House to subpoena James and Hunter Biden as special counsel prepares to testify in GOP-led probe

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are ramping up their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and their investigation of his family this week.

On Tuesday, David Weiss, the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Biden’s son Hunter, will appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a closed-door interview, the first time a special counsel will answer questions from congressional investigators in the middle of an investigation.

And Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has indicated that his panel is preparing to send out a series of subpoenas in its impeachment inquiry focused on the Biden family's business dealings. Two sources connected to the investigation tell NBC News that among those expected to receive subpoenas, as soon as the middle of this week, are Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James Biden.

Representatives for James and Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the pending subpoenas.

Weiss, the U.S. attorney from Delaware who is leading the Justice Department's investigation into Hunter Biden, volunteered to appear before Congress to clear up inconsistencies between his public statements regarding the investigation and the public testimony from two IRS investigators who claimed Weiss said he did not have the ultimate authority to bring charges against the president’s son.

His unprecedented testimony comes after the judge in the case rejected a plea agreement with Hunter Biden. Weiss asked for and was granted special counsel status shortly after the plea deal fell apart, but still agreed to appear before Congress even though the investigation is ongoing and he is leading an indictment of Hunter Biden on gun charges.

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Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to three firearms charges last month and has said he will seek to have the federal indictment dismissed.

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Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to three felony gun charges

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House Republicans have accused the Justice Department of giving the president's son preferential treatment. They’ve cited the testimony of the two IRS investigators — Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley — to back up those claims. The two testified under oath that Weiss, a Trump appointee, was blocked from moving forward in his probe by other U.S. attorneys and senior officials in the DOJ. Shapley also testified and provided handwritten notes of a meeting in which he stated that Weiss said he was “not the deciding person on whether charges are filed.”

Weiss has written multiple letters to Congress rejecting those claims and is expected to be very specific about his level of authority in his testimony on Tuesday.

“Special Counsel Weiss is appearing voluntarily to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the scope of his authority,” special counsel spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle said in a statement to NBC News. “Mr. Weiss is prepared to take this unprecedented step of testifying before the conclusion of his investigation to make clear that he’s had and continues to have full authority over his investigation and to bring charges in any jurisdiction."

While House Republicans are interested in learning more about the DOJ's probe into Hunter Biden, and specifically if it extends to the president himself, Weiss plans to only clear up any discrepancies about his authority to bring charges and not divulge details about the probe itself, according to Hornbuckle.

“Consistent with department policy and the law, he will be unable to address the specifics of his investigation,” Hornbuckle said. “At the close of this matter, Special Counsel Weiss will prepare a report, which the Attorney General has committed to making public to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the law, department policy and the public interest.”

The closed-door interview will most likely be the only time Weiss appears before the panel until his investigation wraps up. He will ultimately be responsible for submitting a final report, in addition to filing any other charges. There is still the real possibility that Hunter Biden could face additional indictments on the tax charges that were at the center of the plea arrangement that fell apart.

Weiss’s testimony comes as three committees — Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means — continue their joint impeachment inquiry.

Comer signaled in an interview this weekend on Fox News that the committee is prepared to start rolling out a significant amount of subpoenas and requests for interviews for members of the Biden family and their associates. “I would predict somewhere around two dozen subpoenas in the very near future,” Comer said on Fox.

Oversight Committee Republicans have released several reports from their subpoena of Biden family bank records that show a series of transactions between Joe Biden and James Biden that appear to be short-term, interest-free loans from the president to his younger brother. They have released two checks from James to Joe Biden, one for $200,000, the other for $40,000, both of which indicate that they were for “loan repayments” in the subject line. The loan and repayments occurred after Joe Biden had left the vice president’s office and before he was elected president in 2020.

Comer has accused the Biden family of engaging in “shady business practices," but has yet to demonstrate how the transactions specifically show any concrete evidence of wrongdoing or influence peddling by Biden himself.

Newly installed Speaker Mike Johnson, who has been critical of the Biden family’s business practices, has taken a much more measured approach to the future of the impeachment inquiry since taking the gavel last month. He said that he would not predict the outcome and that he preferred to allow the investigation to run its course. 

“We have to follow due process and we have to follow the law, and that means following our obligation to the Constitution and doing appropriate investigations in the right way and at the right pace,” Johnson said at a news conference Thursday. “So when the evidence comes in, we will follow the evidence where it leads. You follow the truth where it leads. So as we stand here today, I’ve not predetermined that."