WASHINGTON — A group of Senate Republicans demanded Tuesday that Attorney General Merrick Garland appoint a special counsel to investigate President Biden’s role in his family’s international business dealings — amid allegations that Biden took a $5 million bribe while vice president.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) signed the letter a day after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed that the Ukrainian businessman who allegedly paid $5 million apiece to Joe and Hunter Biden in 2015 and 2016 claimed to keep 17 audio recordings of the president and first son as “insurance.”
“The outstanding allegations of potential corruption and wrongdoing on the part of multiple members of the Biden family are deeply concerning, to say the least,” the four senators wrote to Garland, specifically mentioning the alleged bribes on behalf of Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky, as well as the first family’s Chinese business dealings.
“Given these concerning allegations that continue to come to light with each passing day, we urge you to appoint a special counsel to investigate any wrongdoing by President Biden and his family in their business dealings,” the senators wrote.
“Only then—with the appointment of a neutral and independent special counsel with broad authority to investigate these credible claims of the Biden family’s corruption—can the American people be assured that there is truly one set of laws in this country and that they apply to everyone equally, regardless of their viewpoint or political affiliation.”
The letter was sent to the Justice Department as Donald Trump became the first ex-president to face federal charges. Trump, 76, was arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Miami on 37 federal criminal counts related to allegedly mishandling classified information.
The letter said the senators had “deep concern about the two-tiered system of justice that has been carried out under your watch.”
“Under your watch, the Department of Justice has been weaponized to target President Biden’s top political opponent in advance of the 2024 election. Meanwhile, your DOJ has blatantly ignored the credible allegations of President Biden’s and his family’s corruption,” the senators wrote to Garland.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment, nor did a White House spokesman.
Garland, whose pending Supreme Court nomination was terminated by Trump in 2017, did not heed a September request by 33 Senate Republicans to elevate Delaware US Attorney David Weiss to a special counsel, which would have immunized him from political pressure in the five-year-old investigation of Hunter Biden for tax fraud, unregistered foreign lobbying and other crimes.
Two IRS whistleblowers recently testified to the House Ways and Means Committee to outline an alleged coverup in the Weiss-managed Hunter Biden case featuring “preferential treatment” and alleged false testimony to Congress by Garland about the prosecutor’s ability to independently bring charges.
The IRS on May 15 removed the 13-person investigative team from the Hunter Biden case, including an agent assigned to the probe since it opened in 2018, in alleged retribution for IRS Supervisory Agent Gary Shapley contacting Congress about “irregularities.”
In January, Garland appointed Robert Hur to serve as special counsel to investigate Biden’s alleged mishandling of documents from his Senate years and vice presidency after they were found in a private DC office and near Biden’s classic Corvette in Wilmington, Del.
Hur’s investigation theoretically could morph into a larger investigation of Biden, but legal experts including George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley have characterized that probe as showing little evidence of life, such as subpoenas or grand jury testimony.
In the 1990s, special prosecutor Ken Starr originally looked into then-President Bill Clinton’s role in real estate dealings, but the probe developed into an investigation of Clinton’s alleged abuse of power and false testimony about an affair with his intern Monica Lewinsky, leading to Clinton’s impeachment.
Special counsel Jack Smith, meanwhile, was appointed in mid-November to investigate Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, as well as his actions to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
The indictment of Trump on federal charges — after he was hit with state charges in New York under a novel business-records theory related to 2016 hush money payments to women alleging affairs — triggered Republican claims of a politicized legal system.
“Every day Merrick Garland isn’t on the SCOTUS is a good day for America. Unfortunately, he’s still nursing those wounds & has taken his anger out on the GOP, their supporters, & the leading candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination,” tweeted Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a member of the House Oversight Committee.
Some Republicans floated using impeachment to investigate Biden if Garland won’t name a special counsel.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), also on the Oversight Committee, said Sunday, “the only way that we can fully conduct a full investigation without interference from the DOJ and the FBI is if we impeach President Biden and based on the evidence that we have, I think that that’s something that’s very likely.”
Fellow Oversight panelist Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) said Tuesday, “‘If [the Bidens] were selling actual governmental decisions by the US government, that’s a high crime and misdemeanor… and everything must be on the table… including impeachment.”
Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) has sought to prove that Biden corruptly used his prior office to benefit his family and at a May 10 press conference identified nine Biden family members who allegedly got foreign income from countries where Joe Biden held sway, such as China and Romania.
Comer issued a subpoena this week requiring former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer to testify on Friday about his various partnerships with the Biden family, including in Ukraine.
President Biden denies ever discussing business with his son Hunter or brother James — even though evidence has emerged that Joe Biden interacted with relatives’ associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, according to laptop records, photos and witness recollections.