GOP expected to subpoena DOJ officials as Hunter Biden accepts ‘sweetheart’ deal

House Republican committee leaders are expected to subpoena Justice Department and FBI officials this week over alleged interference in the five-year probe of Hunter Biden, as the first son prepares to accept what the GOP has called a “sweetheart” plea agreement in Delaware federal court.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) are likely to compel testimony from 10 federal investigators after Attorney General Merrick Garland ignored a Monday deadline to cooperate, according to a source familiar with the Republican offices’ plans.

“Absent cooperation with this request, the Judiciary Committee will issue subpoenas to obtain the required testimony,” the GOP chairmen wrote to Garland on July 21, giving the attorney general until 5 p.m. on July 24 to schedule interviews with each official.

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler, who worked closely on the Hunter case, testified last week to Congress that the Department of Justice “slow-walked” the investigation and that prosecutors appointed by President Biden blocked Delaware US Attorney David Weiss from charging the first son outside his district.

The IRS whistleblowers said Weiss informed investigators in an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting that he had been denied authority to charge Hunter Biden by Washington, DC, US Attorney Matthew Graves and Southern California US Attorney E. Martin Estrada.

Garland in sworn congressional testimony earlier this year said Weiss had been given “full authority” to bring charges against Hunter Biden. Weiss in a June 7 letter to Jordan said he had “ultimate authority” over the matter.

But the Republican committee leaders noted that Weiss in subsequent letters to Congress had made “shifting statements” — first claiming he “had been granted ultimate authority” and later claiming he “would be granted that authority in the future if necessary after going through a specified process.”

Weiss’ Criminal Chief Shawn Weede and Assistant US Attorney Shannon Hanson were present at the meeting to discuss charges last year, Shapley’s lawyers said.

Baltimore FBI Special Agent in Charge Tom Sobocinski and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ryeshia Holley were also present.

The IRS agents in earlier depositions before the House Ways and Means Committee also said Delaware Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf discouraged their team from pursuing lines of questioning that could lead to the president.

Wolf later tipped off Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys to a planned search of the first son’s storage locker in Northern Virginia, the IRS agents added.

The Republicans requested Graves, Estrada, Weede, Hanson, Sobocinski, Holley and Wolf sit for transcribed interviews.

DOJ tax division attorneys Mark Daly, Jack Morgan and Stuart Goldberg were also requested.

The Justice Department offered in a Monday letter to let Weiss testify before the Judiciary Committee after the August congressional recess, while denying all other requests.

Former President Donald Trump nominated Weiss as US attorney in 2017 at the recommendation of Delaware’s two Democratic senators, Chris Coons and Tom Carper.

Hunter Biden, 53, is preparing to plead guilty Wednesday morning to tax misdemeanors related to missed six-figure payments in 2017 and 2018. Shapley and Ziegler have said the first son evaded at least $2.2 million in taxes on $8.3 million he earned in foreign income between 2014 and 2019.

The first son is also entering into a diversion agreement for a felony firearms charge after he lied about his drug use on a gun-purchase form in 2018.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who recently hinted at impeachment proceedings over the Hunter probe, called the agreement “a sweetheart deal” when it was announced on June 20.

If approved by Delaware US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, the first son will serve two years on probation and have his gun charge expunged.