Whistleblower Attorney Says Merrick Garland Just Cast Doubt On One Of DOJ’s Favorite Talking Points
Jake Smith on August 11, 2023
The attorney for IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley said the appointment of David Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation calls into question a previous statement that Weiss did not request a special counsel position from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley previously alleged in a May interview that Weiss had requested the special counsel position but was denied the role by the DOJ. Weiss refuted the claim and stated he had never requested the role in a letter sent to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on June 28 – but Weiss’ appointment to special counsel on Friday calls this into doubt, according to Tristan Leavitt, an attorney for Shapley.
“And yet — this is exactly what SSA Shapley testified Weiss told others on [October 7, 2022] he had asked DOJ to be appointed as special counsel,” Leavitt said in a Twitter post on Friday. “So much for DOJ’s ‘special attorney’ talking point.”
The “special attorney” position Leavitt is referring to was a position Weiss claimed to have requested, which would have allowed him to “file charges in a district outside my own without the partnership of the local U.S. Attorney,” according to Weiss’ letter to Graham.
Leavitt also speculated Weiss’ appointment would mean he would no longer have to testify to Congress about Shapley’s claims, calling it “a strategy to forestall congressional investigations.”
“[Weiss] has zero credibility in this matter at this point. This is utterly ridiculous. Talk about audacity,” Leavitt said in a Twitter post Friday. “Weiss has to answer for all of the allegations the IRS whistleblowers brought forward. And Congress has requested to interview Weiss for his misleading and contradictory letters to Congress. This seems like nothing more than a play to forestall that testimony.”
“That testimony isn’t going to happen. They’ll use this special counsel designation to try to keep him from Congress a minimum of six months, if not more,” Leavitt said.
Jason Foster, another attorney representing Shapley, shared the same sentiment.
“Zero point to elevating Weiss to Special Counsel after all his office has done to undermine public confidence in the Hunter Biden investigation,” Foster said in a Twitter post Friday. “It would have made more sense to assign the Hunter Biden inquiry to someone outside government who could have had more credibility with the public to independently review all the problems IRS whistleblowers identified with the probe under Weiss.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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