Graham J Noble
Former Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf has some explaining to do after being accused of interfering with a federal investigation of Hunter Biden. Wolf was the target of several accusations made by an IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley. The Justice Department (DOJ) ex-official was subpoenaed in November by the House Judiciary Committee to address Shapley’s allegations that she “limited” investigators’ questioning of witnesses, blocked a search warrant for Hunter Biden’s place of residence in 2020, and tipped off Joe Biden’s son’s legal team that a search of his storage unit had been planned.
No longer employed at the DOJ, Wolf sat for a closed-door interview on December 14 and, according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), declined to answer most questions. “She refused to answer based on instructions she was given from the Justice Department,” Jordan said.
US Attorney Puts a Thumb on the Scale?
Wolf’s alleged actions related to the Hunter Biden investigation – which she apparently has not denied – along with her assertion that the DOJ effectively ordered her not to cooperate with lawmakers, serves only to strengthen the widely held belief that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s department is acting to shield the Biden family. Shapley and another whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, testified that the DOJ interfered with the five-year Hunter Biden investigation in multiple ways. Both men observed that the case was treated differently from any other on which either of these two IRS veterans had worked.
An interim staff report released on December 5 by the House Committees probing Biden family business activities details the steps FBI and DOJ officials took to “slow-walk” and otherwise impede the investigation. Based on testimony from Ziegler, Shapley, and several other current or former FBI and IRS officials – as well as “hundreds of pages of documents” – the report states:
“Several witnesses acknowledged the delicate approach used during the Hunter Biden case, describing the investigation as ‘sensitive’ or ‘significant.’ Evidence shows Department officials slow-walked the investigation, informed defense counsel of future investigative actions, prevented line investigators from taking otherwise ordinary investigative steps, and even allowed the statute of limitations to expire on the most serious potential charges. These unusual – and oftentimes in the view of witnesses, unprecedented – tactics conflicted with standard operating procedures and ultimately had the effect of benefiting Hunter Biden.”
Wolf’s alleged behavior appears to fit in exactly with accusations of political favoritism at the DOJ.
Hunter Biden Thumbs His Nose
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden continues to behave as if federal laws simply do not apply to him. He had been subpoenaed for a closed-door transcribed interview with GOP investigators on December 13. Instead of complying, he made an appearance outside the Capitol building and delivered fantastical remarks to the media.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged that Joe Biden was “certainly aware” that his son planned to defy the congressional subpoena and instead make a public statement. Considering that Hunter Biden railed against “the MAGA right” during his remarks, it is not unreasonable to suspect the White House may well have had some influence over what he said.
A more serious problem than that for Joe Biden, however, was pointed out by legal scholar Jonathan Turley, who wrote that the senior Biden committed a “breathtaking mistake” if, as appears to be the case, he spoke with his son prior to the December 13 dramatics on Capitol Hill.
“If this latest allegation is true, the president was speaking with his son about committing a potentially criminal act of contempt. Hunter was refusing to give testimony focused not on his own role but on his father’s potential role in the alleged influence peddling. The House can pursue evidence on that conversation and how the president may have supported his son’s effort.”
Turley suggested that Joe Biden could have set himself up for the very same articles of impeachment the Democrats slapped on former President Donald Trump in 2019: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
An Evolving Defense
The White House, congressional Democrats, and leftist media pundits are still claiming Republicans have no evidence of wrongdoing on Joe Biden’s part – or even on Hunter’s part, for that matter. GOP lawmakers have yet to prove their allegations, but they have evidence a-plenty. If the Bidens’ financial dealings were all above board, there would be no need for the senior Biden to deny any involvement with them. That line of defense has been moved yet again.
Initially, Joe Biden claimed repeatedly that he never spoke to his son about business matters. When Republicans unveiled proof that this was a lie, the narrative changed to Biden never having been involved in his son’s business deals. Now, that too has been exposed as a deceptive claim. Hunter Biden – or perhaps whoever worked with him on his December 13 speech – came up with a new and supremely vague denial: “My father was not financially involved in my business,” he told reporters.
The ball is now in House Republicans’ court. Will they hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress and refer him to the DOJ for criminal prosecution as Democrats did to Trump ally Steven Bannon when he failed to comply with his subpoena in 2022? If they do, will the DOJ prosecute as it did Bannon, who was sentenced to four months in prison? The answers to those questions will indicate how serious Republicans are about getting to the truth – whatever it may be – and how serious the Justice Department is about applying the law in an apolitical manner.
