Who Is David Weiss?

On June 20, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware announced a sweetheart plea deal with Hunter Biden, the son of President Biden. Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two tax charges and enter a diversion program on a gun possession charge. Diversion programs are usually focused on drug offenses—Biden has a well-documented history of crack cocaine use—and generally consist of psychotherapy and class work on building life skills. There would be no jail time.

Outrage ensued. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called it “a miscarriage of justice whose chief beneficiary is President Biden.” In Congress, House GOP leaders sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the appearance of eleven witnesses before the House Judiciary Committee to address “allegations of politicization and misconduct with respect to the Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden.”

The star witness? David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware. “We want to talk to David Weiss,” said House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan. Weiss ran the five-year probe into Hunter Biden. Weiss’s defenders are quick to note that the prosecutor was a Trump appointee, but that’s only part of the story. Weiss has deep roots in Democrat-dominated Delaware and spent key career years as a top Obama Administration prosecutor in Wilmington.

Weiss got his ticket punched as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Delaware from 1986 to 1989, then moved on to a lucrative career in the private sector. From 1989 to 1999, Weiss worked at the Wilmington law firm Duane Morris, becoming a partner in 1993, according to his Justice Department bio. In 1999, Weiss joined the Siegfried Group, also based in Wilmington, a financial services firm, serving as chief operating officer.

In 2007, Weiss returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware. In 2009, Barack Obama appointed Weiss to leadership positions at the Delaware office, where he served as both Acting and Interim U.S Attorney. In 2018, President Trump, following historic practice, named him U.S. Attorney upon the recommendation of the two U.S. senators from Delaware, Democrats Tom Carper and Chris Coons.

House GOP leaders want details of the control exerted by Main Justice over the Biden case. Garland had repeatedly promised a “hands-off” approach to the inquiry and noted that Weiss had been given “full authority” to decide the matter. GOP leaders in their letter to Garland noted that recent testimony from IRS whistleblowers involved in the case raised “serious questions about the Department’s commitment to evenhanded justice and the veracity of assertions” made to the Judiciary Committee.

Specifically, the letter noted, House GOP leaders “seek to examine whistleblower claims that the Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden was purposely slow-walked and subject to improper and politically motivated interference.” An earlier letter to Weiss from Jordan also sought “documents and information” related to retaliation against one of the IRS whistleblowers.

On June 30, House investigators got the response from Weiss: drop dead.

In a letter to Chairman Jordan, Weiss noted that in order to protect law enforcement sources and internal investigative deliberations—standard boilerplate but this time involving a case that had been largely closed with the plea deal—“I will not provide specific information related to the Hunter Biden investigation at this time.”

Weiss also repeated that “I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including where, when and whether to file charges.”

It’s unlikely that Jordan and other House leaders will go quietly into the night on the Hunter Biden case. There’s more to come. Legal minds may quibble over whether Hunter Biden got the standard deal for a first-time offender on two tax charges and a gun case, but that misses the point. The big picture here is what Hunter Biden and other family members, and perhaps even the current president of the United States, were up to in Ukraine and China, raking in tens of millions of dollars in exchange for…what?

David Weiss spent five years investigating Hunter Biden. What does Weiss know about Biden’s Ukraine and China dealings? Did Weiss act properly with his “ultimate authority?” Did the attorney general act properly? Did the White House?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes—who will guard the guardians?

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Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. Follow Micah on Twitter @micah_morrison. Tips: [email protected]

Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. Reprints and media inquiries: [email protected]