No, Appointing A ‘Special Counsel’ Is Not A License For DOJ To Obstruct CongressCapitol Hill should resist this lie with every constitutional power it can muster.BY: TRISTAN LEAVITT AND JASON FOSTER
AUGUST 21, 2023
The need for more public scrutiny of the Justice Department’s improper handling of the Hunter Biden case was already high following whistleblower revelations, the collapse of the sweetheart plea deal, and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as “special counsel.” Now, the Biden legal team has apparently released a trove of its emails with prosecutors to friendly press. These new revelations about Justice Department collusion with Biden family lawyers make it clear the two sides acted essentially as allies to kill the case, and it almost worked.
It is now more important than ever that Congress get serious about obtaining answers from the DOJ. Our client, IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, and IRS case agent Joe Ziegler both blew the whistle to Congress regarding five years’ worth of political favoritism, pulling punches, and conflicts of interest in the Biden case on Weiss’s watch. Since then, they’ve been threatened, retaliated against, and removed from the case.
On March 1, 2023, Garland swore to Congress that the buck stopped with Weiss alone in the Hunter Biden case. But the Justice Department’s actions directly undercut his claims. Just weeks later, DOJ headquarters officials granted an audience for Biden lawyers to appeal above Weiss’s head, and soon an unprecedented generous plea deal with the president’s son was offered as the whistleblowers were removed from the case. Only after that plea agreement fell apart in open court on July 26 did Garland finally give Weiss the “special” authority they both claimed this year he did not need.
U.S. Attorney Weiss was obviously the wrong choice for special counsel because IRS whistleblowers had already credibly alleged that his own office and he himself had given Biden preferential treatment and provided misleading information to Congress. With his appointment as special counsel, many across the political spectrum (including perhaps Garland) seemed to think that move somehow insulated the Justice Department from congressional questioning about the growing controversy. But it shouldn’t.
Nothing in the Constitution grants prosecutors or “special” or “independent” counsels immunity from congressional oversight — especially in this unprecedented situation where the special counsel himself is alleged to have committed wrongdoing. No matter how many insiders in the modern D.C. establishment assume otherwise, that does not make it true. Prosecutors wield immense power, and there must be a check against the abuse and selective use of that power.
Just because Congress chooses to defer to the Justice Department’s “ongoing criminal inquiry” excuse on some oversight inquiries does not mean it always must, or that the objection is based on any constitutional limit to the congressional power to investigate. Congress has frequently made the opposite judgment and successfully obtained information about ongoing criminal cases when needed for its oversight function.
* * *
Source:
https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/21/no-appointing-a-special-counsel-is-not-a-license-for-doj-to-obstruct-congress/
