President Biden is angry with Attorney General Garland for appointing a special counsel to prosecute his troubled son, Hunter, according to a new report in Politico. 

“Several people close to the elder Biden portrayed him as having been deeply anxious for months about his son’s legal fortunes and frustrated at the appointment of a special counsel, at the time singling out Attorney General Merrick Garland for private criticism,” Politico reports. 

Special Counsel David Weiss has charged Hunter Biden with multiple felonies. In September, Mr. Biden fils was charged with three felonies for failing to disclose drug use in 2018 to buy a handgun.  Earlier this month, he was charged with three more felonies and six misdemeanors for evading taxes on his overseas consulting work.

Mr. Weiss continues to investigate Hunter Biden, and is believed to be considering charging him with violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

Meanwhile, three different House of Representatives committees are investigating Hunter Biden, and wider allegations of corruption involving the Biden family. This week, the full House formally authorized an impeachment inquiry into President Biden that focuses on how Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden, traded on the Biden name to get money from foreign clients, and whether then-Vice President Biden was improperly involved. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has described the Biden family business affairs as “organized crime,” but at this point, GOP lawmakers have been unable to present evidence of illegality or an impeachable offense on the part of the president. 

For his part, Hunter Biden, an addict in recovery,  has said publicly this week, at a press appearance on Capitol Hill, and earlier this month on his friend Moby’s podcast, that Republicans are “shamelessly” going after him and “trying to kill me,” presumably by inducing a fatal relapse. The GOP strategy, he said, is to cause his death, knowing that “it would be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle, so therefore destroying a presidency.”  

Aides close to the president have reportedly become concerned that the prosecutions of and political attacks against his son are deeply troubling the president.

“I know when he hurts. He doesn’t talk about it much, most of us don’t,” Senator Dodd, a longtime friend of the president, told Politico. “He has a real human decency, and a lot of it is created by scarring. And he’s worried.”

Politico’s report that the president has “singled out” Mr. Garland for criticism is the latest account of his hostility towards his attorney general. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that relations between the two men had gone “from distant to frigid.”  

In April of 2022, the New York Times reported that “Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted.” Seven months later, Mr. Garland named as special counsel Jack Smith, who would go on to charge Mr. Trump with multiple felonies.

In his press conference earlier this week, Hunter Biden  accused House Republicans of persecuting him, saying that, “They’ve invaded my privacy, attacked my wife and children,” and “tried to dehumanize me and embarrass and damage my father,” and that “they’ve lied over and over again.”

That day, Wednesday, was when Hunter Biden had been subpoenaed to give a closed door deposition to Oversight Committee lawyers. Mr. Biden defied the subpoena, saying he would only testify at a public hearing. Republican lawmakers declined his offer, saying he could not get “special treatment.” Armed with the House’s formal authorization of the impeachment inquiry, they are now moving to hold the younger Mr. Biden in contempt of Congress. 

“I mean, he was just across the way at the Capitol. I think he could’ve come here and sat for questions,” Congressman Jim Jordan told reporters at the Capitol, adding that “there’s a way you do investigations and way you do not.” 

Hunter Biden says that he is only willing to testify publicly because House Republicans have repeatedly mischaracterized closed-door testimony that others, such as his former business partner Devon Archer, have delivered.

After Archer’s testimony, multiple Republican representatives claimed that Archer told them he heard Hunter Biden discuss business with his father.

But transcripts of Archer’s behind closed doors testimony, however, had him saying that “I think you have to understand that there was no business conversation,” and later adding that “there was not a specific time that I witnessed a, you know, specific business deal or business dealings.”

In his recent media appearances, Hunter Biden went on to promise that “I’m gonna survive it clean and sober” and that “I don’t want to spend my time doing anything other than being of service to people.”

Mr. Biden has blamed many of his problems, including his tax issues and illicit gun purchase, on his years of active addiction. Recent press reports have described his father, who has already lost two of his four children, as being deeply concerned for the welfare of his last surviving son.