Is Attorney General Garland guilty of criminal obstruction?

FPI / June 26, 2023

The release on Thursday of congressional testimony from two whistleblowers detailed highly disturbing actions from top officials to slow walk and undermine the investigation into alleged Biden family influence-peddling.

"Many of us have already noted the absence of certain charges in the plea deal given to Hunter Biden," law professor Jonathan Turley wrote. "Now these whistleblowers are reportedly telling Congress that they were actively frustrated in their efforts to investigate as (Attorney General) Merrick Garland was insisting that there was no interference or limitations."

IRS official Gary Shapley testified that DOJ brass prevented an effort to search a guest house of Joe Biden. Shapley recalled that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf agreed that there was “more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”

Shapley added that Wolf had said that they could never get approval for the search despite the sufficiency of the evidence.

"Even more disturbing," Turley wrote, is the allegation that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss sought to bring charges against Hunter Biden in both the District of Columbia and Southern California last year "and was denied both times. That directly contradicts statements made to Congress by Garland."

The whistleblowers also said that Wolf gave Hunter Biden’s legal team a “heads-up” that investigators were moving to search his Northern Virginia storage unit and that Wolf again objected to the effort to secure a search warrant.

"The only way to establish the truth of any of this would be to call Weiss, Wolf, and others to Congress," Turley noted.

"While such efforts are routinely refused by the Justice Department, these allegations (if true) would raise both potentially criminal and impeachable questions. That is an ample basis for Congress to use its oversight authority."

Turley, who previously wrote that Garland "has failed as Attorney General in restoring trust in his department, noted that the whistleblower testimony "is far more serious than allegations of negligence. It would constitute a knowing effort to delay and obstruct efforts to investigate the Biden family — and to mislead Congress."

Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that he had no knowledge of any foreign dealings of his son.

"Those statements were long ago proven patently false," Turley wrote.

Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith on Thursday read from an alleged July 30, 2017 Whatsapp message from Hunter Biden to one of his Chinese associates, Henry Zhao, the director of Harvest Fund Management and Communist Party official. Zhao was funneling money to Hunter’s firm BHR Partners.

Hunter is quoted as writing: “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

"The authenticity of this message has to be established. However, there remains a striking lack of curiosity among the Democratic members who have opposed every effort to investigate these allegations," Turley wrote.

In the meantime, Turley added, "the demand from figures like former Sen. Claire McCaskill (Missouri Democrat) for people to 'back off' on the story is being heeded by some in the media, in again blacking out or downplaying the story. While many of us have stressed the need to authenticate these statements, Hunter Biden has notably not denied that he sent the message and the allegations from the investigation have self-verifying elements. The news blackout again raises concerns over a de facto state media in the United States that operates by consent rather than coercion. This is a major story either way it turns out but networks and newspapers are again showing a distinct lack of curiosity."

Free Press International
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