In a bombshell admission, Special Counsel David Weiss has told members of the House Judiciary Committee that he did, in fact, seek special attorney status in Spring 2022 in order to charge Hunter Biden in California or at Washington D.C, and that his request was denied by the Department of Justice.

His admission appears to confirm the underlying allegations made by two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers who testified before Congress earlier this year that the DOJ slow-walked and obstructed the federal probe into President Biden’s troubled son. 

Mr. Weiss told committee members under oath on Tuesday that last year, when he was the U.S. Attorney for Delaware and had been investigating Mr. Biden for almost five years, he sought, and was denied, the position of “special attorney” to prosecute Mr. Biden in districts other than his own.

“Special attorney” is a designation with expanded powers that allows a prosecutor to bring charges in jurisdictions other than their own, but is less powerful than “special counsel,” which affords greater staffing, investigative, and charging abilities. 

Earlier this year, Mr. Weiss requested special counsel status and his request was granted. He now serves concurrently as the U.S. Attorney for Delaware as well as the Special Counsel prosecuting Mr. Biden. 

In his prepared opening statement to the Judiciary Committee today, Mr. Weiss said that “As I have said previously, I did not request Special Counsel status until August 2023. When I made that request, it was properly granted.” It was not until his live, closed door testimony that he admitted to seeking “special attorney” status.

The chairman of the committee, Congressman Jim Jordan, told reporters Tuesday afternoon, after the closed-door hearing has concluded, that when Mr. Weiss was “specifically asked” if he sought special counsel status, he told committee members, “Yes.” 

Under 18 United States Code Section 515, special attorneys can “conduct any kind of legal proceeding, civil or criminal, including grand jury proceedings … whether or not he is a resident of the district in which the proceeding is brought.” Special counsels — the designation Mr. Weiss now holds — are granted broader authority under federal law. 

One of the IRS whistleblowers who testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this year, Gary Shapley, said that Mr. Weiss told him that he had sought special attorney status but was rebuffed by DOJ superiors. 

In September of this year, Mr. Weiss charged Hunter Biden with three felony gun charges at Delaware, related to Mr. Biden having lied about his drug use to buy a gun in 2017. The charges were filed after a judge refused to sign off on a plea deal in which Mr. Biden fils would have entered a judicial diversion program that would enable him to avoid prison time and the shame of a felony conviction. 

In rejecting the deal, the judge expressed concern that the younger Mr. Biden’s attorneys were demanding that the deal absolve their client of any other past crimes. Mr. Biden has pleaded not guilty to the gun charges and the case is expected to go to trial. 

In an opinion piece published last week in USA Today, Mr. Biden referred to the gun charges as part of “an all-out annihilation of my reputation through… criminal charges for possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days five years ago – charges that appear to be the first-ever of their kind brought in the history of Delaware.” He blamed his drug addiction, from which he says he is now in recovery, for his “mistakes.”

Mr. Weiss’s admission today that he requested and was denied “special attorney” status in 2022 partially clears up contradictions between IRS whistleblowers who alleged DOJ interference in the Hunter Biden investigation, and Attorney General Garland, who has strenuously denied it.

Since Mr. Weiss was named special counsel, three key committee chairmen — Mr. Jordan, Congressman James Comer, and Congressman Jason Smith — have been trying to get to the bottom of the IRS whistleblowers’ allegations. In xxx, they sent a letter to Mr. Garland, asking for information about the decision to name Mr. Weiss special counsel. 

“Your appointment raises numerous concerns considering earlier statements from you and Mr. Weiss that Mr. Weiss already had ‘ultimate’ authority — free of any political pressure — to pursue the investigation where, when, and how he sought fit,” the letter states. 

“Now, recently reported information raises additional concerns about the Department’s unusual actions in this matter, and suggests that the Department under your leadership has been attempting to circumvent the rule of law in favor of Hunter Biden, President Biden, and the Biden family,” it continues.

Mr. Weiss’ investigation of Mr. Biden could play a leading role in the accelerating impeachment inquiry into President Biden regarding allegations of corruption involving the Biden family.  

Another key issue for the House GOP is how Mr. Weiss allegedly allowed the statute of limitations to lapse for the first son’s evasion of taxes in 2014 and 2015. Mr. Weiss, who became United State Attorney for Delaware in 2018, was investigating the tax issues for five years before the plea agreement was reached. 

The allegations that he and Department of Justice officials purposefully dragged out the investigation — which Messrs. Garland and Weiss deny — first came from two IRS whistleblowers. The agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, said in testimony before the Oversight Committee that they had never seen such a cut-and-dry tax evasion case as Mr. Biden’s.  In addition to garden-variety tax violations involving nonpayment, the first son is also accused of taking tax deductions on hiring prostitutes and on a vacation in a chateau in the South of France where, according to Mr. Biden’s memoir, he “learned to cook crack.”

“In November of 2022, the statute of limitations was set to expire for the 2014 and 2015 charges in D.C., which included the 2014 felonies for the attempt to evade or defeat tax and fraud or false statement regarding Burisma income earned by Hunter Biden,” Mr. Shapley said, referring to Mr. Biden not reporting certain income from his time on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. 

Shortly before that November 2022 lapse in the statute of limitations, Mr. Weiss allegedly made his notorious comment to  Messrs. Shapley and Ziegler that he had requested special  status from Mr. Garland, but was denied.