Attorney General Merrick Garland implied Hunter Biden’s plea deal with United States Attorney David Weiss did not involve a double standard of justice.
While attending the EU/US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, a reporter asked Garland if he thought the Hunter Biden plea deal reflected “a different standard of justice depending on political leanings.”
Garland replied:
As I said from the moment of my appointment as attorney general, I would leave this matter in the hands of the U.S. attorney, who was appointed by the previous president and assigned to this matter by the previous administration, that he would be given full authority to decide the matter as he decided was appropriate. And that’s what he’s done.
“And if you have any further questions about that matter, you should direct them to the U.S. attorney for him to explain his decision,” he added.
Garland did not mention what he told Congress in March: That he would personally have to authorize any potential charges levied against Hunter Biden by Weiss.
Garland also refused to name a special counsel in the tax investigation to provide a degree of separation between President Joe Biden and his Justice Department, according to allegations revealed in April by an IRS whistleblower.
Garland’s comment comes after Hunter Biden’s lawyer admitted Tuesday that the charges brought against his client have “nothing” to do with any of the damning information on Hunter Biden’s abandoned “laptop from hell.”
“There’s nothing about the situation that’s being filed that has a thing to do with the laptop,” he said. “I think that they [prosecutors] tried to be thorough [and] tried to look into everything possible and I think they tried to be fair.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Delaware, the case against Hunter Biden is ongoing.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two federal tax violation charges and one violation of gun laws. He will likely not serve jail time, according to legal experts.
Related: Marsha Blackburn Grills FBI Deputy Director on “Two Tiers of Justice” Between Trump and Biden
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.