Exclusive: Republicans Subpoena Lesley Wolf, Who Blocked Hunter Biden Investigators From Probing Joe
House Republicans are demanding answers from Special Counsel David Weiss’s top deputy in the Justice Department’s criminal probe of Hunter Biden.
On Tuesday, GOP House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio formally subpoenaed Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf to appear before lawmakers on Dec. 7.
“Information available to the Committee suggests that you — either directly or by instructing others — are responsible for many of the decisions to deviate from standard investigative protocol during the Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden,” Jordan wrote.
The letter accompanying the subpoena highlighted what federal whistleblowers allege was interference by Wolf, such as tipping off “people very close” to the Bidens about an FBI request for an interview and barring investigators from asking questions that might implicate the president in criminal financial schemes.
Documents released by the House Ways and Means Committee also reveal that Wolf “demanded investigators remove any references to Joe Biden from a search warrant related to a Hunter Biden Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) probe,” as my colleague Evita Dufy-Alfonso reported.
In Tuesday’s letter, Jordan explained Wolf’s “critical role” in the DOJ investigation of the Biden family is central “not only [to] the Committee’s oversight and … potential legislative reforms” but also to the ongoing impeachment inquiry Republicans opened in September. House Republicans held their first hearing in the inquiry nearly two months ago.
“Given your critical role you played in the investigation of Hunter Biden,” Jordan wrote, “you are uniquely situated to shed light on whether President Biden played any role in the Department’s investigation and whether he attempted, in any way, to directly or indirectly obstruct ether that investigation or our investigation.”
Lawmakers first sought testimony from the Delaware prosecutor in June but were officially denied by the Justice Department at least twice. House Republicans asked for Wolf’s testimony after a pair of whistleblowers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) came forward this summer with explosive allegations of misconduct by DOJ attorneys related to their probe of Hunter Biden. Whistleblowers claimed the Biden Justice Department substantially interfered with the IRS investigation into Hunter, which began as a probe into a foreign pornography ring and quickly morphed into a broader criminal investigation implicating other members of the first family. According to two veteran IRS agents, DOJ officials buried allegations of Biden family bribery that had been sent to the Delaware office for investigation, knew Hunter Biden’s laptop was legitimate before helping tech giants suppress the computer’s contents anyway, and slow-walked cooperation with federal tax investigators to protect the president.
In June, Hunter Biden struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors that watered down his years of criminal behavior to two misdemeanor tax crimes and a felony firearm charge, the latter of which would have been forgiven after 24 months of sobriety. Notably, that agreement would have been placed in jeopardy had the cocaine found in the White House this summer been linked to the president’s drug-addict son.
Gary Shapley, the first IRS whistleblower to go public, told Fox News in June that “the most substantive felony charges were left off the table.”
“There were definitely hinderances that I’ve never seen before in my 14 years concerning this investigation that didn’t allow us to follow through on an investigation of any other individual to include President Biden,” Shapley added.
The plea agreement was ultimately derailed in late July when the federal judge overseeing the case pressed attorneys with questions that revealed divisions between both sides. Despite numerous examples of his office protecting the Bidens, U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the lead prosecutor overseeing the case in Delaware, was promoted to special counsel in August following the dissolution of the plea agreement. Weiss has repeatedly given conflicting testimony about whether he had authority to adequately prosecute the president’s son prior to his appointment as special counsel.
Emails reviewed by The Federalist in August reveal Weiss and Wolf colluded with the DOJ to thwart oversight requests from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“Emails obtained by the Heritage Foundation following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit and shared exclusively with The Federalist establish that on multiple occasions, the Department of Justice intervened on behalf of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to respond to congressional inquiries related to the Hunter Biden investigation,” Federalist Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland reported.
Wolf was similarly the subject of a July letter from GOP Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who raised questions about Wolf’s particular role in thwarting federal efforts to investigate the Biden family.
“On October 23, 2020, Justice Department and FBI Special Agents from the Pittsburgh Field Office briefed Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, one of your top prosecutors, and FBI Special Agents from the Baltimore Field Office with respect to the contents of the FBI-generated FD-1023 alleging a criminal bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden,” Grassley wrote to the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office. “What steps have the Justice Department and FBI taken to investigate the allegations?”
Grassley’s office told The Federalist Tuesday that the DOJ ignored the senator’s inquiry.
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