CNN legal analyst Elie Honig criticized the Department of Justice and Special Cousel David Weiss on Monday and said they made an “unholy mess” of the Hunter Biden investigation.
During an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” host Poppy Harlow cited reporting from the New York Times that said Weis was initially willing to forgo any charges against the president’s son. The reporting also said that Weis changed his position after a “pair of I.R.S. officials on the case accused the Justice Department of hamstringing the investigation.”
“The takeaway is that the DOJ has made an unholy mess of this whole Hunter Biden situation,” Honig said. “I fault David Weiss, who I’ve spoken positively about on this show, given his long service as a U.S. attorney.”
“But if you look at that reporting, first he was willing to let this thing go all together. Political pressure ramped up, he backtracks and says, ‘oh no we’re going to need to take misdemeanor pleas.’ Then they go in to court ready to take misdemeanor pleas, more pressure, more testimony from the IRS and then this deal falls apart, and now he says, ‘well now I need to be called Special Counsel.’”
Honig said Weiss’ actions have been mostly in reaction to IRS whistleblowers.
“It seems like now twice, he’s tried to make this case go away cheaply, twice been called out on it, and twice back tracked, only in response to the whistleblowers,” Honig said.
Harlow also asked Honig and Temidayo Aganga-Williams, a former senior investigative counsel for the Jan. 6th committee, if Weis could continue as special counsel right now.
Aganga-Williams said he would leave it up to the DOJ and argued that they have likely turned over every stone in the Hunter Biden investigation as it has lasted five years.
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“I think all of this raises the question, why is he being made special counsel now why two weeks ago, five plus years in,” Honig said. “David Weiss, Merrick Garland are going to have to explain this at some point because they have been all over the map on this, they’re not doing DOJ any favors, frankly they’re not doing Hunter Biden any favors, and they’re not even doing the whistleblowers any favors.”
Hunter Biden’s plea deal collapsed in a Delaware courtroom in July after federal prosecutors confirmed they were still investigating the president’s son.
A federal judge dismissed Hunter Biden’s misdemeanor tax charges on Thursday.
He was expected to plead guilty to the two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax and enter a diversion program to address a felony gun charge as part of the plea deal to avoid jail time.
The Justice Department submitted a filing last week to dismiss the case ahead of a possible trial on Biden’s felony gun charge in a different district.
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