict of interest in an investigation of the president’s son.
Grassley wanted to know if the federal prosecutor would need the approval of Biden’s appointees to charge an alleged crime in another jurisdiction, such as California or Washington, DC.
The question hinted at other potential areas of an investigation that could involve public corruption: allegations Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made in a report and letter including 220 pages of bank records days before the November election.
“I have promised not to interfere with that investigation and I have kept my promise,” Garland told him.
“I promised to leave the Hunter Biden matter in the hands of the Delaware U.S. Attorney,” Garland told Grassley.
Grassley flatly asked Garland if Weiss had ‘did you seek permission from another US Attorney’s office, such as in the District of Columbia or California, to file charges?’ and if it was denied or not.
‘I don’t know the answer to that,’ Garland told him.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also brought up the Hunter Biden investigation, in an angry question period in which he accused the Garland Justice Department of bias in the Trump investigation into January 6 and classified documents.
“I think he really wants to impeach Donald J. Trump,” he told Garland, despite his repeated remarks about trying to step back and avoid interference. He has appointed special attorneys in both matters.
He accused the Justice Department of leaking information about the Hunter Biden investigation as a “predicate” to impeach Trump and show impartiality and show that the department is “impartial.”
He then called for Hunter’s investigation not to focus on the president’s son’s battles with addiction, but instead focus on “connections to his father and possible public corruption.” That is a matter of public interest.
He asked Garland to commit to looking at the “public corruption aspect” and “not just scapegoating Hunter Biden as an individual.”
The gun investigation relates to Hunter Biden’s certification on a 2018 firearms purchase form of not being “an illegal user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic or any other controlled substance.”