House lawmakers investigating whether the Justice Department suppressed an investigation into President Biden and his son Hunter Biden have subpoenaed Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, whom whistleblowers say steered the FBI and IRS away from probing the Bidens.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan signed the subpoena summoning Ms. Wolf to give a closed-door deposition on Dec. 7. In a letter to Ms. Wolf obtained by The Washington Times, the Ohio Republican said the Justice Department has not complied with the panel’s request to voluntarily make her available for a transcribed interview.
“Based on the committee’s investigation to date, it is clear that you possess specialized and unique information that is unavailable to the committee through other sources and without which the committee’s inquiry would be incomplete,” Mr. Jordan wrote to Ms. Wolf.
Ms. Wolf is a central figure in complaints made by a pair of FBI whistleblowers who say the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office she helped lead squelched their efforts to fully investigate Hunter Biden on tax fraud charges.
According to the whistleblowers, Ms. Wolf also blocked their efforts to pursue evidence they discovered during their probe that may have implicated President Biden in an influence-peddling scheme.
The letter to Ms. Wolf lists her actions that Republicans believe may have been intended to protect the Bidens, including tipping off Hunter Biden’s legal team about a potential search warrant for his abandoned storage unit and later “objecting to executing a search warrant” on the storage unit.
Whistleblowers say Ms. Wolf also blocked investigators, including an FBI agent, from asking witnesses about terminology used by Hunter Biden and his business associates to refer to President Biden, including “the big guy,” or “dad.” Ms. Wolf also ordered investigators to remove references to Mr. Biden in a search warrant, which had identified him as “Political Figure 1,” and she was involved in blocking investigators from interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children and from pursuing evidence of “criminal campaign finance violations.”
The Justice Department has allowed other top officials to testify before the Judiciary Committee, including special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the investigation into Hunter Biden and was Ms. Wolf’s supervisor in his prior role as the Delaware U.S. attorney.
But Ms. Wolf was more directly involved in the day-to-day supervision of the investigation, and whistleblowers portray her as playing the lead role in thwarting their probe of Hunter Biden’s alleged tax fraud and gun crimes and whether his father played a role in his business deals.
In testimony before the Ways and Means Committee earlier this year, IRS whistleblowers said Ms. Wolf discouraged them from pursuing uncovered evidence suggesting that Mr. Biden participated in his son’s foreign business deals. In one instance, the Justice Department blocked them from seeking a search warrant to determine whether Mr. Biden was home on July 30, 2017, when Hunter Biden sent a WhatsApp message to a Chinese energy official that threatened revenge from his powerful father unless a payment was made.
“I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,” Hunter Biden said in the message.
The House GOP is leading an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden, mostly behind closed doors. Mr. Jordan cited the impeachment probe in his letter to Ms. Wolf.
“As a part of its investigations, the committee has determined that it requires your testimony because you have first-hand knowledge of the department’s criminal inquiry of Hunter Biden,” Mr. Jordan wrote.
Both Attorney General Merrick Garland and Mr. Weiss have denied the Justice Department worked to protect Hunter Biden or President Biden by either slow-walking or blocking the investigation.
Mr. Weiss has declined to explain to investigators why he allowed the statute of limitations to expire on some of the most serious tax fraud charges against Hunter Biden, including unpaid taxes from his $1 million salary from a Ukrainian gas company that witnesses say sought help from then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden in thwarting a corruption probe.
Mr. Weiss cited an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden, who so far faces three criminal charges related to his purchase of a firearm while addicted to drugs. A previous misdemeanor plea deal on tax fraud charges fell apart in court in July.
Democrats have called the GOP’s investigation “an absolute waste of time and a farce” that has uncovered no wrongdoing.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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