The New York Times reports:
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Friday named a special counsel to take over the Justice Department’s investigation into President Biden’s son Hunter, elevating the long-running and politically fraught inquiry.
Mr. Garland, who made the announcement at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, named David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, who has handled the case for years, as the special counsel. The move comes seven months after Mr. Garland appointed Robert K. Hur to be a special counsel investigating whether President Biden has mishandled classified documents.
Mr. Garland said he made the decision to elevate Mr. Weiss after the prosecutor informed him on Tuesday the investigation had “reached the stage” where the powers of a special counsel were necessary to continue.
NBC News reports:
Weiss will be responsible for the “ongoing investigation” of President Joe Biden’s son “as well as for any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Weiss, who was already overseeing the Hunter Biden probe and is based in Delaware, asked to be appointed special counsel on Tuesday and Garland agreed it was “in the public interest” to do so, the attorney general said.
DOJ noted that Weiss was nominated by then-President Donald Trump in 2017 and confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate in 2018. Garland has named two other special counsels since he took over the Justice Department in 2021.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announces that the Trump-appointed US attorney who is investigating Hunter Biden, David Weiss, has been given “special counsel” status. Weiss requested the special counsel status on Tuesday. (After saying in July he had not requested it.) pic.twitter.com/ThSKNKNaFU
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 11, 2023
Attorney General Merrick Garland appoints special counsel in connection with the Hunter Biden criminal investigation https://t.co/HxlrWZVBh6
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) August 11, 2023
