President Joe Biden invited Hunter Biden to a state dinner last week at the White House with Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose Justice Department maintains an ongoing probe into the president’s son.
Although Hunter Biden reportedly struck a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors on gun and tax violations, the case remains an open question in the hands of a judge who could block the tentative deal.
“Representatives for the White House and Justice Department would not say whether the president’s staff gave the attorney general a heads up,” the New York Times reported this week. “Mr. Garland was not at the same table and stayed resolutely on the other side of the pavilion, at least while reporters and photographers were there to watch.”
Reportedly, Hunter Biden’s invitation to the dinner comes as Joe Biden is “consumed” with Hunter Biden’s scandals and allegedly pushes back on White House aides who raise objections to their proximity.
According to an NBC News report, Joe Biden told one aide, “Hands off my family.”
Related: “No!” Biden SNAPS at Reporter Asking About Involvement with Hunter’s “Shake Down” Text
According to Eileen O’Connor, who headed the U.S. Justice Department’s tax division from 2001-2007, “[t]he IRS whistleblowers say Justice sabotaged the investigation, so how can the agreement stand?” she asked in a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the title, “Throw Hunter Biden’s Plea Deal in the Trash.”
Most Republicans also dubbed the tentative agreement a “sweetheart deal.”
“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
Support mounted among House Judiciary Committee Republicans this week for an impeachment inquiry into Garland after McCarthy threatened impeachment proceedings if IRS whistleblower allegations turn out to be true.
IRS whistleblowers told Congress last week the DOJ twice prevented United States Attorney David Weiss from bringing stronger charges in two separate locations against Hunter Biden. Moreover, the whistleblowers alleged Garland rejected a request to appoint a special counsel in the probe to place a degree of separation between the DOJ and Joe Biden.
Garland denies the DOJ politically interfered in the investigation. He says the prosecutor had full authority to charge Hunter Biden, even though Garland admitted to Congress in March he was the authority to authorize any potential charges against Hunter Biden — including in a separate “jurisdiction.”
Watch — IRS Whistleblower: My Contemporaneous Documentation Contradicts Garland, Weiss on Hunter Case
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.