This could – and should – have happened long ago. Why is it happening now? My first answer is that the House investigations have shed some light on the scope and meaning of Hunter’s activities and on the need for more than a tiny slap on the wrist – or rather, on the need for the appearance of more than a tiny slap on the wrist. Weiss is already somewhat compromised, so he may be just the person to appoint to give that appearance but not that reality.
Then again, perhaps they’re getting ready to replace Joe, and this is part of it.
I do not think this is the beginning of a real reckoning, however. I’m with Jim Jordan here, and I was before I even read what he said:
House Judiciary Chairman Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, blasted Weiss’ appointment in a statement issued through a spokesman.
“David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it. We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistleblowers as well as Weiss’s inconsistent statements to Congress.” said Jordan spokesman Russell Dye.
Another possibility is that the appointment of a special prosecutor will be the signal for the Democrats to say the House needs to stop its own investigation because it will interfere with the special counsel’s investigation (or the special counsel’s “investigation”).
And now I see this from Rep. Comer of Kentucky:
“This move by Attorney General Garland is part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of the House Oversight Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals. The Justice Department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden. Justice Department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal,” Comer said.
He continued: “Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden Justice Department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption. The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened. We will also continue to work with the House Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means to root out misconduct at the Justice Department and hold bad actors accountable for weaponizing law enforcement powers.”
Good.
And the MSM will continue to ignore them or write stories from the “Republicans pounce!” angle.
ADDENDUM:
Andrew C. McCarthy has already weighed in:
Gillian, this is a sham. There is no special counsel investigation and there is no Biden investigation. The special counsel regulations, what makes a special counsel special is that you’re a lawyer who’s brought in from outside the United States government, not just outside the Justice Department, outside the government. This U.S. attorney is being appointed notwithstanding that he is an attorney who’s a top official in the Biden Justice Department. And Garland made clear, is going to remain a top official in the Biden Justice Department. This is the Biden Justice Department’s vehicle for maintaining control of an investigation that they are not pursuing. They’ve had the case for five years. They’ve never indicted it. They’re strategically allowing the statute of limitations to run to the point that the 2014 and 2015 conduct, which covers most of the $21 million that the congressional investigation report showed this week, that’s already time barred. And it’s time barred because David Weiss himself decided to let those charges die rather than bring an indictment. They’re not doing anything that you would do if there was an actual investigation. And he can’t be a special counsel because he’s inside the government, and the point of having a special counsel is to bring in someone from outside the government who we can trust to do a credible investigation.
Of course, just being outside the government doesn’t guarantee that, either.
ADDENDUM II:
Here’s what Ace has to say. He points out – among other things – that one of the motives to appoint Weiss may have been to protect Weiss himself from Congressional investigation into Weiss’ involvement in the sweetheart Hunter Biden plea deal and immunity offer.
If you missed how it all shook out, David Weiss hid the covert blanket immunity provisions for Hunter Biden in a separate document, as an addendum to the alternative sentencing agreement for the gun charge. He kept this out of the actual plea deal so that the judge would not see it.
His scheme was to confer blanket immunity on Hunter Biden for all crimes he committed in the past, including those never named or referenced. Immunity deals are read in favor of the defendant by judges — so Hunter, by merely showing this secret codicil could be read as conferring blanket immunity, would in fact have blanket immunity. A judge would say, “Well the prosecutor wrote this sloppily, but we construe these agreements against the prosecutor and in favor of the defendant, so congratulations, you have blanket immunity for all crimes in your entire past!”
But of course this arrangement was not done “sloppily.” David Weiss wanted to give Hunter Biden blanket immunity for all past crimes, but he knew a judge would never, ever agree to that … so he stuffed this Double-Secret Immunity provision into the alternate sentencing memorandum.
The judge asked him (or his prosecutor) if there was any precedent in all of legal history for putting the bulk of the plea deal into a document that was not the plea deal, but a side document, and Weiss (or his prosecutor) had to admit: “No.” There was no legal precedent for what Weiss was attempting to do, give a secret, backdoor Get out of Jail Free for All Past Crimes card, and give it in an alternative sentencing memo to boot.
And that’s why the plea deal fell apart: When the judge asked him directly if he was trying to give Hunter blanket immunity for all crimes he may have committed in the past, Weiss had to claim he wasn’t trying to do that, because then he’d be admitting he was committing the crime, and the disbarrable level vioation, of attempting to perpetrate a fraud on the court. …
And in that context, Merrick Garland now appoints Weiss special counsel, so that he won’t have to answer questions about his own criminal behavior.
So many possible angles here.