Impeachment inquiry gives House more power to summon witnesses for depotitions
FOX News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports that former Department of Justice official Lesley Wolf is appearing before House investigators to discover why she let the statute of limitations expire before investigating Burisma.
Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Lesley Wolf, the federal prosecutor accused of limiting questions during a Hunter Biden probe, refused to answer questions during a closed-door interview with House members Thursday.
"Miss Wolf refused to answer most of our questions," Jordan told reporters following the interview with Wolf, who was subpoenaed in November to appear before the panel.
"She refused to answer based on instructions she was given from the Justice Department," Jordan said.
Wolf told the panel that she did not receive any additional instructions from DOJ after the House voted Wednesday night to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, Jordan said.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, suggested House Republicans' probe into the Hunter Biden plea deal, which fell apart last month, would be looking into an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting. (Getty)
According to IRS whistleblowers, Wolf was involved in alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the Hunter Biden investigation, which began in 2018.
Gary Shapley — who led the IRS’ portion of the Hunter Biden probe — alleged that Wolf sought to block investigators from asking questions related to President Biden throughout the yearslong federal investigation into his son, Hunter Biden.
Specifically, Shapley alleged that Wolf worked to "limit" questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as "dad" or "the big guy."
Despite Wolf not answering questions, Jordan said the core of the whistleblower allegations have been proven correct since they first came forward earlier this year.
"I will say this, and this has proved true now for months, Mr. Shapley, Mr. [Joseph ] Ziegler's testimony continues to be, you know, just as accurate as can be. No one has refuted that," Jordan said.
Supervisory IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler testified that they were unable to ask certain questions during the Hunter Biden probe. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the interview with Wolf was a waste of time and showed Republicans were "desperate" to find something to justify an impeachment inquiry of Biden.
COMER, JORDAN DEMAND HUNTER BIDEN APPEAR FOR DEPOSITION, SAY HE WILL NOT RECEIVE 'SPECIAL TREATMENT'
"I think this is why Hunter Biden decided to require, to demand a public opportunity to make his testimony available to Americans across the country," Ivey told reporters following the meeting. "What took place upstairs was a huge waste of time. They kept asking questions about documents that they knew she couldn't comment on," Ivey said.
"So I think it's unfortunate they're dragging in people who—she's not even a government employee anymore. But they're still making her go through these motions because they're still in the middle of this desperate search to try and find something that can justify the impeachment inquiry they just launched yesterday, but I think they're gonna keep coming up with dry holes."
Fox News reported Thursday morning that Wolf is no longer employed by the Justice Department. A source told Fox that she had long-standing plans to move on from the agency.
At the time of the investigation into Hunter Biden, Wolf was assistant U.S. attorney in Delaware.
Hunter Biden on Wednesday defied a congressional subpoena to testify under oath behind closed doors and made a public statement outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In October 2020, Wolf reviewed an affidavit for a search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and "agreed that probable cause had been achieved," according to Shapley. However, Shapley said Wolf ultimately would not allow a physical search warrant on the president’s son.
Shapley said Wolf determined there was "enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze."
Hunter Biden defied his subpoena to appear for a deposition at the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Instead, he made a public statement on Capitol Hill, blasting the Republican impeachment inquiry and saying his father was "not financially involved" in his business dealings.
Comer and Jordan have threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress.
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Hunter Biden's public statement Wednesday came just days after he was charged out of Special Counsel David Weiss' investigation.
Weiss alleged Hunter Biden was engaged in a "four-year scheme" when the president's son did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports. Weiss filed the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The charges break down to three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that were since paid.
Weiss also indicted Hunter Biden in September on federal gun charges, to which the president's son has pleaded not guilty. Biden's defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, this week moved to dismiss those charges altogether.
Weiss' investigation is ongoing.
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