Republicans are vowing to continue their investigations related to President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday he is appointing a special counsel to oversee the ongoing criminal probe.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and top Republicans on Capitol Hill were swift to criticize Garland's move to give special counsel status to David Weiss, the US attorney who was already investigating Hunter Biden, claiming he is untrustworthy.
While McCarthy and his top GOP chairmen made clear they have no intention to stop their own investigations, the appointment of Weiss as a special counsel could complicate congressional efforts to have him testify on Capitol Hill about his probe of Biden, according to a senior Democratic congressional aide.
Weiss had previously offered to testify on Capitol Hill after lawmakers returned from August recess, but the aide told CNN that past practice suggests his special counsel status could insulate him from doing so until after the investigation is completed and Weiss has finished the report he's expected to deliver.
Despite his appointment to be special counsel, House Republicans still say they want to hear from Weiss.
"We expect the Department to fully cooperate with our investigation, including not interfering with the 11 transcribed interviews we have requested and David Weiss upholding his commitment to testify, and we have not heard anything from the Department indicating it is no longer willing to do so," Russell Dye, a spokesman for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, said in a statement.
Calls for a special counsel have intensified in recent months, with leading Republicans claiming Biden got a "sweetheart deal," and IRS whistleblowers alleging that the Justice Department gave him preferential treatment.
Two career IRS agents who worked on the Biden investigation went public as whistleblowers, claiming there was political meddling in the probe. And last month, the plea deal between the Justice Department and Biden imploded at a court hearing where the judge said she wasn't ready to approve the deal, calling the arrangement "confusing," "not straightforward," "atypical" and "unprecedented."
Jordan, the House Judiciary chair, had asked for Weiss to testify before his committee about the Biden probe and Weiss had offered to appear before the panel in the fall.
Jordan's spokesman downplayed the significance of the special counsel designation.
"David Weiss can't be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family's corruption," Dye said in a separate statement. "Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it. We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistleblowers as well as Weiss's inconsistent statements to Congress."
Another Democratic aide, however, said the appointment of Weiss as special counsel would make it harder for Republicans to continue repeating allegations that he does not have complete authority over the Hunter Biden investigation or the ability to bring charges.
A Justice Department official said it was unclear how the special counsel designation impacts Weiss testifying before Congress, but the official noted that two previous special counsels, John Durham and Robert Mueller, testified only after they submitted their final reports, which came after a yearslong investigations.
Federal prosecutors have spent five years investigating Biden for potential felony tax evasion, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering and other possible crimes. As part of plea deal -- which is now on hold -- Biden would have pleaded guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors and prosecutors would have recommended no jailtime.
Conservatives on Capitol Hill were swift to attack the announcement that Weiss was appointed special counsel in the investigation into Biden, even as one of them took credit for the move.
"This action by Biden's DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption. If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn't get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel? House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people," McCarthy said in a tweet.
But Rep. Byron Donalds, a conservative from Florida, wrote in a tweet, "House Republicans are holding the corrupt Biden Fam & administration accountable & putting relentless pressure on them, resulting in this long overdue announcement. I hope Weiss will not continue slow—walking the investigations into the president's son. We need accountability."
The announcement Friday came as House Republicans are teetering on the edge of opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. But while Democrats point out a special counsel should make Republicans more confident in the independence of the Justice Department's investigation, GOP members aren't seeing it that way.
"Merrick Garland just announced that he will appoint US Attorney Weiss as Special Counsel to look into Hunter Biden's matters," said Rep. Lauren Boebert, a conservative Republican from Colorado. "This is the same US Attorney who just tried to give Hunter a sweetheart deal. Given how Hunter has been treated this far, pardon me if I'm not extremely excited that anything will actually come of this."