Lawyers are wondering if the Delaware law firm kicked their most veteran prosecutors off the Hunter Biden case — just before they filed minor charges against the president’s son.
Whistleblowers who led the IRS’ criminal investigation into Hunter for five years told Congress about their trials with veteran Delaware prosecutors Lesley Wolf, Shawn Weede and Shannon Hanson.
But in a letter to a federal judge last week announcing the indictment against Hunter, Delaware U.S. attorney David Weiss named three different prosecutors who had apparently not previously been involved in the case — sparking questions about a last-minute review by the Delaware DoJ.
Under Weiss’s signature, the letter of 20 June lists Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leo Wise, Derek Hines, and Benjamin Wallace.
The office has been criticized for only filing “whispered” charges against the First Son, two counts of willful failure to pay taxes and a firearms charge for which he will take pre-trial diversion
The three original Delaware prosecutors who worked the five-year investigation into Hunter Biden appear to have been replaced in the case just before the first son was officially charged
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s court documents in the Hunter criminal case do not include names of Wolf, Weede or Hanson
An attorney for IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who led the agency’s five-year criminal investigation into the First Son, told DailyMail.com: “None of the three were involved in the underlying investigation during Gary’s tenure, to my knowledge. “
One of the prosecutors named in Weiss’s letter, Ben Wallace, Assistant U.S. Attorney General (AUSA), only joined the Delaware office in March of this year.
On Monday, DailyMail.com revealed that another, Derek Hines, may be in conflict because he worked from 2013 to 2015 as “Special Counsel” for one of Hunter’s business partners, ex-FBI director Louis Freeh.
And AUSA Leo Wise was drafted into the Delaware office after being demoted from chief of the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Public Corruption and Fraud Unit to a regular prosecutor in the same unit in March, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Shapley, an IRS Criminal Supervisory special agent, and his subordinate who has not been identified, rang the bell for Congress this year, alleging that the Justice Department had “run slowly” and not prosecuted the Biden investigation when they had sufficient evidence before 2020. presidential elections.
In more than 400 pages of transcribed affidavits published last month by the House Ways and Means Committee, the two IRS officials named several members of Weiss’s office with whom they worked for years on the investigation.
But the names of Wise, Hines and Wallace are nowhere to be found in their testimony.
The three prosecutors appear to have been replaced by assistant U.S. attorneys Derek Hines and Leo Wise
Benjamin Wallace, the third accuser listed on Weiss’s letter, only joined the Delaware office in March of this year
Beneath Weiss’s signature, the June 20 letter lists Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leo Wise, Derek Hines, and Benjamin Wallace
Weiss’s deputy, AUSA Wolf, appears to have been a key member of the Delaware prosecution team, but was not mentioned in Weiss’s letter to the judge.
There were 53 mentions of Wolf in Shapley’s testimony, and 30 mentions of her in the testimony of Shapley’s IRS subordinate special agent and fellow whistleblower.
Shapley and “Whistleblower X” also referenced Delaware Chief Criminal Prosecutor Shawn Weede and Assistant Prosecutor Shannon Hanson in their testimony.
Neither appeared on Weiss’ court documents in the Hunter criminal case.
The whistleblowers were critical of Wolf in their comments to the House Ways and Means Committee, saying she blocked efforts to investigate Joe Biden’s involvement in Hunter’s crimes.
They accused Wolf of tipping off Hunter’s lawyers and Biden’s presidential transition team to impending FBI and IRS interviews with key witnesses, and of allowing Hunter’s lawyers to assist the investigators who wanted to search his storage unit.
Wolf allegedly told investigators who interviewed Hunter’s business partner and Biden family friend Rob Walker not to ask about Joe Biden or the infamous “big guy” email, which suggested that Hunter bought 10% of the stock in a deal with a Chinese would love. oil giant on behalf of his father.
Wolf also allegedly told investigators there was “more than enough” evidence for a search warrant for the guest house in Joe Biden’s mansion in Delaware, but questioned whether “the juice was worth it” and ultimately decided not to to ask because of the ‘optics’.
DailyMail.com asked the Delaware US Attorney’s Office why Wolf did not appear on the documents and why new and less experienced prosecutors had been called.
Hunter reached a deal to plead guilty to two tax counts and face probation for lying on a federal form to buy a gun, likely avoiding jail time. The deal was criticized by Republicans as a clear show of preferential treatment for President Joe Biden’s 52-year-old son.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley told CBS News that Hunter Biden did indeed receive special treatment — and said he was unable to take the routine steps during the investigation of the president’s son
A spokesperson said: “We decline to comment on personnel and human resources matters.”
Wallace, one of three assistant prosecutors named in Weiss’s June 20 letter to the judge, worked as a partner attorney in the Washington DC office of Kirkland & Ellis until March 2023, when he joined the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office. Office.
He previously served as a clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court. He graduated from high school in Wilmington, Delaware in 2008, and went on to attend the University of Virginia and Yale Law School.
His colleague Wise was recently drafted into Weiss’ team from the Maryland US Attorney’s Office in Baltimore.
Wise has a history of tackling corruption cases, including prosecutions against the city’s former mayor Catherine Pugh, the former police chief, two state legislators, and a team of corrupt Baltimore police officers.
But a message in the Baltimore Sun on March 28 said this year that Wise had been demoted from his role as chief of the Maryland office’s public corruption and fraud unit.
Wise led the prosecution of former state attorney Marilyn Mosby for perjury and false mortgage applications as head of the unit, but was reportedly demoted to a regular prosecutor in the unit, while his colleague AUSA Harry Gruber was promoted to the new chief.
It is not clear what caused the relegation.
Wise’s LinkedIn page states that his position in the Baltimore office ended this year, and his profile was updated to include a job as a Trial Attorney with the DoJ Criminal Division that began last month.
Weiss’s June 30 letter comes more than a week after Hunter Biden reached an agreement with the government to plead guilty to tax violations
David Weiss — a Trump appointee who was detained by Biden — has come under scrutiny after Shapley and his fellow whistleblower claimed the Delaware attorney had enough evidence to indict Hunter in 2019 and had been under scrutiny for years on incriminating information about the First Son sits.
Some of Hunter’s alleged tax crimes took place in Washington DC and California, leaving federal prosecutors in those counties to try the cases.
But Shapley told House staff in sworn testimony that both U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada of Central California and D.C. attorney Matthew Graves declined Weiss’ request to prosecute them in their districts.
The whistleblowers also alleged that Weiss told them he was denied the special authority of Attorney General Merrick Garland to overrule his colleagues in California and D.C. — contradicting Garland’s affidavit before the Senate in March.
Weiss wrote a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday, insisting he had “ultimate authority” over the Biden investigation “including the responsibility to decide where, when and if charges should be filed.” .
The federal prosecutor said he was “assured” that he would be given the authority to file charges “in the District of Columbia, the Central District of California, or any other district where charges in this case could be filed” if necessary would be.