Fresh leaks are hitting the probe into Hunter Biden’s allegedly criminal activity, this time suggesting that the FBI and newly-minted special counsel David Weiss are at odds.
That comes from The Washington Post, which cites “people familiar with the matter,” a rather telling descriptor that I’ll discuss momentarily.
Will DOJ be investigating the source of these leaks to the Washington Post, or are they ok since they make it sound like the FBI agents "frustrated with Weiss's handling of the case" aren't coming up with anything to charge on FARA anyway? https://t.co/dXREjPcSMg pic.twitter.com/zEW7Sm1RSF
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) August 18, 2023
Hunter Biden had written a statement about his desire to close a difficult chapter in his life, and was planning to read it before news cameras outside the courthouse after entering his plea, according to people familiar with the matter, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
There’s your first clue as to who is actually sourcing this Post piece. The journalists involved in writing it actually thought it was prudent to describe Hunter Biden’s alleged criminal activity as just “a difficult chapter in his life.” Given that, what kinds of sources would you expect them to have?
Putting that thought on hold for a moment, here’s the meat of the leak.
But people familiar with the matter said that when prosecutors came to Biden’s team late this spring to start talking about a possible plea, they focused only on the potential charges of failure to pay taxes and illegally possessing a gun, leaving defense lawyers with the impression that other investigatory avenues had come up dry.
Those discussions also reflected a narrowing of the scope of potential charges from when prosecutors and defense attorneys began speaking about the case years ago.
Even after Hunter Biden tentatively agreed to the plea deal, the FBI pushed federal prosecutors behind the scenes to publicly declare that an investigation into the president’s son is ongoing, according to people familiar with the matter. For many months, IRS and FBI investigators have been frustrated with Weiss’s handling of the case, believing it should have been investigated and prosecuted more aggressively, people familiar with those discussions said.
The narrative being pushed here is that prosecutors were content to end the Hunter Biden probe with just a few tax misdemeanors and an offer of broad immunity, but the FBI wanted to keep the investigation open. What possible crimes could stem from not closing down the shop? The answer is likely FARA violations as well as possibly violations of the Mann Act, which has to do with prostitution across state lines.
Sure enough, the Post’s piece does mention the FBI pursuing FARA violations. Yet, once again, “people familiar with the matter” shoot down the idea that such charges could be coming.
The people familiar with the matter said at this point that probe appears unlikely to result in separate criminal charges, though the work is not finished and that view could change. FBI officials are aggressively pursuing the investigation, these people said.
What a coincidence, right? These “people familiar with the matter” just so happen to know all about what the FBI is pursuing while also knowing that Weiss is unlikely to bring up charges related to FARA. Who benefits from this “FBI vs. prosecutors” narrative? If you answer that question, you’ve likely just figured out who the source for the Post’s fluff piece is.
Have you figured it out yet? Sure, I can’t say definitively, but I’d bet my house that Hunter Biden’s legal team sourced the piece. Everything written in it tracks with exactly what you’d expect the lawyers for the president’s son to want in the public discussion. First, the idea that the FBI is overzealous, and two, that they don’t have the goods to charge FARA violations (which is a laughable contention given the amount of evidence that exists).
This is what happens when a defendant believes they have the prosecutors in their back pocket. They can afford to then play the PR game of trying to downplay the evidence the FBI almost certainly has. Will Weiss surprise everyone and actually do his job in light of this manipulation? I think we also know the answer to that.
