Hunter Biden IRS whistleblower lawyer: Case was hindered 'again and again'
Attorney Tristan Leavitt sounds off on 'The Story' following his client's Fox News interview
The attorney representing one of two IRS whistleblowers claiming U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss was unable to exercise full prosecutorial authority in the Hunter Biden case told Fox News on Wednesday that the Trump appointee must speak out and clear up apparent contradictions.
Tristan Leavitt, who is representing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigator Gary Shapley, said he is not sure whether Attorney General Merrick Garland was left in the dark about Weiss' inability to bring charges against the first son in Los Angeles and the District of Columbia - or whether main justice knew Weiss had been rebuffed.
Leavitt said, instead, the focus should be on Weiss more so, after the New York Times confirmed – buried in an article's 21st paragraph – that the offices of U.S. Attorney for Central California E. Martin Estrada and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matt Graves rebuffed Weiss' attempts to bring charges there.
The Times said Weiss reached out to Graves in hopes charges could be pursued but was denied, further reporting the same situation occurred with the Los Angeles office.
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Weiss notably is the last remaining Trump-appointed U.S. attorney – held over by President Joe Biden as a purported maneuver to avoid potential conflict-of-interest in the Wilmington office prosecuting his son. Such prosecutors customarily tender resignations upon a new administration's inauguration.
Leavitt appeared to confirm whistleblower testimony published Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee that alleged an assistant U.S. attorney in Weiss' office, Lesley Wolf, discouraged questioning about whether President Biden is "the big guy" in Hunter's correspondence with Chinese businessmen.
"AUSA Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and... did not want to ask questions about 'dad','" the testimony, which appeared to reference the "Ten [percent] held by H for the big guy" message extrapolated upon several times by Hunter's former business partner Tony Bobulinski.
Leavitt told "Fox & Friends," Wednesday, his client was also rebuffed from executing search warrants on the Bidens' Greenville, Del. estate, where, separately, classified documents were found stored near the president's Chevrolet Corvette.
"After a few months of that, it was clear to him that this is being treated differently. He tried to write that off. He tried to say, well, look, people have differences of opinion all the time," Leavitt said.
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Hunter Biden disembarks from Air Force One at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York, U.S., February 4, 2023. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
"But after two full years and especially culminating in this red-line meeting he's talked about. He said, 'I don't know what their motivations are, but it's clear that this is wrong and people need to know about it'."
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade reported Weiss wrote to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he was the decision-maker in Hunter's prosecution, but noted Shapley has said otherwise.
Leavitt said there are six witnesses to that situation, adding that, with the Times' purportedly-buried lede, the onus is no longer on his client because the press has now confirmed the allegation.
Kilmeade noted Garland has said publicly he never hindered Weiss or his probe, asking Leavitt if he believes the attorney general is telling the truth.
"I think it's new information. I don't think he was behind that," the whistleblower's lawyer said. "I think you just have two other U.S. attorneys who were nominated by [Biden], who are confirmed by the Senate, and they have their own authority to do what they like. And U.S. Attorney David Weiss doesn't have the authority to bring charges in their district without their permission."
"So whether Garland was in the dark or whether he is just playing word games or some sort of nuance to saying, 'well, he didn't come to me personally, he didn't do this or that', I don't know. But clearly he's wrong on some of these facts."
Officials from the Baltimore FBI office as well as Shapley's boss, IRS Special Agent Darrell Waldon, were among the reported witnesses.
Leavitt said the "question of the year" is why Weiss, as a Trump-appointed holdover, has not spoken out if he has indeed been hindered by the Biden Justice Department in some form.
"[Garland's] letter to Jim Jordan said, ‘I have the authority consistent with department regulations and prosecutorial standards.' And so if he's hiding behind those words to say that's where the fact lies, that under department regulations he didn't have the authority. They're playing word games and it's too cute by half."
Later on Wednesday, in an appearance on "The Story," Leavitt spoke out further on his client's case, citing the recently-published WhatsApp message purporting to show Hunter Biden threatening a Chinese businessman by saying his father – the now-president – is beside him and will be upset if the deal being described does not go through.
The message would contradict claims by President Biden that he has not been privy to his son's dealings. The elder Biden continued to double down on that claim this week when asked by reporters.
Wilmington, Delaware skyline on the Christina River at dusk. (Walter Bibikow via Getty Images)
"Those [messages] are a clear example of something where there's a financial nexus, there's something for the IRS to investigate, and prosecutors told them, 'no, you can't ask any questions about the dad'," Leavitt said.
"The geolocation data of where they were sent from -- There are a host of other examples that are in the transcripts that were released by the Ways and Means Committee recently, but they include turning down subpoenas and search warrants for the Biden family residence [in Greenville, Delaware, and] include tipping off the Bidens for other searches that were intended to be done in just a host of ways."
"Prosecutors again and again limited the investigation and stopped investigators from doing what they needed to do."