US Elections: Donald Trump Asks About Hunter Biden’s Special Counsel

US President Donald Trump is considering pushing for a special counsel to be appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden, setting up a possible showdown with incoming Acting Attorney General Jeffrey. Rosen.

Trump, angered that outgoing Attorney General William Barr did not publicly announce the ongoing two-year investigation into Hunter Biden, has consulted on the matter with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, White House attorney Pat Cipollone, and external allies.

That’s according to several Trump administration officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.

Beyond appointing a special counsel to investigate young Biden, sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to investigate his own baseless allegations of voter fraud.

But if you expect your newly appointed acting attorney general to go further than Barr on either issue, you could quickly end up disappointed.

Barr announced yesterday that he will resign effective at the end of next week, revealing his plans about a week after Hunter Biden publicly revealed that he was under investigation related to his finances.

It is generally the policy of the Department of Justice not to disclose ongoing investigations, although the subjects of those investigations may do so.

Rosen, the assistant attorney general, will fill the top Justice Department job in an actor role. A longtime litigator, he has served as Barr’s top deputy since May 2019, but is largely stepping away from the spotlight. He said today in a statement that he is “honored” to serve and that he “will continue to focus on implementing the Department’s key priorities.”

Trump is still weighing his options, considering whether to pressure Rosen to make the special counsel appointment or, if necessary, replace the acting attorney general with someone more likely to follow through on his wishes.

He has even asked his team of attorneys, including personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, to investigate whether the president has the power to appoint a special counsel himself.

A key question will be whether Rosen can withstand presidential pressure, and potentially devastating attacks, in the final weeks of the Trump administration. Otherwise, Rosen could be sidelined in favor of others more willing to do Trump’s orders.

Believing that a special counsel investigation could hurt the Biden administration before it even begins, Trump aides have urged the president to push for a special counsel, which would mean the incoming president could not easily stop the investigation. No firm decision has been made.

Trump announced that Barr would step down from office on December 23, amid persistent tension between the president and the attorney general over the Hunter Biden investigation.

Trump was angry for days after learning that Barr knew about Hunter Biden’s tax investigation before the election, but did not reveal it.

He was also unhappy that Barr said in a widely publicized interview with the AP that the Justice Department had not uncovered widespread voter fraud that would have affected election results.

For much of his tenure, Barr was perceived as one of the most loyal members of the president’s cabinet, especially after he framed the results of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in a Trump-friendly way, though the special counsel did not exonerate. to the president of obstruction of justice. .

It was Barr who first appointed an American prosecutor to review the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn and then tried to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

As Barr exits, the most important thing weighing on Trump’s Justice Department is his investigation into Hunter Biden, which involves several US law offices and FBI field offices.

Appointing a special attorney could be tricky as it would require consolidating different investigation angles and bringing in someone new to run the investigation and catch up.

Under federal regulations, a special attorney can be fired only by the attorney general and for specific reasons such as misconduct, dereliction of duty, or conflict of interest, reasons that must be explained in writing.

The appointment of a special counsel to the Hunter Biden investigation would also indicate a more lengthy and complicated investigation than the current investigation, so far focused largely on his taxes.

A subpoena for documents from the young Biden requested information related to more than two dozen entities, including the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

Either way, the investigation is complicating the election of Joe Biden for attorney general, on whose shoulders this investigation would land. Any candidate for attorney general is likely to face a mountain of questions at a confirmation hearing about how he would oversee the investigation.

It could be that Rosen stays in office for a few weeks after Biden takes office on January 20. If Trump doesn’t fire him, of course.

At Rosen’s confirmation hearing in 2019, he suggested that he was willing to reject political pressure from the White House, if necessary. He told lawmakers that criminal investigations must “continue on the facts and the law” and that prosecutions must be “free from undue political influence.”

“If the appropriate response is to say no to someone, then I will say no,” he said at the time.