Attorney General Merrick Garland is dodging questions about whether he will appoint a special counsel to probe President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
Garland is being pressed by a number of Republicans to appoint a special counsel to look into the art sales of Hunter Biden, whose works are set to be sold for $500,000.
The New York Post said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., noted Thursday, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, that the younger Biden lacks artistic background. Buck said Biden could not find an art gallery to list his artwork until 2020 when Joe Biden was elected president.
Buck asked Garland if he would appoint a special counsel and mentioned that he had made the request earlier in a letter.
"[For] the same reason I’m not to respond to questions about investigations of the former president or anyone else, I’m not going to discuss or otherwise with respect to any U.S. citizen," Garland said.
Buck pushed again, saying "you are allowed to tell us whether you will appoint a special counsel."
Garland responded by saying he was unaware that Buck’s office had sent the letter.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University wrote in an opinion piece that ''there are legitimate questions'' for the Biden administration about appointing a special counsel to investigate allegations against Hunter Biden.
Turley wrote that recent reports about emails that allegedly link President Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's bank account ''is the latest contraction of President Biden's repeated claims that he was unaware and uninvolved in past dealings by his son.''
He added, ''Given these links, there are legitimate questions of why the Justice Department has not sought a special counsel in the ongoing investigation of alleged money-laundering and tax violations linked to the president's son."
Turley stressed the need for an independent investigation: "There is now a compelling need for an independent report on the alleged influence peddling operation by Hunter, his uncle James Biden, and potentially his father, President Biden.''
He noted that during the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden dismissed concerns about his son's activities with Burisma Holdings in Ukraine, saying that ''There's nobody that's indicated there's a single solitary thing that he did that was inappropriate, wrong ... or anything other than the appearance. It looked bad that he was there. He acknowledges that he in fact made a mistake going on the board.''
And in a column for Fox News, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Americans deserve answers about Hunter Biden.
"The American people deserve an independent special counsel to investigate every aspect of Hunter’s shady financial dealings – especially considering his and Joe Biden’s shared bank account," she said.
"Just how deep do Hunter’s schemes go, and how much did Joe Biden know about them? We need an independent, transparent investigation to ascertain the truth about the Biden family's shocking history of open, self-enriching corruption."
The case for a harder look into the Biden family’s activities only grows stronger when one looks at the total picture of events that have unfolded since Election Day, Politico noted.
Several former business contacts have claimed Biden relatives "used their political clout to advance business interests," Politico noted. The allegations have been denied by family members.
The outlet pointed out that several business associates of family members have also been convicted of federal fraud or corruption charges since 2007. But it reported no members of the first family have been implicated in those crimes.
In December 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr broke with then-President Donald Trump and said he saw no reason "to appoint a special counsel" and maintained an investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings was "being handled responsibly and professionally."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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