Merrick Garland Ducks the Hunter Biden Questions

Shortly before the Trump Administration left office, Attorney General William Barr declined Republican calls to appoint a special counsel for Hunter Biden. We agreed with him. As we warned, a special counsel can bury a case in secret for years, and an AG can duck questions by saying that’s the special counsel’s job.

Merrick Garland essentially made that point for us on Wednesday. In contentious testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, President Biden’s Attorney General wouldn’t even say whether he talked to U.S. Attorney-turned-special counsel David Weiss about Hunter’s case.

The answers Republicans seek, Mr. Garland suggested, will be addressed “in the public report that will be transmitted to the Congress.” Given that a special counsel’s report typically comes at the end of an investigation, that means that Congress and the American people aren’t likely to get these answers before the 2024 election.

Mr. Garland portrayed himself as independent of both the White House and the details of Mr. Weiss’s investigation. But he didn’t have to ask President Biden what he wanted. In May the President publicly signaled to prosecutors that there should be no indictments when he told MSNBC “my son has done nothing wrong.”

The one interesting nugget Mr. Garland offered was that he never considered anyone other than Mr. Weiss for special counsel. That’s an extraordinary admission given that the reason a special counsel became politically useful for Mr. Garland was because Mr. Weiss had brought the Justice Department’s credibility into question.

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