UPDATE: US ATTORNEY GENERAL DENIES POLITICAL INFLUENCE ON TRUMP, BIDEN PROSECUTIONS

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Republican accusations that US Attorney General Merrick Garland had shielded Democratic President Joe Biden’s son Hunter while the Justice Department was investigating and prosecuting former President Donald Trump were refuted by Garland on Wednesday.

Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, charged the US attorney general with aiding in the obstruction of a long-running investigation into Hunter Biden that Republicans allege, without supporting evidence, might demonstrate the senior Biden unjustly profited financially from Hunter’s international business transactions.

In the meantime, Jordan claimed Garland was advancing the two federal cases of Trump, the leading Republican opponent to Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential race.

“There’s one investigation protecting President Biden; there’s another one attacking President Trump,” Jordan said.

“The Justice Department has got both sides of the equation covered,” he said.

In a contentious session, Garland vehemently disputed that politics or the White House have any bearing on his judgements. Garland has assigned independent special counsels to handle the Hunter Biden and Trump investigations.

And he asserted that Special Counsel David Weiss, whom Trump appointed to the Justice Department, was in charge of deciding whether to prosecute Hunter Biden. He also denied interfering with that decision.

“We apply the same laws to everyone,” Garland said.

“Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate.”

However, he added, one job of the Justice Department is protecting democratic institutions.

That includes, he said, “holding accountable all those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” a reference to the prosecution of Trump and hundreds of his supporters for the violent 2021 assault on Congress.

Last Monday, House Republicans began looking into Joe Biden’s potential for impeachment.

They claim, without offering any evidence, that when Biden was vice president and in charge of ties with Kiev, his son directly benefited from millions of dollars earned through business dealings in China, the Ukraine, and elsewhere.

However, the impeachment campaign is viewed by many as an effort to mitigate the political fallout from the two criminal investigations of Trump that were overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Trump is being prosecuted for illegally concealing top-secret materials in Florida, as well as separately in Washington, for his efforts to rig the results of the 2020 US election, which prompted the attack on January 6.

Garland, who was appointed as attorney general by Biden, said he was not involved in any of the decisions of either Weiss or Smith.

Last month Weiss charged Hunter Biden with a seldom-prosecuted charge of illegally buying a handgun in 2018 while he was a user of illicit drugs, which is forbidden under US law.

And Weiss has signaled that he is investigating Hunter Biden on possible tax charges related to his Ukraine and China earnings.

But Jordan and other Republicans alleged that Weiss too is going easy on the president’s son.

Garland repeatedly told the committee that Weiss’s charging decisions were his alone, and did not involve him.

“I told the committee that I would not interfere. I made clear that Mr. Weiss would have the authority to bring cases that he thought were appropriate,” Garland said, reiterating that Weiss was appointed by Trump.

Garland meanwhile warned the committee that attacks and allegations against Justice Department and law enforcement officials were turning into real, violent threats against individuals from members of the public.

“Singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous — particularly at a time of increased threats to the safety of public servants and their families,” Garland said.

“We will not be intimidated. We will do our jobs free from outside interference,” he said.

AFP