Two federal prosecutors appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden declined attempts to bring charges against the president’s son, an FBI agent told lawmakers, backing up accounts by IRS whistleblowers.
The agent, whose name is being withheld, told members of Congress during a recent closed-door interview that she knows U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves and U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada rejected attempts by another federal prosecutor to charge Hunter Biden.
“I remember learning at some point in the investigation that Mr. Weiss would have to go through his other processes because the U.S. Attorney’s Offices had, I guess, in that sense, using that terminology, wasn’t going to partner,” the agent said, according to a transcript obtained and reviewed by The Epoch Times.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss, who has since been made special counsel, asked Mr. Graves to charge Mr. Biden, according to officials in an October 2022 meeting with Mr. Weiss. After Mr. Graves declined, Mr. Weiss went to Mr. Estrada, who also declined.
The agent, who was part of the meeting, said that Mr. Weiss told attendees he could still move forward with charges by using a special status.
“So basically where I think normally if a U.S. attorney’s office partners, it makes it easier when an outside district has to come in and they haven’t worked in that district before. But, since that was appearing not to happen in this situation, he would still proceed with doing it and just would do it without that U.S. attorney,” she alleged.
The agent said she was not aware of the wording of the law and acknowledged that Mr. Weiss needed action by another individual to bring charges.
“It looks like from this description here of this statute that there was more entailed that I was not aware of,” she said. She added later, “I agree that there is someone else involved in the process.”
Mr. Weiss never brought charges outside of Delaware. He only brought charges in Delaware after Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, two IRS officials working on the investigation into Mr. Biden, went to Congress with concerns about how the probe was handled.
Mr. Shapley wrote in notes on the same day of the meeting that Mr. Weiss communicated that he would need to request permission to bring charges outside Delaware if rejected by Mr. Estrada, having already been turned down by Mr. Graves. Mr. Weiss said the permission would come from a top Department of Justice official.
“This case could end up without any charges,” Mr. Shapley wrote.
The agent said she did not have any indication Mr. Shapley was lying in his notes. She did not take notes and did not review any documents before testifying to the House.
Spokespersons for Mr. Graves and Mr. Estrada have not responded to requests for comment. Mr. Weiss initially backed Attorney General Merrick Garland, an appointee of Mr. Biden who said Mr. Weiss had the ultimate authority to bring charges, but later acknowledged he needed to “partner” with other U.S. attorneys if bringing charges outside of Delaware. Mr. Garland appointed Mr. Weiss special counsel in August.
Not Politicized
The agent later said she did not think the investigation, which dragged on for years, had become politicized by investigating agents.“I would say from my opinion that it has not been politicized by the investigators,“ she said. ”I think everybody that was and is working this ongoing matter are doing their jobs and are doing their jobs to the best of their ability. And if there’s any political, you know, or anything being politicized, that is outside of the investigative entities.”
The agent did say that the fact the investigation targeted the president’s son made it more complicated and that the U.S. president is possibly the most influential person in the United States.
She also said that FBI headquarters asked questions about the case, like officials there do about all cases.
There were communication problems among the teams probing Mr. Biden, with teams across different states and agencies.
“Comprehensive of the whole team, I think that there have been communication issues,” the agent said.
