'I Stand by My Testimony'—Merrick Garland Denies He Lied to Congress

Attorney General Merrick Garland responded Tuesday to an IRS whistleblower’s claims that a senior Biden Administration official—who multiple news outlets have confirmed is Garland himself—interfered with Department of Justice investigations into possible tax and gun crimes by first son Hunter Biden.

Appearing at a news conference regarding an unrelated matter, the AG looked stoic and expressionless as he brushed off the whistleblower’s claims:

REPORTER: You assured Congress some time ago that the Hunter Biden investigation would be conducted without any kind of political interference and I’m wondering if you believe that is still the case… that the investigation is not being interfered with in any political way since an agent from Mr. Lee’s agency has now come forward claiming whistleblower status and alleging there has been some sort of interference.

GARLAND: That is still the case. I stand by my testimony.

The “Mr. Lee” that the reporter refers to is Chief Jim Lee of the IRS Service Criminal Investigations agency, which the whistleblower works for.

Garland then moved on, apparently unwilling to talk about the matter further:

I refer you to the U.S. attorney for the district of Delaware who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, led by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, has been investigating the younger Biden since 2018—and yet after all that time, they haven’t charged him with anything. It’s clearly true that “the wheels of justice move slowly,” especially if it’s the son of the president who’s under investigation.

Watch:

"You assured Congress some time ago that the Hunter Biden investigation would be conducted without any kind of political interference … I wonder if you believe that is still the case?"

AG Merrick Garland: "I stand by my testimony" pic.twitter.com/9kaeJzLYIf

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 2, 2023

As we reported, the whistleblower claims to have damning information that contradicts what the Attorney General said to the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in April 2022. Under questioning by Senator Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), Garland claimed, “There will not be interference [with the Hunter Biden investigation] of any political or improper kind.”

The whistleblower’s lawyer, however, wrote a letter to the chairs of investigative committees in the House and Senate last month that could blow Garland’s claims sky high [emphasis mine]:

My client has already made legally protected disclosures internally at the IRS, through counsel to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and to the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. The protected disclosures: (1) contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee, (2) involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case, and (3) detail examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.

Garland better hope he has his facts right because if the whistleblower appears before the House Oversight Committee and its chair, James Comer (R-KY), to deliver bombshell proof that the Department of Justice has indeed interfered with the investigations into Hunter Biden, it would be a massive scandal and Garland could even end up charged with perjury.

There’s a chance the AG is telling the truth, but it’s pretty hard to believe that after five years of investigating—with sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase in addition to a laptop full of dirty secrets—that someone wasn’t covering for him.