Former special counsel David Weiss, who was in charge of probing Hunter Biden's legal troubles, reportedly faced a lackluster response from the Department of Justice when he sought additional legal firepower, scoring just "one resume" after his request for trial lawyers to aid in Hunter Biden's prosecution, according to Fox News Digital, which reviewed a recent closed-door interview transcript provided to Congress.
In the intricate saga of Hunter Biden's plea deal negotiations that ultimately crumbled in 2023, Weiss recounted his struggle, saying he "had started to reach out myself directly to offices or people that I knew and make my own inquiries," because the help offered by the DOJ's deputy attorney general's office fell short of expectations, Weiss told the House Judiciary Committee staff during the June interview which peeled back layers on the DOJ's years-long investigation and prosecution of the president's son and shed new light on why certain charges were never brought against Hunter Biden; the tightrope Weiss walked seemed thinner than one might expect for such a high-profile case.
Weiss, appointed as U.S. attorney of Delaware during the Trump era, inherited the thorny task of investigating Hunter Biden, ending up as special counsel after Merrick Garland's 2023 appointment, following the foundering of a plea deal. Despite Republican accusations of leniency and Democratic claims of excessive rigor, Weiss managed to snag two indictments against Hunter Biden—one for illegal gun possession and another that encompassed nine tax charges, three felonies included. As detailed in his exchange with the Judiciary Committee, Weiss was unflinching under the weight of the bipartisan critique.
Even though President Joe Biden's pardon of his son has stirred bipartisan criticism, Weiss did ultimately assemble a legal team, enlisting DOJ attorneys Leo Wise and Derek Hines who shepherded the case to a guilty plea on tax charges and a conviction by a Delaware jury on gun possession, confounding the one-resume debacle, he was "fortunate enough to obtain a couple very excellent prosecutors," Weiss asserted during his candid interview while emphasizing that the lack of initial support from the DOJ headquarters left him in the lurch, and it was likely his proactive outreach that drew assistance from the DOJ's Public Integrity Section, "Probably," Weiss affirmed, responding to the committee staffer's inquiry into the department's belated mobilization.
Throughout this politically charged journey, what stands out is the singular resume and the solitary path that Weiss traveled in his pursuit of assembling a competent legal team, an odyssey that hints at the complexities and the thinly veiled reluctance ingrained within some layers of our justice system even for cases touching the steps of the Oval Office.
