Attorney General Merrick Garland continues to dodge questions about whether or not he will appoint a special counsel to look into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Several Republicans are pressing to appoint a special counsel into controversial art sales of Hunter Biden.
Biden’s paintings, showing now, are expected to sell for between $75,000 and $500,000, according to his dealer. Art critics and even Biden himself have said the value of the works is impossible to guess but likely far lower.
Representative Ken Buck, R-Colo., said in a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing that Biden could not find an art gallery to list his artwork until Joe Biden was elected president in 2020 and does not have an artistic background.
Buck then asked Garland if he would appoint a special counsel as he had requested earlier in a letter.
In response to Buck’s questioning, Garland said, “[For] the same reason I’m not to respond to questions about investigations of the former president or anyone else, I’m not going to discuss or otherwise with respect to any U.S. citizen.”
Buck continued to press Garland, saying, “you are allowed to tell us whether you will appoint a special counsel.” Garland responded, saying that he was not aware of the letter.
Still no answers
In a recent opinion piece, legal scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University wrote that “there are legitimate questions” for appointing a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings and allegations against him.
Turley, in his piece, wrote that the “latest contraction of President Biden’s repeated claims that he was unaware and uninvolved in past dealings by his son” is in contradiction with emails that link President Biden to Hunter Biden’s bank account.
“Given these links, there are legitimate questions of why the Justice Department has not sought a special counsel in the ongoing investigation of alleged money-laundering and tax violations linked to the president’s son,” continued Turley.
Turley continued to stress the need for an independent investigation, “There is now a compelling need for an independent report on the alleged influence-peddling operation by Hunter, his uncle James Biden, and potentially his father, President Biden.”
Turley also noted that during the 2020 presidential campaign, now-president Biden dismissed questions and concerns about his son’s involvement with Burisma Holdings in Ukraine, saying, “There’s nobody that’s indicated there’s a single solitary thing that he did that was inappropriate, wrong … or anything other than the appearance. It looked bad that he was there. He acknowledges that he, in fact, made a mistake going on the board.”
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that Americans deserve answers about Hunter Biden.
“The American people deserve an independent special counsel to investigate every aspect of Hunter’s shady financial dealings — especially considering his and Joe Biden’s shared bank account. Just how deep do Hunter’s schemes go, and how much did Joe Biden know about them?
“We need an independent, transparent investigation to ascertain the truth about the Biden family’s shocking history of open, self-enriching corruption.”
